Here is a Solution That is Helping Children in Africa to Read After Sunset
by Alex Vermeule posted April 30th, 2009 at 22:54
For you and me, having light available is probably just normal as the sun coming up every morning. If you want to read something at night, you turn on a light, right?
It might be hard to imagine but about 1,6 billion people on our planet do not have access to electricity. In Sub Saharan Africa only 9 % of the rural population has access to electricity. After sunset, people have to read with the flickering light of a candle or kerosene (paraffin) lamp . Nasty side effect of kerosene lamps is that they pose health and safety risks, they are relatively expensive and have a low light output…
Dutch technology firm Philips has been working on an innovative solution that solves this rather old problem in a genius way. Edison must have love this one…They have developed a new solar-powered reading light which enables people to read after dark. The solution is developed for the education sector in Africa and will allow school children to continue their homework after sunset.
The device is called “My Reading Light” and is based on LED technology, resulting in a low carbon footprint solution. According to Philips, it is extremely lightweight and can be hand-held or placed over the page of a book. It is solar-powered and has a built-in rechargeable battery. You can choose a the amount of light it produces and it operates between 3.5 and 9 hours of light depending on the light level you have selected.
It launches in autumn 2009 and will be available in two versions: a standard light and a slimmed down, low-cost version with a target consumer price of less than 15 EURO.
Philips developed My Reading Light as partner of the Sustainable Energy Solutions for Africa (SESA) agreement together with the Dutch government. SESA aims to provide 10 million people with affordable, appropriate and sustainable light services across ten sub-Saharan African countries by 2015. SESA links with the existing UN Millennium Development Goals project.
Tags: Education, Light, Millennium Goals
Categories: Technology Innovation
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