Zanzibar’s ‘solar mamas’ are trained as technicians to help light up communities

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania -- When darkness came, so did the smoke. Hamna Silima Nyange, like half of the 2 million people in Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar , did not have a house connected to the electricity grid. After sunset, she would turn to smoky oil lamps that provided the only light for her eight children to study. ”The light was too weak,” Nyange said. “And the smoke from the lamp hurt my eyes.” Then one day a neighbor, Tatu Omary Hamad, installed solar panels and bulbs that lit her home with help from the strong sunlight along the Indian Ocean coast. “Today we have enough light,” Nyange said. Hamad is one of dozens of “solar mamas” trained in Zanzibar by Barefoot College International, a global nonprofit, through a program that brings light to rural communities and pr