Lighting For Learning

The Future We Are Creating

Lighting For Learning strives to give people the opportunity to break free from the bonds of poverty. It is our opinion that an education is the best way to do that.

In order to obtain a good education, Lighting For Learning sees a future where all students have access to well lit study environments.

How We Are Creating It

Lighting For Learning is creating a future where students have access to environments conducive to studying. Lighting For Learning accomplishes this by providing schools, community centers and libraries with solar powered lighting systems.

Lighting For Learning provides solar lighting systems by acting as an end-to-end project manager. Through the two completed projects in India and the one currently in progress in Tanzania, Lighting For Learning has developed a five step process.

The first step is to identify a candidate and the potential site. To do this, Lighting For Learning looks for and then partners with education based non-government organizations (NGOs). For the projects in India, Lighting For Learning worked with the NGO PIDT while for the Tanzania project, Lighting For Learning is currently working with the NGO, Jifundishe.

The next four steps are very closely connected. They are the design, procurement, funding and installation of the system.

For the design step, Lighting For Learning works with the NGO to understand their current and future electrical needs. Once the specifications are defined, Lighting For Learning works with local vendors to understand if the necessary equipment and hardware can be obtained locally. At this time, Lighting For Learning shall look for local contractors to provide the installation of the system. For purposes of cost and for the opportunity of developing and supporting local economies, local suppliers and contractors are used as much as possible.

Once the total price of the system has been determined, the fund raising portion of the process takes place. Based on the projects completed to date, the approximate total cost of the equipment and the labor to install the system is USD3,000. Up to now, separate fund raising has taken place for each individual project. The source of the funds have come from either personal or private sources.

After all the funds have been raised, a schedule to install the system is set-up with the local contractors.

The fifth part of the process is to train the local personnel to service and maintain the system. While the solar lighting systems are (or very nearly are) maintenance free, Lighting For Learning works with the equipment suppliers to provide the training for maintaining the system. Lighting For Learning also acts as the intermediary between the contractors and suppliers and the local personnel regarding and service or warranty issues. Lighting For Learning also provides regular contact for the first few months after the installation to insure that there are no issues with the system.

Our Story & Why You Should Support Us

Lighting For Learning grew out of a graduate degree program at Georgetown and ESADE Universities.

As mentioned earlier, Lighting For Learning provides solar lighting systems for students and villages where electricity is unreliable or scarce.

Lighting For Learning engineers, procures, installs and project manages solar lighting projects for non-government organizations interested in improving the quality of student's educations by improving the lighting quality of student's study environments.

A study completed in India by Lighting For Learning showed a significant improvement in test scores even after only a few months.

The projects completed thus far by Lighting For Learning have been somewhat ad hoc in nature. Going forward, however, Lighting For Learning is planning to raise a pool of funds which will allow them to work projects on a more regular and systematic basis.