Power to the people The Zanzibar scheme teaching women to install solar systems

In a dimly lit corridor of a mud-walled house nestled among coconut trees, Sharifa Hussein strips red and black cables, a 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 attaches the two wires to an electronic device mounted on the wall.

The women, dressed in colourful hijabs, are installing solar power to a house in Muyuni B village in Unguja, the main island in the semiautonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, which lies off the coast of Tanzania in east Africa.

They are part of a larger group known fondly as Solar Mamas who assemble, install, repair and maintain solar power kits in villages across the archipelago.

They receive training from a community-based organisation called 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, primarily seen as caregivers and responsible for housework, are particularly vulnerable to being marginalised.