How Solar Lighting is Revolutionizing African Communities
The people of an impoverished southern African nation have everything to thank the Sun for; because a new revolution is sweeping across rural Malawi, lighting up village communities with cheap solar lamps that almost everybody is now able to afford.
The problem has been that access to modern electricity is but a privilege for the few who can afford it, and the majority are burning kerosene for lighting, a practice known to be expensive, dangerous and harmful to health.
An initiative run by Solar Aid, in partnership with the UK non-profit, TRAID, the project is geared toward protecting the environment and reducing poverty by introducing simple, locally assembled, affordable LED solar lanterns to the poorest communities, providing residents with a cheap alternative to kerosene while also generating employment opportunities for the underprivileged and ill.
A total of 120 young people, orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS in northern Malawi are being trained to build these solar lanterns and act as campaigners and educational collaborators for the project.
Locals in the dusty Mzuzu town are leading other communities in replacing around 1 and a half million kerosene lamps in Malawi with solar lanterns where only 2 percent of the rural population are connected to the electricity grid.
For the rest, there was no other option than to rely on less viable sources such as kerosene for lighting. For their radios, they would use batteries, a very expensive affair. Now, one revolutionary micro solar panel powers all these - all for the Power of the Sun or Mphamvu Ya Dzuma in the local dialect.
Photo Credit: Solar Aid.
Hi:
We are writing from somalia. We would like to know if the if the solar lamps are commercially available.
regards
Yusuf Haid
ssc community group