Malaika

Malaika was founded in 2007 in Kalebuka, a village of about 42,000 people near Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the Munama quarter where it works, access to basic services is extremely limited and only about 4% of women can read and write.

Rather than running a single program, Malaika built what it calls an ecosystem of empowerment: six pillars — a school, a community center, sports, vocational training, agriculture, and water and health — each designed to reinforce the others. The idea is that educating a girl is not enough on its own; her family and community need knowledge, opportunity and support for her to truly thrive.

It is working. Four cohorts of young women have graduated from the school, 99 alumni are now at university or working for local companies, some on scholarships abroad. A free school that removes this many barriers is a natural place for a study light that removes one more: the dark after sunset.

Flash Forward delivered 15 study lights to Malaika free of charge, adding an estimated 90 hours of study light every day. Malaika chooses which students receive each light: the partner knows the students and households of Kalebuka. Student interns in Bellevue build the lights; the partner puts them to work.

Each light costs $5.17 in parts, recharges in about 7 hours of sunlight and runs for up to about 12 hours on a full charge. For a student without electricity at home, that is the difference between studying and stopping at sunset.