Women Empowerment in a Rural School in the Puerta del Sol Village

IEEE Members and Student Members from the Argentina Section partnered with a rural school in the province of San Luis, Argentina. The rural school “Maestra Florentina Carreño” is located in the place “Puerta del Sol” General San Martin  department, in one of the highest points of the Province of San Luis, Argentina. The way to the school is along a provincial route where the last 20 kilometers are on a gravel road that is difficult to access.

Several changes were made to the solar wind system, the change of batteries in the system that was exhausted, on the other hand, a failure in the wind regulator at the end of 2022, caused the solar regulator and inverter to burn, for which they had to be replaced.

One of the extra activities was to repair the WiFI panel and antenna that provides connection to the school and place, this happened due to a strong wind storm that caused the damage.

The construction of the base for the water tank was carried out in the University workshop, in collaboration with students from the Gandhi school. This structure allows you to give it the necessary height to obtain the adequate pressure to carry out the drip irrigation system. A removable system was made to be able to take it to the place of the rural school.

Given the distances between the school and the water well (approximately 100 meters), it was decided to use an individual solar pump, where the panel was placed a few meters from the water well, avoiding losses due to voltage drops in the system.

Once the water tank and the solar pumping system were installed, the community garden was built with the participation of students and relatives from the Puerta del Sol area. The first step was the cleaning of
the land and the construction of a fence to prevent animals enter. Subsequently, the installation of the pipes and the irrigation system was carried out.