Rehema and Her Solar Lamp
Rehema Sharia is a 13-year-old girl living with her grandmother. Like many young girls, she dreams of becoming a doctor. But darkness was a major obstacle to achieving her dream.
Before Rehema leaves for school every morning, she does chores around the house. "I wake up around 4 a.m., do the cleaning, make breakfast for me and my younger brother, get ready leave for school by 6:15."
When she returns from school, the rest of her chores begin. And by the time she's done, it's dark. And because she has no electricity—Rehema faces a serious challenge to finishing her studies.
"I would have to wait for others to fall asleep before I could use the kerosene, and by then I would be so tired that I would fall asleep while trying to study." Rehema was not doing well in school for one simple reason: She could not study at home since there was no electricity.
One day, a community-based trainer supported through CARE Tanzania's POWER initiative, reached Rehema's village with news about alternative energy that was free for all—from the sun.
CARE promotes the use of such technologies by empowering women entrepreneurs to become last-mile distributors of clean energy products to rural populations. When the training was completed in Rehema's village,each family received a small loan to purchase a clean energy product. Rehema's grandmother chose a solar lamp, which has transformed the lives of the entire family.
 "I no longer have to use the dangerous and expensive kerosene/paraffin lamps," the grandmother says.
And now that Rehema can do her studies at night, she is performing very well in school. She recently climbed to third position, out of 75 pupils in her class! "I really enjoy studying nowadays," she says. "I have the option of waking up at midnight to study and do extra homework."
Now, Rehema has gotten a shot in the arm to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor. |
