This week I received a letter from Zacharia Olang, a student in his third
year at the Kisumu Polytechnic Institute in Kenya, where he is studying to
be an electrical installer. He's about 30 years old. (I provide a
scholarship for him through the African Canadian Continuing Education
Society (ACCES), about which I've posted before.)
Zacharia needs physics help! Technical advice by e-mail would serve him well.
Background information: Last spring I mailed Zacharia some web downloads on
solar ovens, along with articles by Daniel Kammen, a PhD physicist at
Princeton who works in Kenya on solar energy.
In his letter that I received this week, Zacharia wrote,
"I have started writing my first project (entrepreneurship project) and the
article you sent to me has become the centre of focus. I'm writing my
project basically on solar box cooker manufacturing which I hope will earn
me a credit and perhaps would lead to self employment. Getting formal
employment is no fun in Kenya and so it calls for an individual to be both
initiative and innovative in order to survive the harsh economic
environment we have. Life is very tough for beginners like us, because you
just have to cope with the high competition from the already established
personalities."...
Zacharia told me that he has an e-mail address. It is
olang@kisumupolytechnic.com.
So I e-mailed him yesterday. Here is his reply, and his request for help.
***************************
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 15:00:40 +0300
From: olang@kisumupolytechnic.com
Subject: reply
To: jane.jackson@asu.edu
Thank you for your immediate response to my recent letter. I got it on the
same day you had sent it. this shows how information technology has proved
worthy.
The following are some of the supportive reasons why I have taken solar
oven manufacturing project with a lot of concern:
1 My home area is just about 18km away from lake Victoria the second
largest fresh water body in the world where water borne diseases are so
common e,g dysentery,amoeba,typhoid etc.
2 the region is law land so it receives enough heat energy from the sun.
3 Rapid desertification as result of wood burning in Kenya,
Its effect has caused Kenya a lot. eg power rationing due to low level of
dam water no rainfall as rain comes from perspiration of our plants which
are already dead logs used for fire wood which also causes pollution and
respiratory problems!
So generally the problems need a combined effort at all levels not only as
an individual or one government but but as a global force. it is like
spreading the gospel.
please tell me if there are other interested friends who could join me so
that their names be included in my project as contributors now or in
future. this is not a must but as formality. the project is to be presented
to the Kenya national examination council in April next year.
Bye Olang.
****************************
CAN ANY OF YOU HELP HIM? I can't; I don't have the resources, and my life
is overfull, not only with my job, but I think I have hepatitis A. I am so
tired!
Cheers,
Jane
Jane Jackson, Co-Director, Modeling Instruction Program
Box 871504, Dept.of Physics & Astronomy,ASU,Tempe,AZ 85287
480-965-8438/fax:965-7331. http://modeling.la.asu.edu