"I am just coming to the end of my first week of many in Lusaka, Zambia. I am here volunteering as an accountant for SunnyMoney, a company that distributes solar powered lamps all around this and several other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This is my second placement through AfID and I will hopefully be here until mid-December.

"My first week has been (excuse the pun) enlightening! Before I came here I knew that solar lights were a great alternative to kerosene lamps for economic and ease of use reasons but I hadn’t contemplated how solar energy can have such an impact on areas of health, education & climate change. One anecdotal fact I learnt this week was that kerosene lamps cause more deaths than malaria. Another was that teachers can see which pupils at their school have been doing homework because they come in to school the next day with red eyes and a nasty cough. I am pleased to be a minuscule cog in the machine that is trying to change this and am in awe and admiration of the people who have been doing this for years already with whom I have the pleasure to work now.

Looking forward to the rest of my time here."