Isabelle lives in Madzinga, a rural village in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The village is extremely remote, without any roads and on the far side of a river with no bridge.
It was the middle of the night when 18-year-old Isabelle went into labour. Hours later a baby boy was born safely, thanks in part to a small solar panel on the roof of a health clinic in her village.
Things could have been so different for Isabelle had this clinic, with the solar panel providing light in the darkest night, not been there. Before the clinic, access to healthcare for the community was very difficult and the death rate for pregnant women rate was high.
'I would have gone to Nyakundi,' she says. 'But it's hard to get a motorcycle at night.' Nyakundi is a three-hour journey away. 'I would have suffered. It's good there is a hospital to give birth here.'
Working with the local church, the Madzinga community built its own health clinic, with the electricity supplied from a clean and constant source. It means women going into labour can have their babies safely there, at whatever time of day or night.
Isabelle now has a healthy baby boy, all thanks to a simple solar panel and the support of her community.
Having electricity unlocks the God-given potential of people living in poverty. Women can give birth safely at night, children can study in the evening and farmers can pump water to grow food for their families. Yet, one in seven people still don't have access to electricity and the poorest households can pay 80 times more for their energy than we do in the UK (according to the World Bank).
Lighting the darkness
The quickest and cheapest way to improve access to energy for people living in poverty is through off-grid, clean and renewable energy like solar power – which can transform lives without damaging God's creation by contributing to climate change. Quite literally lighting the darkness.
Avoid polluting fossil fuels
Despite the proven benefits, there is very little funding for off-grid renewables like solar panels. This kind of funding would be transformational. It would help poor communities leapfrog over the national grid, which requires major infrastructure that is often slow and unreliable, as well as being reliant on dirty fossil fuels. They could jump straight to off-grid clean energy, in the same way that Isabelle and her community has.
Help Tearfund in lighting the darkness
The UK spends money on improving access to energy for people in poverty through the World Bank, which aims to end extreme poverty by 2030. In fact the World Bank is the single biggest channel of UK funding for energy access for poor communities.
But it spends billions on polluting fossil fuels and only a tiny amount (less than three per cent) on local (off-grid), clean renewable energy, such as solar panels for homes or clinics. So we're asking the World Bank to invest more in this kind of energy, shifting the balance away from supporting fossil fuels.
We all have a part to play in making this vision a reality.
You can sign our petition to the World Bank at: https://www.tearfund.org/about_you/action/world_bank/
