Milestone reached: All school children in off-grid areas of Kamonyi district are now equipped with solar.
„Many schools in the Kamonyi District, Rwanda, have no access to electricity. We started by giving 5 schools of Kamonyi solar powered study tools. In the next years we are going to equip the whole district, until no student needs to study with toxic and dangerous kerosene.” Eva Brandt, LS Foundation, February 2018
In February last year, the Little Sun Foundation started a project in close cooperation with the Rwandan Ministry of Education and a local NGO Safer Rwanda. The mission: to bring solar lamps to all school children in the Kamonyi district who live without electricity. Thanks to our amazing donors (you!), we reached our goal much earlier than expected. We started with a distribution of 3500 solar lamps to five primary schools in Kamonyi, we have now reached 26 schools with 24,323 lamps and 526 solar chargers in total!
Here’s what we have achieved together:
- 24,323 children are now reading in the light of clean solar lamps and not of toxic kerosene
- 24,468,938 additional study hours have been created for the children of Kamonyi
- 100% of interviewed students and teachers feel safer after dark and are experiencing improved well being
- 96% of interviewed families are saving money because they no longer have to purchase kerosene
- 76% of users have reported a decrease in health problems associated with burning kerosene
- 8.9 Million kg C02 saved
We are excited to have reached this huge success in only one year and feel more than encouraged to fulfill even bigger plans… We want to give each child starting school in Kamonyi a solar lamp, that will be a helpful companion throughout their entire school career.
To reach this goal, we need you!
The project is part of our Foundation’s Solar Schools Program, which is empowering school children in Rwanda that have no access to electricity by improving the conditions of their education. Providing students with portable solar lamps gives them the opportunity to extend their time of studying, reading and playing much longer into the night. Instead of breathing in the toxic fumes of kerosene lamps, they can follow their daily tasks in the comfort of clean and sustainable light.
In addition, the Solar Schools Program is providing solar-powered phone chargers to teachers and headmasters. It helps them to stay in touch with other teachers and families and to prepare lessons by night, thanks to a powerful inbuilt lamp.
The program also offers Solar School Workshops, bringing teachers and students close to the benefits of renewable energy and how to use it. The workshops follow an interactive concept and are successfully implemented by our local partner Safer Rwanda.
According to the UN, two factors are essential to ending poverty in the world, these have become a part of the 17 Global Goals. The first is quality education for children worldwide, and the second, access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy.
Do you want to contribute to a future with less poverty? Your donation to the Solar School Program will have a big impact on the life and education of school children in Kamonyi and thus empower a whole new generation!
“More and more families in Rwanda have access to energy. But still, many students need to study with kerosene lamps or expensive torches. We do not want to leave anybody behind. That is why the efforts of the Little Sun Foundation are helping us until every school and household in Rwanda is electrified.”
Mandela Muzinga Sam., District Executive of the Kamonyi District
Photo & Video Credits: Jean Bizimana
