From darkness to light
Once the sun set, it was complete darkness inside our homes for the past 50 years. This is the first time we are having some light at night,” says Ramanan, a 16-year-old boy from Vallankulam, a tribal village in the Kodaikanal Hills. Thanks to RC Kodaikanal, D 3000, for installing solar power in twelve houses in the village. “We can even charge our mobiles from our own homes now,” says Ramanan with delight.
The club spent Rs 3.24 lakh to equip each house with two LED lights which can go on for 12 continuous hours and a plug point to charge mobile phones. A five-year maintenance service will be provided by the company that installed the solar lamps.
Vallankulam tribal hamlet is situated 15 km from a reasonably developed village Pannaikadu and the people are mostly daily wage-earners employed in the neighbouring coffee estates.
“This was one of our dream projects. It will be of great help to children like Ramanan who go to school at Pannaikadu,” said the Club President Rajkumar Raman. He added that the club will make similar studies on tribal communities and try to fulfil their long pending needs while priority will be given to fulfil the basic infrastructure.
