Backpacks have long been associated with education – carrying books to-and-fro, hanging on the shoulders of children walking through school gates. But a new design of backpacks, which incorporates renewable energy, sees the school bag take on a wholly new role.
Solarpak, a revolutionary idea from inventor Evariste Akoumian, is a light-bringing bag that helps children in power deprived areas of Africa do their homework after dark. In small rural villages, like that of the south-eastern region of the Cote d’Ivoire – where the Solarpak is currently being tried and tested – the bag is helping children study into the night.
When night comes in many far-flung African villages, children have no light to study under. To combat this problem, Akoumian came up with the idea of developing a solar-powered bag, fitted with a solar panel that would charge a small battery when the child was en route to school. Absorbing sunlight, the panel would then hook up to a special lamp and power its LED light through the night – allowing children to use it as a handy study lamp.
“We said to ourselves: In Africa, we have lots of sunshine which is free. Let’s figure out an easier and more efficient solution to help these children so that they can have better academic results,” Akoumian told local media.
It took Akoumian two years of research and six months of field testing to finalise the product.
He then distributed 500 free solar bags to people in four localities of the Cote d’Ivoire.
The main goal is for the award-winning project to provide easy access to electricity in Africa, where currently 700 million people live without power.
However, it appears that getting the product running is a challenge, as even with help from the U.S. Embassy, Akoumian has little financial support for his solar bags, which cost around $20, including taxes.
Currently, the bags are imported from Asia and assembled in Cote d’Ivoire. With funding, he hopes to raise funds for everything to be made on the continent – in an attempt to create jobs for locals.
The invention isn’t the only one of its kind to be introduced as a way of improving Africans daily lives. Recently, Pay-as-you-go Solar was introduced to help light up Africa. Customers could buy a small-scale solar panel, enough to power multiple lights, a mobile phone and a radio, on a payment plan. It is being launched soon and is aimed, just like Solarpak, to reach those outside of the electricity grid.
