A brighter future: Solar power charges rural education in Uganda

When Charles Barigye first opened Trinity Senior Secondary School in the Uganda’s Bwengure village in 2015, there was no chance of connecting to the electrical grid. The school was six miles from the electrical wires connecting the town of Mbarara to Ibanda, the closest hook up.

So the school’s boarding students studied by the flicker of candle-light, until one burnt a girl’s mattress. The school tried kerosene lanterns. But these were dim, expensive, and produced a foul odor.

But everything changed when