Mr A.M. Jayaratne is from Puwakpitiya, a remote village in the Knuckles Range, a village which has recently benefited from the installation of home lighting systems. The Sewalanka initiative, known as the Home Employment and Lighting Package (HELP), was designed by the Nepalese Himalayan Light Foundation to offer a sustainable method of disseminating solar home systems to rural communities.

Members of Puwakpitiya village making paper that will pay for the installation of their home solar lighting systems.

The program aims to develop poor and remote villages economically while also enhancing their infrastructure and improving their income generating skills.

Fifty villagers have been trained to make paper from widely available natural resources including some invasive species – helping to control their spread.

The income from sales of the product is being used to pay for their solar lighting systems. Sewalanka is developing a marketing strategy for the paper products and is linking the community with local and international markets.

Mr Jayaratne is happy to report that the quality of his life has dramatically increased with the installation of solar power that lights up his home.

“I have three school age children whose studies have greatly improved with the help of solar light, which is much cleaner and brighter than a kerosene lamp. The light also means that my wife can cook in the morning before the sun comes up and by day she has some free time which she is using to earn an additional income,” Mr Jayaratne said.

“I’m now saving around Rs.650 a month which I used to spend on kerosene for night illumination. I was only earning about Rs.1500 from my work as a manual labourer, so this is a big savings.   “In addition to the power and the skills I have gained, the initiative has really bonded our village together. Through learning new skills and working as a team we have become a very close, tight knit community.

“Learning how to make natural handmade paper has made my life comfortable. I now have a job which keeps me busy and power 24 hours a day,” he said.

As proceeds from the sale of the paper have not yet started coming in, the technology was purchased using a revolving fund that is jointly managed by the community-run Solar Development Committee and Sewalanka Foundation. Once the solar power systems have been paid for by the sales of the paper products, Puwakpitiya village members will continue to make and receive the income from the sales of their handicraft products, enhancing the community’s earnings and self-reliance.

Due to the successful implementation of the HELP project in Puwakpitiya, Sewalanka is currently expanding the project to other poor, isolated villages in Polonnaruwa, Ampara and Batticaloa districts.