One Lamp Per Child Program, Uganda

ONE LAMP PER CHILD PROGRAM LIGHTS UP THE LIFE OF A CHILD BY GIVING HIM/HER A FREEDOM LIGHT THUS EXTRA READING TIME.

• Education

Nearly 85% of Ugandans, (28 million people out of 33 million), use kerosene for lighting their homes. The environmental and health impact of kerosene is widely noted. According to the WHO, using one kerosene lamp is equal to smoking 40 cigarettes a day. Every day families spend many hours together in homes lit by kerosene, spending between 15% and 20% of annual household income for lighting. School going children that study by kerosene lanterns in the evenings lose many hours of study annually compared to their colleagues who study with electric lights.

Village Energy’s “One Lamp per Child” Program aims to address this challenge by providing school going children a higher quality of education and a safer and cleaner home environment, through replacing kerosene lights with solar powered “Freedom Lights”. This will also enable their families to release the household income which is spent on purchasing kerosene.

Our aim is to distribute subsidised Freedom Lights to families in rural and slum communities who have school going children. Since the Freedom Light provides up to 8 hours of light per night, it will also provide a better source of lighting for these households.

Through the delivery of Community Learning Forums with partner NGOs as a distribution method, we are able to educate these families on the dangers of kerosene, the need to care for the environment and the benefits of solar lighting. Education will also enable these families to take advantage of the savings they will make through the replacement of kerosene. Working in this way allows us to combine an affordable energy solution with the necessary education to make a lasting impact.

If we estimate an average of 5 people per household in rural or slum communities, the reach of the One Lamp per Child Program will be 5 times the number of lights which we distribute. Our goal of 10,000 lights will impact the lives of 50,000 Ugandans.

We are glad to light up the life of a child!