Bomet is a Kenyan county that is divided into four major districts; Bomet district, Chepalungu district, Sotik district and Konoin district. A sizeable amount of the population in the county does not have access to grid electricity which means most of them use kerosene lanterns. With this in mind we formulated a solar light campaign to combat the burning of expensive and harmful kerosene.
First, we conducted meetings with the education heads in the county i.e. the District Education Officer, the Area Education Officer and the Zonal Education Officer. After the successful meeting we were given the go ahead to meet with the county’s head teachers. This is important because in order to proliferate the surrounding community with solar lights, it is imperative that we do so through schools. In a nutshell, we demonstrate our solar lights to teachers and headmasters whom take an order before selling these lights on to the parents. There are students in nearly every household so it’s a great way for us to reach the greatest number.
The head teachers were very positive with our campaign, helping us, in just two months, to sell over 18,000 lights here! Many more solar lights are now on their way, even people tapped into the electricity grid want a light. It seems that the whole community, very much aware of the harmful effects of toxic kerosene, now recognises that it can improve the situation by replacing lanterns with a sustainable and renewable energy source.
The campaign is still rolling on and as a result we are getting rather well known and increasing amounts of attention, partly due to the Solar Roller (our solar van – check it out above). We’ve become known as the ‘Genuine solar guys’, and even more so now that SunnyMoney is so popular in Bomet and we are trusted by the whole community.
With the fantastic and hardworking people in the Kenyan team championing the banishment of kerosene, I know we can reach that goal of eradicating kerosene lanterns from Africa in the near future, SO GO SUNNYMONEY GO!!
Victor Koyier (SunnyMoney Project Manager – Kenya)
You can follow Victor on Twitter too: @koyiervictor