A Better Futures-backed business that teaches people how to build their own electricity supplies is planning to expand its service in Zambia.
The Local Electricity Project, which supports people in developing nations to engineer simple yet profound solutions to power generation, wants to set up a permanent educational space in Zambia’s capital city, Lusaka.
The plan is to use the space to teach 350 post-secondary school students the essentials of electronics and programming needed to build an electricity supply in their own communities.
The LEP team are looking to raise £45,000 via a crowdfunding campaign to kick start the expansion because they believe their solution is one of the most sustainable ways to improve access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa.
LEP Founder Samson Sahmland-Bowling encouraged anyone who had an interest in ending energy inequality to get involved.
He said: “We have spent the last two years working with young people in Zambia and Tanzania to build electricity supplies and now we want to make this available to far more young people in Zambia.
“Any donation that you make will allow us to offer scholarships to young women and men from rural areas of Zambia where only 5% of people have access to electricity.
“There is something incredibly empowering about giving people the knowledge and the skills to build their own electricity generating solutions. It means they become truly self-sufficient – if anything breaks, they can fix it themselves. The power stays in their community.”
The LEP sells an educational kit which gives young people everything they need to create new ways of generating electricity using local resources.
The kit includes simple electronic circuit boards that can convert energy into electricity generated by technologies such as basic wind turbines made from automotive parts and old guttering. You can support the crowdfunding campaign.
The campaign closes on July 15 and has already raised £11,000.
(UPDATE: On 15 July 2019, The LEP closed their crowdfunding campaign, having successfully reached their funding target.)