Powering education
Solar for schools
Enel Green Power and Enel Foundation have set up the project: Powering Education in partnership with Givewatts and in collaboration with OneLamp - a Ugandan social enterprise, to donate hundreds of solar lamps to schools in Africa. Powering Education supports clean energy and innovative technologies to improve education and access to culture.
OneLamp is run mostly by women, who are responsible for 90% of its operations. One of its key aims is to increase literacy rates at primary schools across Uganda.
Electricity for education
Power is an essential part of education. It doesn't just give schools access to technology, but also gives homes the light children need to excel at their studies.
Without reliable power at home, families resort to toxic, potentially dangerous and expensive kerosene lamps as a source of light. Replacing these lamps with solar alternatives doesn't just make it easier for children to study, it also makes it safer and more affordable.
Young advocates for a clean energy future
Solar lamps are also a way for young people to see, use and understand sustainable technology at work. They have the potential to inspire school children about science, energy, and especially engineering - areas in which young users of solar lamps may go on to be 'advocates of a clean energy future'.
By improving learning and literacy, the lamps promote childrens' education, whilst making them curious about power. In the home, and for the women that distribute these lamps, they are also a way for adults to do and learn more, improve their employability and eventually their incomes.
The possibilities offered by a simple light, taken for granted in the developed world, can have a truly profound impact on the lives of people in less advanced parts of the world.
"Solar lamps have helped to reduce weekly energy costs by 10-15% when households switched from kerosene - this saving can be reinvested in education"