Over the years Kibera, the largest slum settlement in sub-Saharan Africa has been in the news for all the bad reasons—crime, violence, debauchery and other social vices. However, a group of young men and women have embarked on a mission to rid Kibera of this notoriety through a solar power project. The tiny hovels that dot one of the most densely populated settlements on the continent have now seen the light—literally.With the assistance from the Swiss-based solar company known as Solafrica and another one known as Greenpeace, these young men and women operating under the umbrella body, Kibera Community Youth Project have initiated a project that creates green jobs, thereby encouraging youths to abandon their old habits and engage in economically meaningful activities of assembling portable solar lamps and panels. The group has started exporting solar lamps to Switzerland as well as supplying local markets.

“We started in 2005 with the support of Solafrica. They trained us and equipped our workshop. They are now helping us to access European markets,” says Wycliffe Sande, the solar project coordinator.

According to Sande, the project was inspired by the need to have alternative sources of energy apart from kerosene used in the slums and which is known to pollute the environment.

“We saw an opportunity to create jobs for the many jobless youths in the slums. We wanted to give them a new lease of life so they could not get trapped in alcoholism and drug addiction. Above all, we felt it was time to go green and save the environment. This is a responsibility that all leaders and citizens must embrace.”

A total of 27 youths have so far been trained, 13 of them from Kibera and 14 from Nyang’oma Kogelo, the ancestral village of US President Barack Obama. The training involves making solar panels and portable solar lamps. The beneficiaries now have a reason to smile.

“Instead of doing drugs, we are now meaningfully employed,” says Michael Ngeso, one of the several youth technicians at the project. “I think everybody should go green because it is not only cheaper than paraffin and sustainable but it also saves the environment.”

 Green jobs are one way of combating climate change relieving the environment of straining human activities.

“Most of us here in the slums never used to have jobs. I am glad that we now have jobs and are able to put food on the table. We are also helping Kenya attain its goal of going green as contained in the country’s Vision 2030 blue print”, says Alistair Amendi, another youth working at the project.

Lee Kassim, another technician working at the project is confident of the knowledge and skills that he has acquired in the making of solar lamps and panels.

“This project has relieved us of the temptation of peddling or using drugs”, he says with a chuckle.

Residents of Kibera, home to over one million people, are also full of praise for the youths who have made it possible for them to access solar lamps.

“I am impressed by their work. The solar lamps are very good and you no longer have to worry about batteries or paraffin” says Margaret Achieng, a saloon owner who uses solar power at her dilapidated structure. “But I think they need more support to bring the cost down so that everybody can afford,” she adds.
 
At a cost of $35, the solar lamps remain way beyond the reach of most slum dwellers who live on less than a dollar day. “We are looking for ways of making them cheaper,” Sande concurs. “At the moment, the cost of production is still high.”

Among the local projects undertaken by the group include the installation of solar panels at Barack Obama Primary and secondary schools in Nyang’oma Kogelo, western Kenya, as well as at President Obama’s grandmother Mama Sarah Obama’s home. The solar installations were part of a 20- day renewable energy workshop hosted by Greenpeace Solar Generation,  in August 2009 with 25 participants from the Kibera Community Youth Programme and community members of Nyang’oma Kogelo. The programme helps young Kenyans learn how solar photovoltaic panels generate electricity, about their installation and maintenance and the fabrication of self-assembling solar lamps and their marketing potential. The entire community is already reaping the benefits. The solar energy enables students to light their classrooms, browse the Internet and charge their laptops as well as mobile phones for the community.

 “I am very pleased that my home has been improved thanks to solar energy and I'll make sure my grandson hears about it. Solar power is clean, reliable and affordable, unlike paraffin that is widely used in the area. Also, we now have qualified youth in the village who can help with the upkeep of the systems”, said Mama Sarah.

Meanwhile, Sande says, his project is engaging Lomoro, a microfinance institution to provide solar lamp loans to those who cannot afford to pay in a lump sum.

“If we become successful with these microfinance system, I think the residents in Kibera will benefit a lot from this clean energy,” he says. But he also comments that “The lamp is new in the market and once many people get to know our products, sales will go up and drive down the production costs.“
 
Joshiah Ramogi, the Executive Director of Solafrica.ch whose organisation has played a vital role in this project says that creating green jobs in such informal settlements is one way of lifting people out of poverty.

“If we continue providing such opportunities, African youths will not have to resort to crime to survive. The lamps made in Kibera will be sold in Switzerland and other countries under fair trade terms,” he says. Fair trade opportunities mean that profits made out of such activities are ploughed back into the communities from which such products originate. In this way the project will be self sustainable and independent from donors after afew years.
 
(Solafrica.ch is a Swiss NGO that receives support from Swiss government and Greenpeace SolarGeneration. Their aim is to promote solar energy through know how exchange in Africa.) In Switzerland, the lamps are mainly used in camping sites.

Ramogi says the aim is to eventually replace kerosene lamps currently being used in Kibera. Plans are also underway to hire out the solar lamps to vegetable vendors, security guards and bicycle taxi operators, popularly known as ‘boda boda’.

The underlying advantage of solar energy is that the fuel is free, abundant and inexhaustible. The total amount of energy irradiated from the sun to the earth’s surface is enough to provide more than 10,000 times the annual global energy consumption. Yet these benefits remain largely untapped; most energy decisions taken today overlook solar power as a modular technology which can be rapidly deployed to generate electricity close to the point of consumption.

A recent report by Greenpeace and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) says that solar power is capable of supplying electricity to more than one billion people within two decades. The report---titled Solar electricity for over 1 billion people and 2 million jobs by 2020—says that much work still needs to be done to turn potential into reality. One crucial step is to bring a far broader range of actors into the sector, particularly in the investment finance, marketing and retail areas. At the same time, there is a need to transmit to as wide an audience as possible the message that solar electricity will bring socio-economic and environmental benefits to regions which proactively encourage  its uptake and the development of a local industrial base.

In Kenya, the project couldn’t have come at a better time. Over 70 percent of Kenya's population is not connected to the grid and relies mainly on biomass, kerosene and disposable batteries for light. There are already some solar lamps available, but most of the products are too expensive, of poor quality or not adapted to the Kenyan needs. It is against this background that the project partners designed a solar lamp which can be used as a flashlight (for outdoor toilets, guards) or to light rooms if suspended. The lamp with LED, integrated solar panel and rechargeable batteries is simple and easy to repair.