PRE-PROJECT REMARKS:
In September of 2018, we will be visiting three elementary schools with the goal of improving their overall lighting by replacing their old incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs. The improvements will benefit the classrooms, hallways, library and teacher’s lounge.
By making the lighting upgrades, electricity costs will be reduced, and it will create a well-lit environment for the students. We’ve chosen three schools, which teach grades 1 to 12 in their respective villages, they are Paravakar and Chinchin elementary schools in Tavush region and Kalavan elementary school in Gegharkunik region of Armenia.
In May of 2018 Empower Armenia visited these schools and performed a site visit. During this time Empower Armenia delivered school supplies to Paravak and Chinchin elementary schools. You can see about this project here ‘2018 School Supplies’.
For this project we will need 125 LED light bulbs and 14 light fixtures; we estimate a project budget of $835 CAD = 292,500 AMD @ ($1 CAD = 350 AMD exchange rate), which includes 35,000 AMD = $100 CAD for transportation from Yerevan, to these three villages. This project will be executed in parallel with ‘2018 Chess Supplies’, and ‘2018 Ping Pong Supplies’ projects.
POST PROJECT REMARKS:
In September of 2018, we visited the three schools (Kalavan, Chinchin and Paravakar) as planned and installed the LED light bulbs throughout the entire schools. The bulbs were assembled in Armenia, but the parts were purchased from China. We continue our policy of supporting local businesses and local products, and keep away from products made in nations that are hostile towards Armenia.
The actual project budget was a little less than what was originally estimated. The remaining funds were allocated to the Chess Supplies, to the Ping Pong Projects and two garbage bins were purchased for Chinchin elementary school.
For a breakdown of actual costs please see the table below.
| Items | Price per unit AMD | Num. of unit | Cost in AMD | Cost in CAD |
| LED Bulbs (9W) | 950 | 73 | 69,350 | $191.05 |
| LED Bulbs (12W) | 1,100 | 52 | 57,200 | $157.58 |
| Garbage Bins | 29,000 | 2 | 58,000 | $159.78 |
| Transportation | – | – | 45,000 | $123.97 |
| Accommodation | 10,000 | 4 | 40,000 | $110.19 |
| Total | – | – | 269,550 | $742.56 |
Notes:
1- We first visited Kalavan village in the Gegharkunik province. After completing the LED-fication of the school we sat down with the school principal and one of the teachers to discuss future projects that can be executed at their school. We stayed overnight in Kalavan village, for 10,000 per person. The fee included Dinner and breakfast.
2- During our visit in May 2018 we saw that the school didn’t have proper garbage bins, they were using two small plastic buckets to collect trash, which were overflown. We decided to purchase two garbage bins for Chinchin elementary school (one for each floor), and delivered them to the school. The bins were Made in Armenia, made from sheet metal. Please see photos for details.
For maps of Paravakar, Chinchin and Kalavan please see below.
