Cancer children hostel gets solar power
A six-kilowatt off-grid solar system has been installed at the Rebecca Akufo-Addo Sunshine Hostel for Children with Cancer at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).
Valued at GH¢100,000 and provided by Deep Solar Ghana, a renewable energy solutions provider, the solar power system is expected to provide the hostel with 24-hour electricity to all lights, fans and sockets at the centre whenever power goes off.
It is also expected that it would reduce dependence on the national grid and alleviate the financial burden of electricity costs.
Hostel
The hostel was built by the former First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, but managed by KBTH and Lifeline for Childhood Cancer Ghana.
The solar panels installed
It is a home for children zero to 17 years old undergoing cancer treatment, and their caregivers or their guardians, until they are done with their treatment, which takes up to three years or more, and then they go back to their homes.
Aside from free accommodation, children and their caregivers at the hostel are provided with free breakfast and lunch.
As the children are immunocompromised, infections among them cannot be ruled out as such the centre provides them with the best, clean and healthy environment during their stay there so that they do not have any infections or transfer illnesses to other children there.
Presentation
Making the presentation to the hostel last Thursday, the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Deep Solar Ghana, Angelo Nartey, explained that the technology was the latest one powered by lithium-ion-phosphate batteries.
The batteries, he explained, were large enough to guarantee a constant supply of power, adding that it could provide between 10 to 14 hours of backup at night when power went off.
The batteries, he added, had a lifespan of about 13 years while the solar panels would be there between 25 to 30 years.
Aside from these, he said there was zero maintenance involved in using the technology, explaining that when the sun shines, it would clean the panels.
On the reason for the donation of the solar power system to the hostel, Mr Nartey explained that it was borne out of his love for children as a former teacher and the fact that in his family, some had cancer.
He said their goal was to make life a little easier for the children, adding that because electricity was not stable in the country, for such children it could be pretty inconvenient whenever power went off.
He said they hoped that the installation of the solar system would address that inconvenience for them.
The Hostel Warden, Vida Ampiah, said the installation of the solar system would go a long way to help the centre because they had children as young as three months old who started to shout and cry whenever power went off.
“Sometimes you have to feed the child at night. If you don't have light to do that, how do you manage?
So this is a huge relief to us and the hospital as a whole and we pray to other organisations, individuals, churches that we need your help to be able to pull through with this,” she appealed.
The Executive Director of Lifeline for Childhood Cancer Ghana, Akua Sarpong, said they were set up to raise funds to be able to support the treatment, diagnostics, CT Scans, MRI, surgeries and chemotherapy treatment of children with cancers.
