Solar Panels on the Roof Giving Light in Rural Tanzania

In Northern Tanzania, close to the boarder of Kenya, Halima Daodi lives with her husband and two children. She is one of many Tanzanians who have bought solar panels, which is placed on the roof of her small house. The solar panel system does not only give her great light in the night, she can also charge her phone and radio from the solar battery.

Halima Daodi and her husband, Hashim Hemed, rent a small house in Mandaka Mnone in the Kilimanjaro Region of Northern Tanzania. In their small house they keep the few belongings they have and sleep in a bed with their two children. The landlord grows rice and Halima and Hashim work on the rice fields every day.

Halima and Hashim are members of a VSLA group established by CARE. Hashim has been a member for two years and Halima one year. The group meets once a week, they save together and whoever needs it the most, can take a loan.

Recently it was Halima and Hashim who took a loan from their VSLA group, as they wanted to buy a solar panel system. The solar panel is placed on the roof and it is connected to a battery in the house. The battery is connected to two ceiling lamps and it has USB and power outputs to charge mobile phones and radios. Before they had the system it was only possible for the couple to hear radio when they could afford batteries. But now they can listen to radio without any extra costs as the sun’s power gives them electricity.

A much better light

Before Halima and Hashim got the solar panel system they bought small, cheap solar lamps, but the quality was not good and therefore the pleasure was small.

“The cheap solar lamps do not last more than one or two weeks. This system is much better – and pretty. Some of my friends and neighbours have already paid us a visit to see the new system even though it was only installed two days ago,” said Halima.

This simple system will transform Halima and her family’s lives to become better. They can take the radio with them in the rice fields and listen to news and music, they no longer need to go to neighbours or their landlord to pay for charging their phones, and the light they get from the system is much more powerful than the lamps they had before.

Halima’s oldest child has just started in school, and with the new light in their house, the daughter can do her homework after dark. The family can now also cook after dark and see the dinner they eat. Further, Halima can earn a little money from charging her neighbours phones – the ones who do not have any kind of electricity. The system generates power for charging two phones during the daylight.

Halima and Hashim have bought the system for 297,000 shillings (USD 132) and paid for it up front to the supplier with money they borrowed from the VSLA group. They will pay back the loan in two months, and Halima believes that more orders soon will come from her neighbours and friends.

“My neighbours and friends dream about buying a solar system like ours. In a few months, when their rice is ready to sell at the market, they will get enough money to buy a system like this. I’m glad I’m inspiring my neighbours,” said Halima.

Go Green

Halima and Hashim have heard of the possibility of buying a solar panel system through the CARE project, Go Green. The project aims to spread the word of clean energy products in rural Tanzania through a market-based approach. The project does not only benefit women like Halima, it also gives business opportunities for rural women through facilitating links with the private sector. Go Green works to increase disposable household income for women entrepreneurs as last-mile sales agents, and indirectly contribute to reducing indoor pollution, reducing women’s workload, saving fuel costs and reducing forest degradation.