A Happy New Year to you all. It’s been a while since an update has been posted. Fear not, all is well with the project. In fact it is well under way and Leesa and I have been having regular meetings in order to carefully plan our next steps forward.
As it stands we have sufficient funding to cover the cost of supplying electricity to the Pitawela hamlet in Kirigalpotha. At present the community have cleared the site and excavated the location in order to prepare for construction. Asoka from the Energy Forum advised that he would be visiting the site this week and we are eagerly awaiting new footage. The hamlet is expected to be generating its own electricity by May/June this year.
The main challenge at present is raising funds for the second hamlet, Aswaduma . The team is currently looking towards obtaining grant level funding as well as approaching private donors. The team is also considering a raffle fundraiser to further ensure that the second hamlet can be covered within the year. A new presentation with footage and project updates has been prepared to guide this fresh effort. It is our hope that we can secure funding by April/May and commence installation as soon as we do.
Meanwhile we are also trying to secure a new project partner in order to strengthen our efforts to augment income generation into the project post-installation. A number of potential partners have been short-listed and we hope to follow up on these leads in the coming weeks.
An AGM will be held on the 19th of February.
Regards.
Shanil
The lights will be on soon...
Regards,
Shanil
