Gladys Kadogomoses’ big blue radio works perfectly after more than four years of constant use by her and her ladies’ listening group. She told me with great affection what it had meant to her – how she learned so much about health, nutrition and women’s rights; how she followed events during the frightening unrest in 2008 on the BBC; how she listened to the debates around the referendum; and most importantly about the programmes that told her about the medicines she needed to take and when to take them – because Gladys is HIV positive.

I first met gracious and friendly Gladys just after she had been diagnosed. She told me openly that she felt hopeless, ashamed and contemplated suicide because her deceased truck-driver husband, had left her nothing other than a disease. Then she joined the women’s self-help group Vumilia (perseverance in Swahili) and met weekly with other women in similar circumstances. With support, encouragement, and acceptance coupled with anti-retroviral drugs, she began to put her life back together.

In 2006 Gladys received a Lifeline radio along with 30 other positive women. She was the only one not a grandmother.

This was the first time since then that I had been back to Vumilia, which is in Kabras, just north of Kakamega in Western Kenya. On the weekend, I visited Gladys in her home to find out about her first night with her Lifelight.  The day before she and 30 other women, participated in a Lifelight workshop.

Gladys beamed when she told me that her three children shared the light to study and for the first time she could see properly at night to read her Bible.  Also for the first time, they used the pit latrine after dark, feeling safe from snakes and being able to see. She said, “without this light, at night we are otherwise forced to use a small white bucket.”

In addition, she spoke about the savings on paraffin that she would make.  Gladys, like most women I’ve met who live in poverty, buy paraffin daily in small amounts.  She spends anywhere from 20-40 Kenya shillings (25-50 US cents) per day averaging KS10,950 annually or a staggering $135. When the children study for exams she buys enough for light three lights.  With the Lifelight, her savings will be significant.

Vumilia’s founder, Rose Ayuma Moon, who grew up in the Kabras area, established in 2004.  Although she lives in Nairobi, she set up Vumilia because she saw how the skyrocketing HIV/AIDS pandemic was disrupting the lives of alarming numbers in her community and at that time the government was doing very little. Today Vumilia provides health and psycho-social support to 200 HIV positive women – all but two are grannies. In addition, Rose, who tirelessly and heroically divides her time between Kabras and Nairobi, also established the Vulmilia Home for Orphaned Girls, a residential facility for 22 girls aged 3-16 in 2006.

Sonia studying with her Lifelight

Location: Near Nyamata town, Rwanda

I first met Sonia in October 2009 when she received her Lifelight.  She was shy for her age and wore her best Sunday yellow church dress with frills and lace to the distribution session held at a local community hall. Just barely 14,  she became the head of her household last September when her mother died of TB. Her father died in August.  Sonia looks after her two year old sister, Salah, who clung tightly to Sonia’s leg. Their grandmother, birthed 16 of her own children, is frail but has taken in three other orphaned grandchildren. The Grandmother also looks after Salah during the day, enabling Sonia to remain in school.

We arrived unannounced at Sonia’s small,  two-roomed traditional mud and thatch house in the late afternoon just as the black sky threatened a downpour.  She was using her Lifelight to make schoolwork revisions in her cramped sitting room which is no more than a metre wide and two metres long.  Since having her light, Sonia says that she can study inside day or night and feels much safer as she can see predators like spiders and rats when making her bed.  She also uses the light to walk safely to her grandmother’s house 100 metres away. Sonia told me that her light has become her ‘guardian protector’.

There were many young people who really impressed me despite the loss of their parents and the poverty in which they live.

Zanele, 17, high school student with Lifelight

This amazing young woman, Zanele, 17, is an excellent high school student in a rural village. Her best subject is geography and she hopes to attend university on a bursary. The Gogo, 46, looks after 4 children. Zanele is eldest. After school she washes her uniform, helps cook, garden and clean and then tries to study with the others to one candle.

Xolani, 13 South Africa’s next chess champion with Lifelight

Meet South Africa’s next chess champion, Xolani, 13. This engaging young man who excels at maths and science took up chess in Themalethu Home Based Care’s after school chess programme. Xolani lives with his Gogo (whose pension they live on) and 6 other children and told me all 7 share a candle to study. His grandparents fled the civil war in Mozambique in the 80’s. He speaks Shangani, Swazi and English.

Study Group with the Lifelight

This is a study group in one of the villages I visited that is now using their new Lifelight instead of a candle. They told me that they planned to ‘study their way out of poverty’. Thembalethu, will track academic performance over the next few months to see if studying to clean lighting really does improve grades as the expect that it will.

Jeanette studying to a candle

This is 14-year old Jeanette who lives with her 6 cousins and Gogo (grandmother) & Mkulu (grandfather) whose 3 daughters passed away from ‘illness’. The likelihood of it being HIV/Aids is high since prevalence of the disease in this area is an estimated 45-50%. All 7 pupils study on the floor to an inefficient candle flame. I gave her a lift home in my mini-van taxi to Jeppe’s Reef and asked her if she could please show me how she did her homework.  Like all the children I’ve come across here, she studies on the floor. The children in this household were all born in Swaziland; therefore, they do not receive government social grants.  However, the elders receive a pension.

Our visit was on World AIDS Day, which was a sharp reminder of how devastating HIV/AIDS is, especially today.

A Maasai family in Tanzania headed by Mama Edita. Photo: Kristine Pearson/Lifeline Energy 2008

Here, you will be able to read about the latest updates from the field and other events, watch video footage and learn more about how Lifeline Energy has helped to change millions of lives, thanks to the radios and lights you have donated across sub-Saharan Africa.

Lifeline Energy provides sustainable access to information, education and energy to people who need it the most. We aim to improve the  quality of their daily lives through the distribution of  self-powered and environmentally friendly technologies.