One of our projects here is South Africa is a fundraiser to provide matric students in low-income school districts with rechargeable reading lights to use during load shedding.
Let me unpack that sentence a bit for you. A matric student is a high school senior . In South Africa, seniors sign up to take the matric exam – pass it, and you get to graduate. Don’t pass it, and you end up with no high school diploma. In 2022, more than 920,000 students signed up to take the matric exam – and about 81% passed. One cleric here told us that you can’t even bag groceries at the Pick ‘n’ Pay without a matric. So, it’s a really big thing (no pressure!).
We wrote earlier about load shedding (aka rolling blackouts). These are generally 2 to 2 ½ hours at a time, 2 to 3 times a day. They disrupt daily life and businesses (a restaurant we planned to eat at doesn’t have a generator, so no dinner there when load shedding hits at 6 – 8 PM!). For people in the townships, who only may have a single overhead light in their shack, load-shedding is more than just disruptive — things come to a full stop. The impact is particularly harsh for school children and their studies. Imagine how difficult it is to read or study in the evenings when the lights are out. This is especially true for matric students whose future rests on their success on the exam. And it’s unsafe to go out at night with no lights.
This project is a partnership between HOPE Africa (a social development program of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa) and the Green Anglicans (a movement started by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa focusing caring for the earth). The lights must meet certain criteria:
- They need to be affordable.
- They need to be rechargeable with solar cells (remember, one of the partners is the Green Anglicans!).
- They need to work for 3 to 4 hours at a time.
Then there are the “nice to haves” – they can light up a larger area so more than one person can be working/studying; they can be recharged with a wall-charger in addition to sunlight; and they’re sturdy enough that they can be manhandled by a teenager in the townships.
HOPE Africa had been approached by a company with a small, single LED, solar-only recharging lamp. We got a sample to evaluate. With a little research, we also identified a larger solar light that could also be recharged with a USB and wall electricity light that was much brighter. Randy — the electrical engineer! – measured how long each took to charge and how long each lasted. The larger dual-charging light was clearly better – AND less expensive. What’s not to love?
The next step is to negotiate a deal with the distributors to get the best price on the lights. Then, you need to factor in the costs of bank fees (about 12%!) and distribution costs (South Africa is about 471,000 square miles – bigger than Texas, smaller than Alaska – a lot of territory for distribution). While they’re at it, HOPE Africa and Green Anglicans are going to include information on health and wellness topics with the lamp. The total cost for the program is about R200 per light (around $15 in the US).
And then there’s the fund-raising. The goal is to provide about 3600 lights (note that this is just a fraction of low-income matric students!). Just like in the U.S., individuals and corporations can deduct charitable contributions – and the South African tax year ends on February 28. So, we only have a few weeks to raise R1,080,000 (about $63,000 US dollars). No pressure!
That we are working on a project like this speaks volumes about the issues facing South Africans. Hunger, employment, health, delivery of even basic services (like reliable electricity) – all are problems that can seem overwhelming at times. But we could say the same about the U.S. – there are always unmet needs. But for some matric students, we are helping to make a world of difference, and that’s worth shining a light on.
P.S. If you feel called to pay for a light or two or ten (!), you can use the Global Giving portal for a donation from the US that is tax deductible: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/lights-on-for-learners-education-beats-poverty/
Love being able to keep up to date with your work!