Power play The Solar Mamas who are lighting up Zanzibar

In a dimly lit corridor of a mudwalled house nestled among coconut trees, Sharifa Hussein stripped red and black cables, a screwdriver voltage tester balanced between her lips and rolls of cable lying by her feet.

- Carlos Mureithi

Then, with the help of three other women, she attached the two wires to an electronic device nailed on the wall.

The women, all wearing colourful hijabs, were installing solar power to a house in Muyuni B village in Unguja, the main island in the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, which lies off the coast of Tanzania in eastern Africa.

They are part of a larger group known as Solar Mamas who assemble, install, repair and maintain solar power kits in villages across the archipelago. They receive training from community-based organisation Barefoot College Zanzibar. Only about half of the nearly two million people in Zanzibar have access to electricity -in part because of high connection costs and, in some areas, a lack of access to the power grid. Many people resort to using costly and dangerous fuels such as paraffin and charcoal.

At the same time, employment opportunities are limited, especially in rural areas where literacy levels are low. Women are particularly vulnerable to being marginalised.

The Barefoot College programme, which trains women who have little to no formal education to become solar technicians, is working to promote clean energy adoption while fostering socioeconomic development.