Lantern Donations Change Three Families' Lives

A few weeks ago, KGSA was happy to receive three Sun King Lanterns donated from the US to distribute to our students. So, by Abdul's suggestion we set up an essay contest for the girls to compete to win the three lanterns. Out of contestants from the entire school, we chose three winners whose essays were well-composed and demonstrated special need for lighting at home.

  

The first recipient was Marion Ogolla, a Form 1 student. She wrote, “I would use the lamp during my learning time and that can help me to minimize the amount of paraffin fuel that I have been using…I can also take it to my upcountry home for my family to make use of it because in my upcountry home, there is nothing like electricity.” Marion is currently 15^th in her class but hopes that the additional study time will help her improve her grades. She lives in a one room house in Kibera with her older brother who sells paraffin fuel (ironic considering we gave them an alternative to paraffin lighting) because he was unable to complete school due to lack of fees. Their mother lives in their rural home but has no income and her father was killed when she was only 10 months. She and her brother have a system where he is responsible for charging it during the day so that Marion can study with it at night.

We also chose Immaculate Seru as one of the winners, a Form 3 student. Immaculate’s father also passed away when she was young and so she is one of three sisters raised by a single mother. Her mother still stays at the rural home and has struggled to ensure that all three of her girls have continued to secondary education. Immaculate stays in Kibera with her sister who sells used clothes to support the whole family so they are often not able to pay for electricity. She writes, “As a student who wants to achieve my goals, I will first place the solar panel outside so as to gain more energy from the sun then when the time comes for me to use it, I will be ready without fear of payments.” She also mentioned that she will use it as a torch when walking at night “to avoid violent cases such as rape and robbery” which are common in her part of Kibera.

 

And the final lamp was awarded to a Form 3 student, Susan Adija. Susan wrote about how she needed the lamp because “the solar light doesn’t affect the health of a person since it doesn’t produce soot…which affects the eyes.” When there wasn’t money for paraffin she was “forced to come to school earlier to use the school light to do the homework.” This work ethic is clear as she is one of the five top students in Form 3. She plans to use the money she saves on paraffin to buy books. Susan lives alone with her father in Kibera who is a painter by day but an artist by night so the lamp is helping him to do his artwork after dark. Her younger siblings will move to Kibera when they have finished primary and will also be able to use the lamp during their secondary schooling.

             

All three families are incredibly grateful for the many opportunities that clean, renewable energy has provided for them: the ability to study, to ensure safety, and to save money for other necessities.We are very thankful to the donors in the US and to Joseph Nganga of www.solanterns.com for thinking of our school when distributing the donations. I also really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know three students' families, visit their homes, and get to know a little more about our students' home lives.