Burkina Faso student teacher Hema Cecile has a lot more time to crack the books thanks to a recent initiative from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The launch of the Lighting Africa program by the two organizations this year has made it possible for Cecile to swap kerosene lamps for a solar-powered LED lantern.
Lighting Africa is a ＄12 million project which intends to bring light to the poorest regions across sub-Saharan Africa. The program works with the lighting industry to develop clean, affordable lighting and energy solutions for millions without access to electric grids. Its aim is to accelerate the market and to develop education programs that inform off-grid populations currently dependent on costly, inefficient and hazardous fuel-based lighting about modern alternatives.
Cecile used to spend ＄3-4 a month on kerosene for her lamp. That is a large proportion of her earnings—like 70 percent of the population she lives on less than ＄2 a day. In the weeks since buying her lantern she has managed to read four books including Madame Bovary. by Gustave Flaubert and Emile Zola’s Germinal. She is among the most learned in a society which has the world’s lowest literacy rate, according to a 2007 UN Human Development Report. When she graduates next year she will teach in a local junior school She makes ends meet by holiday jobs as a cleaner and an IT trainer. To earn her daily ration of cornmeal she does shifts from May to September in a corn field.
The lanterns are designed to look like the kerosene ones they are replacing in order to increase adoption among the population. Each has a small solar panel on the top and costs an average ＄30, although some cost ＄100, depending on the size of the battery and the number of LED lights it contains.
Because of the large number of sunlight hours in Burkina Faso, the lamps can be relied on to work whenever needed. The battery life is 2-4 years, and can be replaced once they lose their storage capacity. The LED lights last 5-10 years.
Although it is barely out of its trial period the project, Chabanne said there are signs the project is a boon for the population in areas other than household savings and education. "There are fewer people reporting eye problems to the local hospital.
The purpose of the Lighting Africa program is to （）
A. do market research
B. provide new energy solutions
C. help African people to be independent
D. promote modernization across sub-Saharan Africa
