Many citizens of Zanzibar, an Archipelago off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa, don’t have easy access to the power grid. Enter the Solar Mamas, a group of women clad in brightly colored hijabs who travel from village to village installing solar panels in homes across the tiny region.
Only around half of Zanzibar’s almost 2 million residents are connected to the power grid, many others rely on dangerous fuels like paraffin and charcoal to power their homes. The Solar Mamas are aiming to change that.
The women received their training at Barefoot College Zanzibar. This trade school teaches women sewing, beekeeping, and of course, solar engineering, so they can use their newly acquired skills to find work and gain a little autonomy.
The program trains women over the age of 35 who have never received a formal education but exhibit natural leadership skills. Brenda Geofrey, the director of programs and operations at Barefoot College Zanzibar told The Guardian, “We want to change their mindset from thinking that they were just born to be mothers and to raise children to knowing they can be professionals.”
After three months of training, the women receive 25 solar power kits they are instructed to install in their home village. Each home that receives a kit pays a small monthly fee of 6,000 Tanzanian shillings, around $2.37 US.
Since 2015, 65 women have been trained in solar engineering and gone on to install solar power kits in 1,850 houses across 29 Zanzibarian villages.
The program is accomplishing two wonderful things at once: providing clean energy to folks who had been using dangerous energy sources for decades, and giving a small slice of independence to women who would have otherwise remained marginalized.
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