A striking aspect of being in the slum in Nairobi was the lack of electricity, even at the school.  How is it possible that in the 21st century, there are still parts of the world that lack this basic element of modernity?  At the clinic in Bondeni, we saw a lot of kids with vision problems, presumably exacerbated by squinting at their school books in inadequate natural light.  We always left the slum by late afternoon, before nightfall.  It it almost hard to imagine how eerily dark the slum would be at night– no lights on in houses, no light to illuminate the outdoor streets and byways. No light at all. Just complete darkness.  It’s not surprising that such all-encompassing darkness would breed crime and other ignoble acts.  Not to mention the physical danger of walking around in pathways of sewage (and in some places, up steep inclines) without any light to illuminate your way.

Along with bringing the light of Christ to blot out spiritual darkness, Missions of Hope (MoHI) is developing a long-term plan to obliterate the physical darkness in the slum while at the same time providing a new microfinance opportunity for those who live there.  We found out that their microfinance team has been working on a solar-powered light that can be charged during daylight hours to provide low-powered, LED lighting after dark.  The light, which is the size and shape of a small lantern in a plastic casing, can produce a maximum of eight hours of light from a full charge.  MoHI desires to eventually “franchise” the lights so that business owners in Mathare Valley can sell lights to their neighbors to make a small profit from something that everyone needs. Each light would cost approximately 1,500 Kenyan shillings (KES), or approximately $17 U.S. dollars.  While perhaps a great amount of money to those living in the slum, it is less than a week’s worth of Starbucks for us to purchase a single light that would make a world of difference in someone’s life and home.

I came across a blog post on ONE’s website that discusses how access to energy challenges poverty and offers life-changing opportunities to the world’s poorest populations.  The substance of the article was very much what we experienced in Mathare Valley.  Check it out at:
http://www.one.org/international/blog/?p=9060.