A Canadian relief and development group is helping women have safer child births by bringing light to clinics in Mozambique and Madagascar.
Alongside Hope, formerly known as the Anglican Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, has teamed up with We Care Solar, a California company that manufactures solar-powered lighting, to provide nighttime illumination in those two countries.
“Babies don’t check the clock when it’s time to be born,” said Richard Librock, a program manager at Alongside Hope. “Day or night, birth happens.”
But in off-grid places in Mozambique and Madagascar, nighttime deliveries can be very risky. “Without electricity, many women won’t even attempt the journey to a clinic after dark,” he added.
Alongside Hope became aware of the problem in 2015. That’s when they asked local partners in Mozambique about the biggest challenges facing women giving birth. “They said lighting was a key need,” Librock said.
While doing research into simple and innovative ways to address the problem, Alongside Hope discovered We Care Solar.
Founded in 2010, the mission of We Care Solar is to make it easier for health-care workers to help women give birth safely in well-lit health facilities. They do this by manufacturing Solar Suitcases, which provide reliable lighting, mobile communication and recharging for medical devices.
With help from the Canadian government, Alongside Hope purchased and shipped 30 Solar Suitcases to Mozambique in 2016. Since then, 79 units have been sent to that country.
The units, which use lithium batteries, have a five-year lifespan and provide between eight to ten hours of light. They are recharged by a solar panel on the roof or outside wall of a clinic during the day. It takes four hours to be recharged.
In addition to providing bright LED lighting, the units can also recharge cell phones, head lamps, flashlights, laptops and medical devices such as fetal heart rate monitors.
Along with providing the units, Alongside Hope provides training to install and maintain the units through its partners in Mozambique.
Since the first installations in 2016, more than 80,000 babies have been safely delivered at night in off-grid clinics that use Solar Suitcases.
For midwife Ancha Amido Abdala, the Solar Suitcases are a welcome addition to her clinic.
“Before the Solar Suitcase was installed, we did not operate at night,” she said. “Everything was difficult. There was no way to handle medical materials in the dark.”
That changed when a Solar Suitcase was installed in 2022.
“When a patient arrives at night, we don’t need phone flashlights or lamps,” she said.
Alongside Hope wants to install 35 more Solar Suitcases in Mozambique and 15 in Madagascar.
Each suitcase costs $6,500, and the organization hopes to raise $320,000 to provide them. An anonymous donor has pledged to match donations 1:1 up to $150,000.
