encouraging empathy for other life

The first school we worked with in the Maasai Mara was Mara Girls Leadership School in Talek, a small boarding school for talented and motivated girls. We developed a modern library here and helped teachers with resources. Like their counterparts all over the world, the students from Mara Girls were at home during Covid-19 for 8 months. Most of these families live in earthen homes without light, and books are not to be found, so continuing their education was a challenge.

 

We responded to this need by providing each of the 48 families with a "Solar Home Library." As an experiment uniting "literacy and light," we delivered SunBell Smart Solar Lanterns big enough to light up the main room of a Maasai earthen home or to use as directed light; a comprehensive Student Encyclopedia for all subjects in Kenya chosen with the teachers; and a library of teen and children's books in English and Kiswahili that had proven to be popular in the Mara Girls Library. Teachers delivered the materials along with class assignments, food, and sanitary supplies. When the girls returned to school after the pandemic, they brought their Encyclopedia with them — while the lantern and the library of pleasure reading books remained with their family back home.

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With their Solar Libraries, all 48 Mara Girls students were able to continue their studies during the lockdown — and afterward, all progressed to some of the best high schools in the country. We now include portable solar reading lights in all our libraries for students to check out with a book, and this project also inspired our solar-powered Village Library program.