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Glowstar Kanga Schools Charity

PRODUCT: Glowstar
HISTORY:

The lives of children and communities in Sierra Leone brightened by Sollatek and an Australian charity

Kanga Schools (www.kangaschools.org), a charitable project run by volunteers in Sydney, Australia, is helping village schools in Sierra Leone, West Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world. Sollatek are delighted to be playing their part in this inspiring initiative.

Education was a major casualty of the 10-year civil war. Kanga Schools therefore went in at grass-roots level to give the new generation access to computers and books – and a chance to learn. Within a few years, the impact of the recycled books and computers on Sierra Leone’s children has been nothing short of extraordinary. Kanga now helps 40 schools, tertiary institutions and four national libraries.

Lighting the way with Sollatek

A problem is the unreliability of electricity, which is not available at all to most of the country. Because the beneficiary schools are located mainly in villages, where power is at its scarcest, Kanga have been buying generators to keep the PCs going. However, the village schools also wanted to extend use of the school libraries at night to the wider community, including adults improving their literacy. Sollatek’s compact fluorescent solar lantern appeared to be just what they were after.

With funds from a UK charity, Kanga have been able to source the lanterns from Sollatek. Each can provide 7W of fluorescent light for 6 hours – and the power is, of course, free. Using solar energy, three lanterns will power a school library at night. The panels can be fixed to the roofs, and with the help of a 10-metre cable, the lanterns can be powered from inside.

Sollatek UK are delighted to be able to contribute in this way to transforming the lives of the children of Sierra Leone and offering them a real future to aspire to. We will continue to offer them support for as long as it is needed.