ZANMI SASYE—PARTNERS WITH SASSIER has financed the construction of a community center (2004), the purchase and operation of a solar-powered communal oven (March 2005), and the purchase and installation of solar panels to generate electricity for the community center (July 2005). The center provides meeting, education, and recreation facilities to Sassier’s citizens, and a link to the outside world through CyberCafe Sassier, where residents can make Internet-based telephone calls and send e-mail messages.
More recently, we financed an expansion of the Sassier community center and the addition of solar-generated electrical supply capacity for it and the school. In March 2007, four new solar panels and batteries were added to the array on the roof of the community center, which also houses the school’s computer lab. These panels permit the computer lab to operate without the backup generator on sunny days. The computer lab comprises six laptop stations, a server, a printer, and storage. It is regularly used by secondary school students after school and in the evening. We have also installed two wireless Internet devices there, and connected the CyberCafe desktop directly to the Internet via the existing satellite connection.