Light over Africa

PROJECT NEWS

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Light over Africa is a project aimed at delivering solar electrification to public interest buildings (mainly schools and clinics) in Mali, Uganda and Burkina Faso. We work in collaboration with trusted local NGOs, to ensure the proper installation quality and to secure the needed training. They help us selecting the schools which should receive the donation and they take care to properly educate the technicians.

The project started in 1998 from a wish of Nordic Folkecenter to give a concrete help to rural districts in developing countries. Rural areas are often the last ones to receive infrastructure, despite their importance for a country.

The electrification rate in Africa is among the lowest in the world and this situation in even more difficult in rural districts, where only few people have access to electricity. To us, from the industrialized part of the world, living without electricity (and the associated commodities) seems impossible, but that’s the daily challenge for the locals.

Lack of electricity is a lack of development

We wanted to tackle this problem in a serious way, so we asked ourselves how could we have the biggest impact. The answer was simple: by involving schools.

Schools are the cradle of a community: here is where people are formed, so what’s a better place for promoting renewable energies than a school?

The idea is simple: every village gets a solar PV installation which is installed on the school’s facilities, so that four hours of artificial light is guaranteed every day. In this way, children can use the school during the day, while the parents can attend evening classes, therefore increasing their working possibilities.

The installation is not coming as a given: instead, local electricians are trained to take care of it, so that the operation of the system can be guaranteed for many years.

THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT

The goal of the project is to provide 10,000 systems to the schools

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THE PRICE FOR AN INSTALLATION

The project is financed on a donation basis. In the years of the project we have received donations from individuals, organizations and even private companies, who are happy to invest your CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) to support the initiative.

DO YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF THE PROJECT?

PROJECT STORIES

INSTALLATIONS

[Under update]