The project ‘Installation of solar panels at the Institut Supérieur Privé de Santé Saint Camille de Lellis’ in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, has just ended. This mission has seen us engaged over the past six months in the purchase and installation of some solar panels and an energy collection and pumping system.

The St. Camillus Institute of Higher Education in Ouagadougou is one of the best educational centres in the country, where students – from as many as 12 African nations – have the opportunity to undertake highly specialised nursing studies.

The situation in Burkina Faso continues to be critical in many respects: from health to education, many young people are driven by the desire to emigrate in order to find more remunerative occupations, in the hope of improving their living conditions. It has worsened further in recent years, since the country has been locked in the grip of terrorism, which in increasingly frequent waves has affected vast areas of the nation, causing destruction and death.

Precisely in light of this difficult context, it is of primary importance to invest in improving health and education facilities, while helping – at the same time – young people to profitably integrate into the social fabric through stable and remunerative employment. By offering highly specialised nursing courses, the institute is at the forefront of this mission: thanks to its courses of study, it gives young people the opportunity to specialise in a discipline that is indispensable for the country, while at the same time giving them the chance to obtain a job with which to make a decent living.

Enrolments at the school are constantly increasing and we at Salute e Sviluppo are very happy to be able to collaborate with it, helping it to grow more and more. The solar panels are exactly part of this constant improvement work that the centre wants to carry out, in fact thanks to them, the institute will be able to become energy self-sufficient and represent a cutting-edge centre not only in the health sector, but also in the field of energy sustainability.

We would like to thank the generous donation that enabled us to inaugurate and complete this beautiful project!