… and you helped us create 17,419!

Behind every single solar light that gets distributed in Malawi or Zambia by our teams, there is a person whose life is about to change.

We hear these stories all the time. Students who can now study for exams that go on to attend university, parents who can now work after the sun has set and provide more security for their children. Families who can now sit around in the evening and get to know each other, women who feel safer walking after the sun goes down.

But behind every person that does not have light, there is also a story. A story of someone who has to inhale toxic fumes from kerosene, spend money on dangerous candles, or simply have their day cut short when the sun sets.

SolarAid’s long-term friend and author Matthew Syed told one of these stories in our recent Radio 4 Appeal. He told the story of one night in Idodi, a village in rural Tanzania, where the community suffered an unimaginable tragedy. At the local school, a single candle was being used to study. This single candle caused a fire that took the lives of the twelve girls inside.

This one story could have been a different one. Instead of a candle, the light used to study that night could have been from a clean, safe alternative – solar light.

That is why your incredible support towards appeals like BBC Radio 4 is so important. Together, we are creating different stories. Those about lives that are positively impacted by solar light.

Thank you to everyone that donated towards our recent BBC Radio 4 Appeal, we raised a phenomenal £69,677. Every single solar light that we distribute has a story, and you helped to create 17,419 new ones.

Agnes is a student at Nyakantingi Primary School in Zambia. The school recently got a Light Library, allowing the students to borrow solar lights. Thanks to our supporter, we can make sure that more students are able to study by safe, clean light in the evening. Photo: LendwithCare/Peter Caton