Kwathu Kuwale Eco-Lamp Workshop Project
Chimwaza Village, Lilongwe, Malawi
The Kwathu Kuwale Project, meaning “Let My Village Have Light,” is a community-based, clean energy and women’s empowerment initiative led by Village Solar in Malawi. Their goal is to support women in the rural village of Chimwaza to become solar technicians and clean energy entrepreneurs. This initiative will establish a Solar Energy Training Hub in Lilongwe District inviting 15 women to receive training in business skills, cooperative management and solar assembly.
Chimwaza has over 2,000 residents living without electricity. Families rely on candles, kerosene lamps, or cheap, low-quality battery torches. These options are unsafe, costly over time, and provide poor light quality. Indoor air pollution increases the risk of respiratory illness, especially for children. School performance is also affected, as students struggle to study after dark. Women and girls spend long hours collecting firewood or walking for basic services, losing time that could be used for learning or earning. While high-quality solar lamps exist, they are often imported, expensive, and hard to repair locally, limiting their usefulness.
To address these challenges, the Village Solar cooperative developed the Kuwala Eco Lamp, a solar lamp made from fast-growing bamboo and locally available components. It is easy to repair and includes a USB port to charge feature mobile phones. Through the Kwathu Kuwale Eco-Lamp Workshop Project initiative, they have identified and recruited 15 women from Chimwaza, aged 20 years and above, to learn how to build, repair, and sell these lamps.
The women are also learning business skills like pricing, inventory management, sales recording, bookkeeping, and budgeting. To make the project sustainable, they are also setting up a cooperative model where the women being trained will collectively own and manage the solar production workshop.This cooperative will oversee local production, repair, and sales. Members share decision-making and responsibilities, building income, ownership, and long-term growth.
Through the support of a Purpose Earth grant, the project will be able to construct a secure and functional workshop with workbenches, a small office, storeroom, shaded workspace, and a ventilated latrine. This permanent structure enables efficient solar lamp assembly, safe storage, and training activities.
“We were training the women under makeshift structures, sometimes under a tree. This grant has come at the right time when we were seeking funds to construct a training workshop where the women can be trained safely and assemble the solar lanterns. The solution itself is not new (solar lamps have existed for many years ) but what is new is that these lamps will be locally made. The project activates the power inside communities and strengthens communities to meet their own energy needs.”
– Susanna Simango, Project Lead
Sweetwater Cultural Center
Kwathu Kuwale Eco-Lamp Workshop Project
