Solar Buddy Student Lights
Many children in Timor-Leste have no or limited access to electricity, making study at night impossible.
We are partnering with Solar Buddy, a fabulous Australian organisation, to distribute rechargeable LED lights to children in remote parts of Timor-Leste.
Solar Buddy’s Junior Buddy Lights are hand-held lights and are easily rechargable in the sun. Solar Buddy’s Student Buddy devices illuminate an entire room and provide charging for other devices.
These lights have been shipped to Timor-Leste thanks to Rotary Donations in Kind. However their journey is really only just beginning when they land in Dili. There is tremendous effort involved in delivering them to the remote communities where they are most needed and also in educating the children on how to use and care for the lights.
We’re able to do that because of another great partnership with MAHON Foundation, a Timorese organisation helping young people. MAHON’s volunteers are undertaking the journey, many hours from Dili on bad roads over many days to put these lights in the hands of children.
We ran two very successful pilot programs last year – one with 250 lights in Covalima District (managed by MAHON Foundation) and one with 200 lights in Bobonaro (managed by our teacher mentor Rino). Because of how well these programs went Solar Buddy has sent us 1,054 Junior Buddy lights and 32 Student Buddy Lights – with another 1,000 Junior Buddy lights on their way.
These lights will be distributed in the last quarter of 2025.
