"The youngest of four children, Wadongo grew up in a home that stressed the importance of education -- his father was a high school teacher. But years of exposure to smoke while studying by kerosene and firelight left Wadongo with eyesight problems.
With a lack of good light to study by -- Wadongo often had to share one lantern with his siblings and other family members -- he remembers the frustration of unfinished homework and poor exam performance.
"I couldn't compete effectively with other kids who had access to lighting," he said. "In every home in the village it was the same. Many children drop out of school for these reasons ... so they remain poor for the rest of their life. All along I was asking myself if there is anything that can be done to improve this situation."
And Wadongo was motivated and creative enough to find an answer. Solar-powered LED lamps. But not only did he determine a way to bring light to these rural communities, he managed to find an environmentally conscious solution, reusing solar panels and steel, using LED lights which can operate 50 times longer than an incandescent bulb, and reducing carbon emissions by decreasing dependency on kerosene and firelight.
Wadongo now has an organization called Use Solar, Save Lives, with volunteers helping to build these lanterns. They have distributed more than 10,000 lanterns, and plan to continue building these lanterns with the hopes of reducing poverty by allowing families to save money that they would have had to spend on kerosene, and by allowing children to succeed in their studies.
Twitter Updates – Follow Good News for Isla on Twitter.
RSS Subscription – Subscribe to Good News for Isla via RSS in a reader.
Email Updates – Sign up for email updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment