The COVID-19 pandemic has left millions of children this year and, while many have been lucky enough to return to school, our students in Kenya have been forced to remain at home until January 2021. For many, their education may not have just been put on hold; it’s predicted that girls in particular are 16% less likely to return to school after the health crisis.

As you may know, schools in Kenya closed abruptly on 15 March 2020. Since then, our teams in Kenya have been working hard to ensure that many of our students are still able to study at home with our Home Learning Packs. But given many students are being put to work by their parents during the day, either helping with household chores or working in the fields, study is typically something that happens by the light of a fire late at night.

That’s why we partner with SolarBuddy, an incredible Australian Not for Profit that makes solar lights for children to use to continue their education. We are thrilled that we have now been able to start distributing SolarBuddy’s lights to our students in villages in Kenya and we’re already hearing the impact from our communities.

Shaline, pictured outside her home, is a class 7 pupil at AIC Sunrise is thrilled with her new SolarBuddy, saying that it has massively reduced the burden of having to look for additional firewood. “My health is also going to improve as I will no longer cough or have sore eyes from the smoke of the firewood,” Shaline shared.

Brian, who is in year 6 at AIC Sunrise was celebrating with his family, as his SolarBuddy will not only enable him to study, but also allow them to continue their household chores in the evenings without having to suffer with the firewood smoke in their home. He said, “it is with great joy that from now on I will be able to study at night with this light, thank you So They Can and Solar Buddy.”

With the exciting news of schools finally re-opening in Kenya, these lights will be essential to our students being able to do additional study in order to catch up on the time lost during lockdown.

As always, we’re incredibly grateful to the ongoing support of our community, whose support enabled us to fund the distribution of these lights to our most vulnerable students.

Find out more about how our partnerships enable us to maximise our impact in Kenya and Tanzania here. As always, keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram channels for more beautiful photos and updates from our amazing communities in East Africa.