Our project lighting poor communities in rural areas in Kenya is designed to impact and empower the rural communities which have no electricity connection to function normally as communities with electricity. The poverty index in Kenya is quite high, with all 47 counties having 58% of their population living below the UNDP poverty line of 1 dollar a day. The majority of Kenyans are not connected t
o the electricity grid, statistic showing that among 77% of the rural areas population 80% of the population do not have electricity connection in the household (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2004)(KNBS). Over US$10 billion is spent each year on kerosene for lighting in the homes of the poor in developing countries. The poor burn US$17 billion of kerosene each year in lanterns to light their homes. The light cast from a kerosene lamp is poorly distributed, has a low intensity and is expensive. The poor lighting levels from kerosene lamps makes it difficult for children to study, affecting literacy and education, and minimizes the effective working hours for income generating activities. The open flame, smoke and soot from kerosene lamps endanger lives by reducing indoor air quality and increasing the likelihood of fire. The poor, mostly women and children, consume the equivalent of two packs of ci******es per day of smoke from indoor air pollution, resulting in chronic respiratory and eye diseases. The United Nations Development Program and the WHO report that 1.6 million deaths per year in developing countries are caused by the indoor air pollution attributed to traditional fuels – that’s one life lost every 20 seconds. With such staggering statistic and the pressing poverty, most people in rural Kenya are left to use kerosene for lighting costing 0.3 dollars on daily basis, which is very costly affair for a family which survives on less than 1 dollar a day. Lighting poor communities has been working in rural communities providing very affordable solar equipment for lighting, charging phone and powering small radio. This has been instrumental and the impact to the communities is invaluable since with 16 Euros only, a family is able to acquire a solar lighting kit that is able to provide lighting hence saving on cost used to buy hazardous kerosene used for lighting daily.
