News and views

  SolarAid turned 10 years old in 2016. This report looks at the impact SolarAid has made over the last ten years, focussing on Kenya and Tanzania, where small but thriving solar markets now exist where previously there were none.

Can you imagine living without electricity? No TV, no mobile phone, no fridge, or oven or light!? When the clocks went back last Sunday, and the UK got darker one hour earlier, our long time friends and supporters at 9BAR kicked off a very clever awareness raising campaign highlighting what it’s like to live without […]

The following is a short report from Bernard McCarty, a long time supporter of SolarAid who donates a proportion of the money generated by his home Solar PV system via direct debit each month. Here he explains how he offset his “space trip” by donating to SolarAid. This summer, the arrival of a ‘big birthday’ provided the perfect […]

This year, SolarAid celebrates a decade of work towards a sustainable future, by distributing solar lights in rural communities in Africa. We’ve helped over 10 million people get access to clean, affordable solar light and helped catalyse two of the first solar lighting markets in Kenya and Tanzania. But we couldn’t have done it alone. […]

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, Nelson Mandela’s famous words, displayed on the back of the students’ books in Mulalika Primary School, Chongwe District, Zambia. A two hour drive out of Lusaka brought us to this rural school and the huge smile of Mr. Hachilangu – the […]

  In this first installment, SolarAid’s Jamie McCloskey, Programme Partnerships Manager, shares his experience of attending a Head Teacher Meeting in rural Uganda.   Off the plane and into the field, my SunnyMoney Uganda colleagues picked me up in the minibus and off we went on our 6 hour journey from Kampala to Kasese, Western Uganda. These […]

  Over the coming weeks, SolarAid’s Jamie McCloskey, Programme Partnerships Manager will share a series of stories on his recent trip to our SunnyMoney operations in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. Watch this space.    “It is now a questions of who does not have a lamp rather than who does.” Ellis Bwanali, a SunnyMoney Agent, […]

The growth of the off-grid solar industry is good news for development, however, with a limited lifespan, the large number of solar lanterns and home systems being distributed in sub-Saharan Africa is also adding to the region’s existing problems with electronic waste (e-waste). To understand this issue further and to explore opportunities to respond to this […]

Below, former Headmistress of Withington Girls’ School, Janet Pickering talks about her experience of visiting The Gambia to share the gift of light… I had the privilege of being the Headmistress of Withington Girls’ School (WGS), Manchester, from 2000 to 2010.  In 2003 the School began an ongoing link with small-scale education projects in The Gambia, […]

  In the off-grid rural areas of Africa, there is an imperative need for light. What is there to do when one is faced with darkness? Well, you are forced to go to sleep, limited in your options. Unless a business relies on a kerosene lamp or some other means of light to keep the […]