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  Today, on World Youth Skills Day, SolarAid is thrilled to announce the development of its new Solar Light Library Toolkit. This is an open source toolkit which has been developed to help schools and development organisations set up their own solar Light Libraries to help ensure that every student has access to light. At […]

We are proud to announce Light IQ’s recent success with their “Lighting up Africa” campaign. They reached their 2013 fundraising target, which would be enough to provide funds to install solar kits in Chigawi School in the Mzuzu district, Northern Malawi. Light IQ, a leading lighting design consultancy, was the first company from the lighting […]

Often when delivering talks, in meetings or discussing our work to anyone and everyone who will listen, people ask ‘can the solar lights be recycled?’ There has never been a good enough answer. For years, the solar lights we sell have been made hard to ‘tamper’ with or reverse engineer by the manufacturers, making repairs […]

Exciting news – we’ve now got our final sales figures from our small-scale Solar Schools Campaign in Senegal. You may recall our last Senegal update in which we outlined our plans to test the effectiveness of our Light Library Projects in creating demand for solar lights.  Well, the Light Library Project has proven a really effective model […]

The ‘Shining Mothers,’ or Mayi Walas in Chichewa, Malawi’s national language, recruits, trains and supports women entrepreneurs to run solar light businesses across rural Malawi. Why Mayi Walas – women entrepreneurs are best placed to reach remote areas In rural Malawi, just 5.6% of the population has access to electricity, leaving millions to rely on […]

Electronic technology has been transformational in the lives of many, but what happens when these devices reach the end of their useful life? In 2019, the world generated 54.6 metric tonnes of e-waste yet, only 17% was recycled – degrading the environment, harming human health and losing valuable materials such as precious metals.  14 October […]

Board Mirjana Škrba – Chair Mirjana Skrba became a Trustee of SolarAid in January 2018 and was appointed Chair in June 2020. She supports the organisation by overseeing its governance and finances. Mirjana is the COO of Carbon Tracker Initiative Ltd, an independent not-for-profit think tank whose mission is to help markets and state actors […]

Press release SolarAid wins at the Charity Awards 2024 SolarAid is delighted to announce that it has taken the top prize in the International Aid & Development category at this year’s Charity Awards, the longest-running and most prestigious awards scheme in the charity sector. SolarAid was recognised for its Light a Village programme in Malawi, […]

Gill Davies is researching the growth of developing renewable markets in Malawi. Lucky for us, Gill is working with our team in Mzuzu and keeping a blog of her findings. Read on… “I’m a second year PhD student at the Centre of African Studies, based in the University of Edinburgh. After a first year of research […]

In a brick house in Nyama Village, Malawi, Liness Friday, 26, lives with her husband and three children. They have been in this house for five years now and Liness dreams of having a cement house, without a grass thatched roof.  Like most women in the area, Liness takes care of the home, “I farm, […]