GamLight brings earth-friendly indoor light to rural Africans at a groundbreaking price, without the need for electricity and using only locally-available materials. Inspired by the Filipino Liter of Light project, we assemble and install Solar Bottle Bulbs in classrooms and residences across The Gambia, and train others to do the same. Each Solar Bottle Bulb has a nominal materials cost of about US$1 and can radiate as much light as a 55W incandescent bulb during daylight hours. A single bottle bulb can provide more light than a CFL bulb and last for years without maintenance. By installing an array of ten or more bulbs in a classroom, we add enough light that students and teachers alike can read better.
A Solar Bottle Bulb is effectively a skylight that diffuses sunlight across the room. We accomplish this in buildings with corrugate metal roofs and no ceiling by fixing a 1.5L plastic bottle halfway lengthwise through a cut-to-fit hole in the roof, then filling the bottle with water. Sunlight refracts every time it strikes a surface, scattering the light in all directions. There's more to the actual construction for leakproofing and efficiency of installation, but that's just details.
GamLight is Chief Carpenter Pa Demba and Peace Corps Volunteer Dylan Fitzgerald/Ousman Gassama.
The GamLight logo was designed and digitised by Nathan Otlewski, RPCV, whom you should hire immediately.
Photography of the Sunburst and Pa Climbing images on the On Location page courtesy Justin Wellins, PCV.
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