Dar es Salaam. Around 9 pm at Kinzudi Street, Salasala Ward in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, a tailor in the neighbourhood is busy sewing clothes for her customers.
Her shack, covered with wood and corrugated iron sheets, is among the few stores open at this moment. It is the first time, Evaline Kimaro, is working till such hours after securing a new solar-powered light. Her neighbour who is also providing a sewing service had closed her store three hours earlier due to darkness.
“I used to leave early when the darkness begins because I didn’t have electricity because it was difficult to sew well my customers’ clothes… but after Amshaamsha Foundation (AAF) gave me this solar lamp, I can sew five to seven clothes a day because I have increased my working time to 10:00 pm,” Evaline says.
Since she started to use solar-powered lights and increased her working time, Evaline can now make a profit of 50,000 Tanzania Shillings for simple clothes and 105,000 Tanzania Shillings weekly for complex clothes compared to before starting to use solar energy as a source of light in her business.
This solar-powered lamp, which stays on for 16 hours after being charged, has given Evaline’s business new prospects as she was initially closing earlier than she wanted.
This situation, she says, was failing her to finish customers’ work on time, causing her to lose some customers and income.
Evaline is among the 18 women entrepreneurs in Dar es Salaam who were given solar lights to improve their business by the non-governmental organization, Amshaamsha Foundation.
Amshaamsha Foundation (AAF) is an innovative non-profit on a mission to restore climate to the current and future generations using sustainable solutions including renewable energy.
The mobile lights were given by Amshaamsha Foundation on March 8 during the celebration of International Women’s Day as a step to promote the use of clean and safe energy for women.
“With this light, I can now easily find even a fallen needle,” says Evaline, known as Mama Frank in the neighbourhood.
Evaline, a mother of four, is not the only one who benefits from the lights. Lightness Almas, a fishmonger in Kinzudi Street, says the lights have helped her increase profits and income in her business because she gets more customers than before.
“When there is darkness, customers cannot see if there is someone selling something here, but the light of the solar-powered lamp provided by Amshaamsha Foundation attracts many customers,” says Lightness as she continues selling fried fish arranged on the table along one of the roads on Kinzudi Street.
However, Almas wishes to receive more knowledge on clean and safe cooking energy to improve her business and family’s life.
“I wish to get more knowledge about alternative energy for cooking because I have been using a wood stove to fry fish for a long time. To be able to achieve all this, I wish to get more capital, even a loan will enable me to expand my business,” says Lightness.
More education, fast adoption of clean energy
Apart from providing them solar-powered lights, these informal businesswomen were provided with education from Amshaamsha Foundation about the use of clean and safe energy in their businesses to reduce the health and environmental effects of using wood and charcoal.
Rehema Hamad says that after being educated, she has started providing education to her fellow women in social groups including Vikoba.
She says her passion is to see that education is spread to more women so that we can build a society with sustainable systems to deal with climate change and its effects.
“When I meet with my fellow women, I try to explain to them how Amshaamsha taught us to use alternative energy for lighting or cooking, because it becomes easier as we are growing in number, so it is easy for educators to spread,” says Rehema, a resident of Kinzudi Street.
Education on the use of clean energy has not only been helpful for women but also for families that have not been reached by the grid electricity, thus motivating them to use solar lights at home that among other things helps students to study at night.
” I have become the front line to express my testimony to neighbours and the community in general on how clean energy helps to reduce health challenges,” says Evalyne Omari, a resident of Kinzudi Street.
2 in 3 households use firewood for cooking in Tanzania
According to the Ministry of Energy, firewood remains the main source of cooking energy in homes in Tanzania accounting for nearly two-thirds or 63.5% of all energy used in households in Mainland Tanzania.
According to the ministry, 33,000 people die annually from smoking wood and charcoal.
Currently, Tanzania is preparing strategies to eliminate the use of hazardous cooking fuels to save approximately 90% of households that use clean energy.
To comply with the Government’s strategies, Amshaamsha Foundation has been among the stakeholders pushing the wheel by providing education and encouraging the use of clean and safe energy for all.
The Executive Director of Amshaamsha Foundation, Teddy Mcha, says many businesses may contribute to climate change if they do not use clean energy.
“Climate change is one of the main challenges currently facing the world, to deal with the effects of these changes including drought, floods and temperature increase, environmental experts recommend the use of clean and safe energy for cooking and lighting,” Mcha says.
She says education about clean and safe energy is needed because it is a sustainable solution to climate change while asking stakeholders to join forces to move the agenda forward.
Correct use of solar lights
An expert on solar energy and its equipment, Francis Rwebogora from Fraxen Consult says solar lights are made of panels that collect light and heat energy, which sends it to a receiver that converts it into electrical energy.
“This energy is a source of renewable and sustainable energy, it does not require any kind of replacement of equipment every time for it to work so the initial investment costs are small,” says Rwebogora who works closely with the organization.
According to Rwebogora, these solar lamps can last longer if they are properly maintained.
Kinzudi Street Chairman Faraja Mbwiga asked 18 women who received clean and safe energy education to educate their colleagues to increase the number of groups that use renewable energy that saves their health and the environment around them.
“I appreciate efforts done by Amshaamsha Foundation because now these women will be able to do business until night, thus increasing their income. They should also be given education on how to run business, manage their finances and use safe energy for cooking as well as credit/loan education,” Mbwiga says.