It gets very dark, very early at the equator. These Primary 7 children desperately want to pass their Primary Leaving Exams, but without light in the evening they cannot study. Soroptimist International of Dunfermline wants to change that for 4 rural schools in a very poor part of the Rwenzori district of Uganda.

There is no electricity available, but plenty of sunshine, so we want to provide solar panels. There are several hundred children in each school, but we are targeting the Primary 7 pupils to give them a better chance of passing their exams. They are the children of subsistence farmers who know that education is the way forward for them and their communities. If they have light, both the pupils and the teachers will stay at the school during the week for extra tuition and study.

We want to give each school three solar panels to provide light for the P7 classroom and for the dormitories for the girls and the boys and 4 sets of standard text books for English, Maths, Science and Social Studies. Without the extra books they would not get full value from the lights.

We have already done this in several schools in the area and will partner again with local organisation, ROCDiC, who provide all the local organisation and administration. We’ve visited the schools and spoken to the children, who are delighted we have shed light on their learning experience, so we want to spread some more light with the help of a literacy grant.