Lighting Africa, a project set up by the World Bank to bring lighting improvements to ‘off-grid’ Africa, posted an article on their website a few days ago focussing on our non-profit trading arm, SunnyMoney, who they describe as a ‘distributor of quality, affordable solar lanterns’.
The article is a case study of a family in the rural Kilimanjaro region of Northern Tanzania, an area which experiences around 12 hours of blanket darkness each day. The family interviewed in the article bought their solar light in May 2012 after SunnyMoney representatives visited a local primary school.
Victoria Materu is a mother of two, who no longer “worries about the risk of kerosene spilling and burning the house” thanks to our small, portable, affordable devices. Victoria also confirms that her family now benefit from five hours of lighting each night after purchasing one of our lamps, rather than three hours with the traditional kerosene lamp. The light helps her children study for longer and is also “very strong and powerful”.
In addition, Victoria saves around $35 per year thanks to her solar light, which is now spent on “buying food and paying for school expenses”.
The interview was carried out by our Social Impact and Research manager Kat Harrison. This is not an isolated story, Kat and the research team are finding that the majority of solar users interviewed are experiencing extra hours of lighting, educational, health and financial benefits thanks to this one small empowering device.
To read the article in full, click this link.
If you would like to read more testimonies about the positive effect of these solar lights then you can follow Kat on twitter or read her Sunrise_Kat blog here.