Page 10 - link magazine

10 swindonlink.com • May 2012
MP says solar powered lights could meet government’s foreign aid aims

Cricklade-based charity Lights for Learning, which has installed solar-powered electric lighting units in dozens of schools, clinics and homes
across Africa since 2004, could finally attract attention in Government circles.
North Swindon MP Justin Tom- lots of people are asking whether we
linson has written to Secretary of ought to be clawing back the 0.07%
State for International Development GDP spent on foreign aid.
Andrew Mitchell to tell him about “By diverting some of the fund-
the successes of the charity and ing to support UK based NGOs and
suggesting it meets many of the charities like Lights for Learning,
government’s foreign aid objectives we have a real opportunity to re-
At a display at Basepoint Business invest in British technology, and
Centre on 23 March, charity founder make a case for better deployment
and inventor Roger Mugridge told of foreign aid money.
the MP about the cost-effectiveness “Lights for Learning is an im-
and life-saving potential of the solar portant example of how British
powered lights which have been inventors like Roger Mugridge are
installed by volunteers in schools in driving forward solutions that are
Zambia, Gambia, Malawi, Lesotho, beneficial to the end user in Africa,
Zimbabwe and the Philippines. but can also provide training and
He said: “The volunteers all pay employment opportunities here
their own way which means we in the UK, particularly Swindon.”
can fit out three classrooms and an Ironically, although Roger’s ef-
office for £1,000. The solar panels forts have gone largely unnoticed
and the LED light bulbs have a long Lights for Learning hopes to install lighting in ten schools in the state of in the UK, the reception he receives
life, and the car batteries used to Tamil Nadu in southern India, after Basepoint based company System in Africa is heroic. Government
store the energy are easily sourced Test Solutions Limited organised a fundraising event for the charity and ministers are keen to meet the
in-country. Help Age India on 23 March. volunteers in every country they
“Test results in all the schools STS proprietors Manish and Nandini Singh gave their employees a day visit. Roger said: “In Zimbabwe
have shot up as children and of off from their usual tasks of project management and system implementa- the education department wants us
course adults can study long after tion to prepare and sell traditional home-cooked Indian food, as well as to fit every rural school with solar
the sun goes down, without re- hand-made Indian products, to complement Lights for Learning’s display. powered lights because it’s much
sorting to dangerous open flame Pictured with Lights for Learning equipment, Nandini Singh, Roger Mugridge quicker and cheaper than waiting
kerosene lamps. and Justin Tomlinson. Photo: Richard Wintle www.calyxpix.com for a mains supply to be provided.”
“Last year, in addition to install- Justin Tomlinson believes the
ing lights in nine schools in Zimba- previously women had to give labour we’ve been told there have potential of Lights for Learning is
bwe, we also put them into a remote birth in the pitch dark. Now that been no infant deaths in normal huge. “Nobody else has produced
birthing clinic in Zimbabwe where midwives can monitor mothers in birth situations, whereas it was a anything like this. The cost is pri-
common occurrence before.” marily in the manufacturing and
Roger’s latest invention has been transportation. I’m impressed that
to link a solar panel, battery and local people can be involved in the
inverter to provide a stable energy installation and maintenance of the
supply so that laptop computers equipment because Roger has de-
can be powered without the need signed the systems with simplicity
for mains electricity. and safety in mind.
Justin Tomlinson said he was “It means that the solution is
particularly interested in how highly sustainable and is a great ex-
Lights for Learning can contribute ample of how Swindon can become
to Britain’s commitment to foreign the technology centre for Europe.”
aid. “In straitened economic times www.lightsforlearning.org

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As consumers and home-buyers rely more and more on the internet
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B u s i n e s s o w n e r for people who want to
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also pay half the solicitors’ fees , Link front page since launching the
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To drive the business forward ing in the magazine has definitely
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