The dream of two orphaned students to bring light to their village.
(Baonghean.vn) - Witnessing the hardships of life due to the lack of electricity, two 9th-grade students invented a generator that uses wind and solar energy. What's remarkable is that the creators of this generator are orphans from impoverished families in Nghe An, a region once known as a drug capital.
Innovation from adversity
We met La Phu Cuong and Moong Thi Nhung (both 16 years old) as they were busy checking their creations before heading to the science and technology innovation competition in Tuong Duong district. Cuong and Nhung are students in class 9B at Luong Minh Ethnic Boarding Junior High School. “We’ve experimented with it many times. At the boarding school, when there’s a power outage, we use it to generate electricity for studying and for everyone to charge their phones,” Cuong excitedly shared.
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| The generator made by the two students is quite simple. Photo: Tien Hung |
Luong Minh commune is one of the most economically disadvantaged communes in Nghe An province today, partly due to the lack of electricity. According to Mr. Vi Dinh Phuc, Chairman of the People's Committee of Luong Minh commune, this is an injustice to the people here. “Out of 10 villages in the commune, 5 still don't have access to the power grid. Despite being situated between two hydroelectric power plants, Ban Ve and Nam Non, in many places, power lines run through the villages to reach other areas, but the people still don't benefit. It's truly unfair,” Mr. Phuc said, shaking his head in frustration.
Moong Thi Nhung's village, Minh Tien, is one of the villages without electricity. "Because there's no electricity at home, it greatly affects our studies. Seeing how difficult life is, right from the beginning of the school year, when the school suggested a technical innovation competition, we thought of this project. Then we both researched online and asked our teachers. Finally, we succeeded," Nhung recounted the story behind her idea to create a generator.
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| The idea of making a generator came about after witnessing the hardships of life due to the lack of electricity. Photo: Tien Hung |
According to these two students, the weather in Tuong Duong district is frequently changeable. Generally, however, when there is less sunshine, there is wind, and vice versa. Therefore, combining wind and solar power is a solution to increase the stability of the power source and save on investment costs. This generator overcomes the disadvantage of using solar energy when there is no wind, and wind energy when there is no solar energy. This is the novelty and innovation of the product.
The generator the two students built is quite simple, costing less than 1 million VND. The main cost was for buying iron pipes to make the wind turbine blades and solar panels. Its operating principle is that when the wind turns the blades, the turbine generates alternating current (AC), which, after passing through a rectifier and filter, is converted to direct current (DC) and fed to a comparator module. The module then compares this DC voltage with the DC voltage supplied by the solar panels. Whichever side has a higher voltage will trigger a relay to prioritize power supply to the user… “However, the drawback of the generator is that its power output is still small, only enough for lighting and charging phones,” Nhung said.
A difficult family situation.
Nhung and Cuong are both orphans. More than three years ago, Nhung's father – a Khmu ethnic man – committed suicide by gunshot, leaving behind three young children who were still of school age. Even now, Nhung says she still doesn't know why her father did it. Perhaps it was due to the extreme hardship and poverty of life. Not long after her husband's funeral, Nhung's mother decided to remarry. She took her youngest child and moved to Ky Son district with her new husband. The dilapidated house, crudely constructed from planks, where Nhung's family lived, was abandoned. With her father gone, her mother gone to find a new life, and her grandparents gone too, Nhung and her older sister had to take refuge with a distant uncle.
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| After their father passed away and their mother remarried, Nhung and her siblings had to live with their uncle, yet she maintained her excellent academic record for many years. Photo: Tien Hung |
But compared to her close friend La Phu Cuong, Nhung was still quite lucky. Cuong didn't even know his father and had no memories of his mother. Cuong was born in Xop Mat village, right when the drug epidemic was sweeping through the area. Cuong's village, Xop Mat, was also known by the not-so-pleasant name of..."The unmarried version"For many periods, besides the elderly and young children, the majority of the population in the village were women. The men in the village, if not arrested for drug-related offenses, died from HIV. Cuong's parents were also not immune to that temptation.
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| La Phu Cuong never even got to meet his father. Photo: Tien Hung |
Cuong recounted that while he was still in his mother's womb, his father was arrested and imprisoned for drug-related offenses. Not long after, his father died in prison. A few months after giving birth, his mother abandoned him, leaving him to his grandmother's care, and disappeared without a trace. Since then, the two of them have had to eke out a living on meager meals…!
Despite their difficult family circumstances, according to their homeroom teacher, Ms. Nong Thi Chung, both children have a very high level of academic motivation. “They are both very well-behaved, obedient, and consistently achieve top grades. Nhung is the class president and has been an excellent student since 6th grade. And Cuong is the class's 'red flag' (academic achievement award),” Ms. Chung said.