A Rural Primary School in Punjab (India) gets first solar power plant in the state funded by SEVA Trust UK

Social Education Voluntary Association (SEVA) Trust UK, a Bedford based award winning  charity working on education, health and environment funded a new solar power plant  for a Primary School of village Burundi in Punjab, India.

Councillor Charan Kanwal Singh Sekhon, Chairman of SEVA Trust UK led this pilot project supported by Trust volunteers team working in Punjab, he made a special trip India. Whilst inaugurating the solar power plant, Punjab State Coordinator for Smart Schools Manju Bhardwaj and Ludhiana District Education Officer Rajinder Kaur said ‘This is the first Government Primary School of Punjab state of rural area to run on solar power. We are thankful to SEVA Trust and all the donors for this unique project for our school that will help in meeting all electricity needs of our school’

On this occasion, SEVA Trust team organised a function at this school attended by the village council, community leaders, pupils & teachers of rural schools, social workers and reps of local charities working in the area.

SEVA Trust issued educational grants to Barundi school and a special needs school Ek Nayi Umeed from a neighbouring town of Raikot which supports 25 students from low income families and the school is run and funded by voluntary organisations without any state funding. 15 Children also received educational equipment and books from SEVA Trust.

Whilst thanking SEVA volunteers, Charan Sekhon said ‘Our Bedford  based Trustees Team wanted to give children a special Christmas and New Year present that helps with their educational needs and we came up with this idea of solar plant. Previously parents and teachers were paying electricity bills for the school due to lack of funding by the state Government which puts unnecessary finical burden on low income village families. Frequent power cuts causes issues for rural areas. There is a smart class room in the school that supposed to be used for interactive learning but all the facilities in the class room powered by electricity have been out of use due to of lack of funds for electric bills. Solar power plant is capable of meeting all the electricity needs of this school including the smart class room whilst generating pollution free and green electricity. We have supported over 150 students in the recent years and SEVA Trust’s mission is to support low income rural children and provide them with better facilities as each child has the right to be educated without any discrimination, no student should be left behind due to their weak economic circumstances, said Mr Sekhon.

At the end of the function, a renounced social worker in education field and a retired headteacher Narinder Singh thanked all the guests and appealed everyone for a collective effort to uplift the rural schools and support the needy students.