OUR STORY
Energy doesn't just provide light but income, prosperity and sustainability. Clean energy access can change lives.
Mission
Smiling Through Light focuses on clean energy access. We work with a network of local women to provide clean, reliable & sustainable energy in Africa through the distribution and sales of solar products, focusing on the last mile.
VISION
Igniting potential through solar. To provide women, girls and their communities access to clean energy, create jobs and income opportunities to lift them out of poverty.
who
Mariama Kamara is the Founder & Director of Smiling Through Light. She started the company after a trip to Sierra Leone in 2011, on a placement with Restless Development as a SRH Curriculum Development Technical Assistant. Her current and previous roles include working on development projects at local, national and international levels relating to science & technology, HIV, microbicides, education and innovation. She has worked with organisations such as SciDev.Net, African Health Policy Network, VSO, DFID, SIDA, African Development Association for Progress, Restless Development, the UN and Africa UK. She has always been interested in development issues especially poverty, energy, education, sexual and reproductive health and HIV issues relating to women and young people. Mariama has an MSc in Development Studies from Birkbeck University and BSc (Hons) in Psychology.
““I understand the importance of energy from my own experience. When I was a young girl growing up in Sierra Leone, I studied by a kerosene lamp at night. The effect that this had has stayed with me throughout my life. It is why I believe in the importance of sustainable energy and the need to work in collaboration with different organisations to ensure that individuals have the opportunity to access relevant energy sources particularly solar. The development of innovative technological solutions is making renewable energy products more available and affordable. Accelerating the uptake of such products should be a focus to scaling up the quality and quantity of energy access in different parts of the world. Energy enables and can help communities to function efficiently by job creation, economic development and security concerns which are all core interests to developing countries.””
