Senegal: Women solar engineers brighten Senegal

Screwdriver in hand, Doussou Konaté unscrews a broken solar lantern. She patiently cross-checks the cables. And within a few moments, it is fixed. Mrs. Konaté has never attended school. But two years ago she was one of seven Senegalese women who travelled to India to be trained as a solar power engineer at the Barefoot College in Rajasthan. When darkness falls in the small village of Keur Simbara, 76 kilometres from Dakar, the lights come on. Mrs. Konaté, a 57-year-old mother of six, is known locally as the 'light woman'. With a bright smile, she says, 'When night falls, everybody lights up their lamp and you can go anywhere you wish because everything is clear. It is just wonderful.'