This cheap, easy to make and eco-friendly lighting is an innovation by Liter of Lights organisation, and is used in disaster struck areas.

Making lights using plastic bottles, water and chlorine is what school children in Abu Dhabi learnt last week. This cheap, easy to make and eco-friendly lighting is an innovation by Liter of Lights organisation, and is used in disaster struck areas.

They may not be needed here, but UAE students who get involved in making these lights could help millions across the world still living in the dark. “We are planning to create a programme on our website that will allow each student who makes a light to see where this light is going to, which person it is helping,” said Illac Angelo Diaz, executive director of MyShelter Foundation, which runs Liter of Light project.

Based in the Philippines, Liter of Lights won the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize (ZFEP) in the Non Profit Organisation category.

The prize came not only with a cheque for $1.5 millions, but it also opened doors for the charitable work. One such door was to the UAE and Diaz returned to Abu Dhabi last week, after winning the prize in January, to get local schools and universities involved in Liter of Lights

“One outcome was that 70 per cent of the crime went down after lighting up villages that were without lights.”

To date, Liter of Lights has brought 485,000 houses out of the dark not only in the Philippines, but in 15 other countries, too. Read More