These Backpacks are Transforming Students’ Lives

In most places in the world, students can do their homework in well-lit homes. Parents can read bedtime stories to their children and older kids can let their imaginations soar when reading in bed. That’s because all they need to do is flip a switch to turn on lights.

In other places in the world – like in rural Africa – homes do not have electricity, reported Africa Renewal, a publication of the UN. The lack of electricity is a major hindrance, besides providing light, electricity allows people to connect to the outside world through cellphones and the internet. For children, it affects their ability to do homework, study for exams, or complete other activities. Now, new solar-powered backpacks are transforming the lives of these children, by providing light after the sun goes down.

Introducing the Chedza
Over 600 million people in Africa, most of them in sub-Saharan countries, lack access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. In one country, Botswana, only 72 percent of the population has access to the electrical grid.

To provide light, people have to use kerosene lights that are not very bright and expensive to use, reported Africa Renewal. Many families choose to go to bed early instead.

Kedumetse Liphi, a 34-year-old electrical engineer from Botswana was inspired by a chance encounter with a student who was using a rice bag to carry his books. This motivated him to create a solar backpack for poor students to use for light. It was dubbed Chedza, which means light in English.

The Chedza is a compact waterproof backpack made from canvas that contains an integrated  solar panel that absorbs sunlight during the day for use in the evening. It was developed in 2020 by Ked-LiphiBw, an Innovation-Driven Enterprise that was founded by Liphi.

The LED light can last up to seven hours and the backpack can be used to power smartphones or tablets to allow internet access.

Although the bags were created in Botswana and have won prestigious awards, including  the UN’s Climate Change Adaptation award at COP28 and the SEED Climate adaption Award, reported The Okavango Express, it is not supported by the government. But globally these backpacks are gaining ground.

Solar backpacks by Soma Bags
Another solar backpack initiative is Soma bags,that means reading bags in Swahili, reported CNN. The company  was founded by Innocent James, 33, in Tanzania. He grew up in a rural region that did not have electricity. Fewer than half of the homes in Tanzania are connected to the electrical grid.  

He grew up in a home where his mother and grandmother were both teachers who gave him a love of reading. While he was in college, he saw children who were skipping school begging for money to play video games. So he dropped out and used his tuition money to purchase a mobile library cart. But children were returning the books unread because there was no light to read by in their homes. That’s when James understood the need to provide an alternative source of light that would allow kids to read after dark..

He was inspired by a university professor who had a solar charger for his phone that was sewn into a fabric pouch. “It gave me the confidence that what I want is going to work,” James told CNN.

He started small-scale in 2016 using discarded cement bags, a sewing machine and solar panels. But the bags grew in popularity. Today, there are two models; the smaller child-sized ones are reading lights but the larger ones also contain built-in charging systems.

“It’s innovative,” said Joseph Manirakiza, of the UN development program. “I never thought someone would think of turning waste cement bags into something useful.” The UN started supporting Soma Bags in 2023.

In 2023, 36,000 Soma Bags solar backpacks were sold to people across the African continent. Jame’s clients are mainly families and schools in rural Tanzania but now over 200 charities have purchased the bags from him.

James still spends time running reading groups from his mobile book cart but now the kids arrive with the Soma Bags backpacks on their backs. “Sometimes I see a kid with the bag, and I’m like, wow,” said James. “I can’t really believe it.”