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Twenty new trainers on solar collectors are now ready to train their own communities

Trainings given by WECF, the National Centre of Ukraine and Greens Movement Georgia made sure that 20 new certified specialists on construction, use and maintenance of solar collectors are now able to pass on their newly acquired information on independently to others

06.08.2012 |Anna Samwel, Regina Drexel

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ToT Georgia: group work

Trainings given by WECF, the National Centre of Ukraine and Greens Movement Georgia made sure that 20 new certified specialists on construction, use and maintenance of solar collectors are now able to pass on their newly acquired information on independently to others. The trainings were given in Georgia and Ukraine last month during two 8 day long training sessions.

The participants had been trained on construction, maintenance, use and monitoring of solar collectors in 2011 by WECF in Odessa (UA) and Chardakhi (GE), and successfully implemented their knowledge by constructing or monitoring solar collectors in their communities.


ToT Georgia: Theory course

The demonstration collectors built in 2011 gained a big interest among the population, while the monitoring, mostly conducted by the trained women, showed a great effect of the solar collectors. Solar collectors have proved a great improvement for comfort, health and economy especially for women in the households where they are installed. In most of the target villages there is already a long list of people willing to have a solar collector or willing to be trained in construction, use and monitoring of solar collectors.



ToT Georgia: Practical course

The Trainings of Trainers (ToT) were preceded by monitoring visits by WECF and Solar Partner Sued to all solar collectors constructed by the participants of the previous trainings The monitoring results were presented during the trainings and possible improvements were discussed in detail. In general though the results were very satisfying, almost all collectors were working and delivering hot water. The beneficiaries were extremely happy, not only for receiving hot water in the shower, but also for the increased comfort, hygiene and saving time in the kitchen. And of course the economic benefits were mentioned as an important relief for the household budgets.


ToT Ukraine: Presentation of working group results

The ToT trainings gave the possibility to local specialists to aquire the needed didactic skills on conducting participative, interactive trainings as well as background knowledge on technical issues, gender mainstreaming and business. The WECF training module on solar collectors was practiced by the participants intensively, each conducting a part of it to get ready for the trainings they have to carry out in their communities. After this training, the trained local specialists are now able to conduct trainings on construction, use and monitoring of solar collectors independently.


ToT Ukraine

In both countries the participants will follow up the training by carrying out four day trainings on solar collectors in their communities with support of WECF partner organizations. They will form trainer pairs consisting mostly of a man and a woman, and each pair has to train 10 construction specialists and 10 maintenance, use and monitoring specialists. In total 5 trainings in Georgia and 4 in Ukraine will take place in the frame of the project. And each of the trainees has to build or monitor in turn another 2 collectors, resulting in real ‘Solar Villages’. The specialists can also be hired by external organizations. One team in Georgia is already contracted by an international NGO to provide a solar collector construction training.


ToT Ukraine: Theory course

The training in Georgia took place from 28 June – 06 July 2012 in Sagaredjo and was organized and facilitated by Greens Movement and received co-financing from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the MATRA-KAP program. The training in Ukraine took place 06 – 13 July 2012 in the holiday center Berizka, near Tiutki, Vinnica oblast and was organized and facilitated by National Ecological Center (NECU), and received co-financing from the German Embassy. The trainings were implemented in the frame of the project ‘'Building local capacity for domestic solar heating, hot water and insulation for rural and remote areas in the EEC region', financially supported by the European Commission.

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