Evans Wadongo was raised in the rural village of Malava in western Kenya, and he spent multiple evenings trying to finish schoolwork beside a kerosene lamp whose smoke gradually damaged his eyesight. Many of his classmates faced the same problem, and some dropped out because they could not study after sunset. Even after Wadongo enrolled at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in 2004, those memories stayed with him. The 19-year-old was experimenting with LED Christmas lights in his dorm room and salvaged solar-panel components, and soon began to design a simple solar lantern that could replace kerosene lamps in homes without electricity. He called it MwangaBora, meaning "Good Light" in Swahili. According to MIT Solve , the lantern was designed using inexpensive, locally available materials, including recycled parts, so it could be assembled and repaired within the communities it was meant to serve.
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