Access to light and menstrual health products is often overlooked and taken for granted, yet these seemingly basic needs can be life-changing.  For the girls and young women in Uganda’s rural Mityana District, they’re transformative. Growing Up Uganda, a community organization dedicated to improving the lives of girls and young women, recently teamed up with Unite to Light to make a profound impact on these communities.

The students, both in 4th grade, attend Arlington Junior School in Uganda and don't have access to electricity during school hours or at home. Once the sun goes down, they can’t continue their studies in the dark. The Luke Lights are changing that: “The solar lights you gave us are helping us to read at night. My parents are encouraging me to work hard for a better future,” said Mary Nabukuwa. Ronald Kutosi wants to establish a better future through furthering his education: “It is important to find something that I want to do that can also help my family. When I grow up, I want to be a doctor.” ​

You don’t often hear of twins in the county of Turkana. It is not because women don’t have them, it is because it is nearly impossible for mothers to sustain two children. Mothers often have to make the impossible decision to let one go, or risk losing them both. This is what people have to do to survive in an environment where malnutrition is part of daily life. ​

​For students living without electricity, having a solar light increases graduation rates by 20-30%. We have seen this success in South Africa when we examine test scores in exit exams (called matrics) before and after the students have access to our solar lights. Giving students the opportunity to study at night is our goal; we aim to boost their education and increase opportunities. But for those of us that live with electricity, the day-to-day reality of these students can be difficult to imagine. We recently received a note from one of these students and want to share it with you here. 

Ngcebo is an orphan living with his three siblings and tells us how he and his brothers use their solar Luke Light. The words below are his own and we’ve added parenthesis where we think clarification for terms will help translate the story. 

The sun is starting to set after a long day for the children of Makhasa School in South Africa. With Matric Exams coming up, it is a very busy time of year for students seeking to graduate from high school. Students study as much as they possibly can, but as the day fades away and night falls, they find themselves reading in the dark. To continue studying, some students resort to candles or kerosene lamps. These lamps make it difficult to breathe and can cause severe burns when mishandled. Sadly, in communities without reliable sources of light, students have limited options for studying after dark. For these students, success has very strict bounds. In the hopes of uplifting these children, and eliminating the boundaries to success, Unite to Light has partnered with multiple South African schools to provide Light Libraries. ​