March 4, 2011
By COCO LIU of ClimateWire
The New York Times
ROU HAL, Cambodia — With a desire to one day become a doctor and save lives, 12-year-old Phat Sopwa devotes most of his time to study. After dark, though, his dream grew dim.
Living in this typical Cambodian village without electricity, Phat used to do homework by a kerosene lamp that emits no more light than a cigarette lighter. The dim ray hurt his eyes, made him drowsy and forced the boy to quickly give up his tasks.
That dark homework time ended in February with a gift from his aunt. What Phat received is a small solar array, which powers three light bulbs and made his wooden hut fill with bright light for the first time.
“Solar is much better [than the kerosene lamp]. I can now see characters in my textbooks clearly,” said Phat, while happily flipping on and off the light switch.
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