Small Business (SBiz) Centre
Community Infrastructure to Help Expand Education, Especially for Girls
Each Small Business (SBiz) Centre includes a solar energy generating and billing system, conferencing system, a large offline education eLibrary (eg. RACHEL eLibrary) and a SOLARKIOSK E-HUBB system. To help cover the cost of its ongoing maintenance and an Internet connection, part of the electricity produced by this system and products from the E-HUBB are sold to the local community. The remaining electricity is provided to a local school, college or university along with access to its communication system and offline education eLibrary. In this way, this SBiz Centre can provide sustainable power, communications and educational resources to this nearby educational institution.
CeSEL by TRG SOLARKIOSK Brochure i4SD Brochure Example eLibrary
Each of the components of the SBiz Centre have been successfully implemented by us or our partners. The first key component is the solar power system to provide power to the training center and some people in the community. The personnel from Infrastructure for Sustainable Development (i4SD) have been installing and improving these power systems in communities for over 4 years. Next, our Conferencing eStation has been in use in Afghanistan for over 4 years and continues to be refined. Next, the initial sections of our education eLibrary (e.g., RACHEL) were created by World Possible over 6 years ago and it continues to expand. Finally, the SOLARKIOSK E-HUBB system has been in operation for over 4 years and is located in several developing countries including East Africa where there are over 100 installations of this system.