Energy for education!
The Light Library provides solar lights to schools in rural Senegal to enable students to borrow the lights to study after dark. The model increased study hours, saved families money, and communities were more engaged in the school.
Ousmane Aw, Headteacher at Keur Omar Sabaly in Kaolack region. “As you know, our school is located in the rural area. The recurring problem that plagues education in our rural areas is mainly the lack of light. Therefore we are convinced that with this support, we can eradicate all barriers and provide to our students the best learning conditions”. Parents said their child was studying for longer and they were saving money from reducing expenditure on alternative lighting sources.
Amadou Ka, a father of five from Kaolack in Senegal, has no electricity in his home and the family use battery torches to light their evenings. Amadou signed up for the Light Library and he says, “The solar light is very bright. The children use it for their studies and lighting their rooms. The children are studying more as it is almost free and the light does not go off easily. We spend more times together at night too. We have more hours of light. I am saving the money I used to spend on batteries for their education costs. We are more happy than you can imagine.”
Until now nearly 5,000 solar lights are using by 58 rural schools in Senegal.
SunnyMoney (SolarAid's social enterprise)