Written by CorpsAfrica/Malawi Volunteer Ms. Sarah Kazira

This year’s Christmas season was a bit different from all other years. I spent most of the season at a training with Age Africa and it was as good a way to spend the holidays as any other.

This particular training was on solar installation and it lasted for ten days,  from 19 to 29 December (we broke for Christmas and came back to continue.) Normally, solar installation is done by boys but Age Africa went against this norm and successfully reined girls in for this. The idea was to train girls who had finished secondary school from the Age Africa bursary with skills to install and repair a solar system in a home. At the beginning of the training, I was very skeptical about whether the training would be a success but after a few days,  I was very convinced of its success. 

I particularly liked the trainer because she was someone the girls could identify with. She was someone who had grown up in a similar situation like them but her life has changed for the better since she started working on solar installation and repairs. So this background helped the participants easily see themselves doing this kind of thing. And her method of teaching was very encompassing. We had practicals from the first day of training and she would repeat the topic until she was sure everybody had gotten it.

At the end of the training,  it was interesting to me to see all the girls confidently go through the whole process. I was intrigued seeing the girls climbing on the roof like its nothing and doing their work there. The same girls who two weeks ago did not know anything about the elements of solar power were now working like pros and making light shine.

This was a fun experience for me and I learnt very useful things about electronic repairs from this training.  My only hope now is that these girls go out and make something of themselves with the training they acquired here.