Salima Visram is currently a student at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Along with her studies in International Development, the 22 year-old is busy crowd-funding for her Soular Backpack.
Born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya, Salima is familiar with the poverty and harsh conditions that keep children in many parts of the world from pursuing their education.
3-4 hours in the sun would result in 7-8 hours of light
After sunset, in order to continue their homework, many students work under the costly and dangerous fumes of a kerosene lamp. Visram says, for many families as much as 25 per cent of their income goes on kerosene.
Her idea, developed after several ‘idea-jams’ and consultations with engineers, was to install a small solar panel in the back of a back-pack. It can gather the power through the day, beginning on the walk to school, and then power a small LED light for later in the evening. Visram claims 3-4 hours in the sun would result in 7-8 hours of light
Now Salima Visram is crowd-funding to raise the money to supply a test run of 2,000 ‘Soular Back-packs”. She is preparing for a pilot project in the village near her home in Kenya. Kikambala is home to 22,000 people and very few have electricity.
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