Project Title:         Ugandan Solar Lamp Project

Project Location:  Lucinda and Kanine Villages, Pader District, Uganda

Project Duration:  6 months

Project Summary:

To provide solar lamps to 800 disabled individuals and 350 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s), to provide a clean and sustainable source of lighting for homes.

Country Profile:

Capital city:  Kampala

Population:  29,000,000

Life Expectancy:  50

Population without access to electricity:  85%

Population living on less than $2 dollars a day:  30.6%

Adult Illiteracy Rate: 33%

(Source: UNDP Human Index Report)

Current Situation:

The villagers currently rely entirely on candles and paraffin lamps for lighting which are bad for their health as well as posing a significant safety risk.

The Project Plan:

Barefoot Technologies India will import half-watt solar lamps into Uganda and will carry out trainings to their usage and maintenance.  800 lamps will be provided free to the disabled, those suffering from leprosy, and the very poorest, as lighting is a very serious problem for them.  A further 350 lamps will be sold to returning IDP’s at a subsidised price.

Project Development:

The lamps will provide a sustainable source of clean lighting which will encourage an increase in productivity during the evenings allowing children to study and adults to undertake further income generating activities.  The lamps will increase self-sufficiency as well as reducing people’s reliance on expensive and harmful imported paraffin and candles.  The money obtained by selling the lamps to the returning IDP’s will be used to train a local mobile phone operator in the use of solar systems in Kampala, and to be able to repair and maintain the lamps, and educate people in their efficient usage.