This campaign has now closed
Help us maintain our 2,500 portable Mwezi solar lights, to promote the circular economy and help pupils in remote Kenyan villages with no mains electricity. Pupils borrow the lights from school to do their homework and boost their education. Careful servicing can make the lights last indefinitely.
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Beneficiaries
Situation
Many communities in the part of Kenya where we work have no mains electricity. Homes are typically in darkness from 6pm to 6am, all year round. Work, study and leisure all stop when the sun goes down. Also, if families can afford light at all, it is typically a kerosene lamp - expensive, polluting (up to 92kg CO2 per year), and a flickering, not steady, light. Kerosene fumes cause breathing, eyesight and skin problems, and the lamps' open flame means a high risk of burns and household fires.
Solution
1) We donate portable solar lights to rural schools, which pupils borrow on a rota to do their homework. Using a Mwezi light at home at night, they can boost their learning. 2) We offer a sector-leading maintenance guarantee. If a light malfunctions, we replace it and repair the broken one in our Kenyan workshop. If a light really cannot be fixed, we salvage all possible parts. 3) This approach avoids landfill waste, prolongs the lights' life to help more pupils, and maximises donors' funds.
