The Impact of Solar Lamps: The Story of Fatuma Omar Ismail, a Beneficiary of Solar Lamps
Story by Jeremiah Orina & Jully Odanga, March 2009

Background
Fatuma is a 16 year old Somali girl from Hagadera Refugee camp in Dadaab. She fled Somalia and entered Kenya in 2002. She was accompanied by her mother and 8 siblings. Her mother Fosio Jama Ismail is a house wife and her father Omar Ismail Hirsi is jobless and entirely depends on humanitarian aid offered by a number of NGOs operating in Dadaab Refugee camp for provision of food and other essential services to the family. 

Schooling
Upon arrival in Dadaab, she enrolled into Upendo Primary School from Std 2 to 8 where she finally sat for her final Standard 8 examination, the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in 2008. She scored 364 marks out of a possible 500 marks and emerged the top girl from North Eastern Province.  This good performance earned her admission into the prestigious Kenya High school, a national secondary school in Kenya. Because of her exceptional performance, she has been awarded a 4-year scholarship by the Kenya Education Fund.

Excellent Academic Performance
Fatuma attributes her excellent performance to the Solar Lamp Project initiated by Windle Trust Kenya (WTK), a partner of WUSC, in Dadaab refugee camps. She was among one of the few girls who received one of the 514 solar lamps distributed by Windle Trust Kenya across the camps in May 2008. She says “Part of the reasons why I emerged as a top girl in NorthEasternProvince is as a result of the solar lamp I received from WTK. I could study for longer hours in the night. Solar lamp is very good as it is not health hazard compared to paraffin lamps as I was able to inhale fresh air as I study.” Fatuma adds “because I am the eldest girl in my family, I was expected to do housework in the evenings after school hours. I did this with a lot of consolation that at night, I would spare some time to study using the solar lamp”.

Equally, her family attributes her good performance in KCPE to the solar lamp. Before she received the lamp, she never used to read at night due to lack of money to buy a lantern and fuel it. Her reading habits changed immediately she received the solar lamp. She started studying at night and very early in the morning before reporting to school.  For the seven months that she used the solar lamp, her performance drastically improved in class.

Fatuma did not have a separate study room, nor could her parents afford text books and other stationery for her studies. However when she received the solar lamp from WTK her parents supported her by ensuring that she was not disturbed during her night study. Her brothers and sisters also benefited from the solar lamp because they took to studying along with her at night.  Her father confirmed that a reading culture had been born in his house with the coming of the solar lamp. Her siblings who are in primary school are greatly inspired and aspire to study to the highest level possible.

At Kenya High School