For as little as £10 a rural villager in Eastern Africa can have lighting for life and pass on the benefit to his neighbour in an endless chain

With the initial capital investment to purchase the equipment of approximately £65 per household (including all the associated community costs of training, equipment maintenance, transportation, where necessary establishing a CBO and a bank savings account, purchasing a tool box and monitoring impact etc) the project is independent, overseen by a lighting engineer, for every 150 households, trained to maintain the equipment, and the community organisation, and is self-sustaining. Affordable monthly payments to which each household is required to commit will, within an agreed timescale, roll the project out to a neighbouring community and will also ensure households will be able to replace parts as they wear out (lights and batteries after about 5 years and panels after about 20 years). The savings are possible, after the payments have been made, as there is no longer the need to pay for kerosene or other forms of lighting and phone charging. From those monthly payments, village representatives receive payment for their work, overseeing, maintaining, repairing and parts replacing and others for collecting, banking and auditing the payments. Everyone else involved in this project is unpaid. This community savings programme establishes a mechanism for saving for the future which has not previously been available. Savings are viewed online by the signatories to the bank account - the local CBO and Solar Links Initiative.*

*This may vary depending on the nature of each partnership.

Will you support a revolving fund which will bring lighting to these remote off-grid subsistence farming communities by making a donation here? Thank you for anything you are able to contribute.

Alternatively please contact Solar Links - phillida@solar-links.org if you would like any more information, or a chat!