Hi, I’m Tom from Germany and I was working in the St. Xaviers Educational Development Society (SXEDS). It’s a NGO based in Arni in Southern India, which was found 20 years ago by the former priest S.S. Muthu.SXEDS supports the socially deprived and empowers them to live a self-reliant life with dignity. For this purpose different approaches are taken: a Day Care Center for Disabled Children, women-training, health awareness-programs, self-help-groups, micro financing and an orphanage.

My friend Florian (also volunteer from Germany) worked in the different fields of SXEDS and realized how disturbing and difficult the frequently happening power cuts are for the work of SXEDS. Although the electricity rate has doubled in the last two years and keep rising continuously, so money is missing to support the people in need.

Florian and I had the idea that a Solar Power Plant would help SXEDS a lot by making it independent from those issues. So we tried to present this idea online to fundraise the necessary money. We discussed with many companies and found in SOLKAR Solar Industries from Chennai a professional friendly partner that helped us to get 30% subsidy by the government for a 3KW Solar System.

In February 2015 after lots of challenges like money value, transferring funds to bank accounts etc., with the help of our family and friends, it was finally possible to really make our idea come true.