“I enjoy going to school. My favourite subject is math” – says Agripina with an excited voice. This 14-year-old girl from Ilimano, a remote aldeia (sub-village) in Manatuto municipality aspires to be a doctor. However, without electricity, her study time at home is limited since she can only do her homework after sunset, using her father’s flashlight for a limited time. 

Ilimano is located in the middle of the mountainous area of Manatuto, far from cities, road access and access to electricity. Ilimano has 87 households, with 325 people, of which 50 are youth attending school. These households are among the 1000 beneficiary households from the Pacific Green Transformation Project. This project, with funding from the Government of Japan and implemented by UNDP, aims to support 4 Pacific Small Island Countries (SIDS) – Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu – on its green transformation journey, through the promotion of low carbon energy emissions and renewable energy technology, specifically, the solar energy.

One of the challenges of implementing this project in Timor-Leste is the impact of climate change, the very issue the project aims to address. The unpredictable rain seasons flood the rivers and cause landslides, further isolating the  remote villages. The destruction of local infrastructure including roads, resulting in limited access to schools and markets has worsened the living conditions of these remote villages. Under normal circumstances, students from this village walk 2 hours every day to get to school. However, with the rains, it becomes too dangerous for them to descend the mountain.

The aggravating road conditions affect the education of the children of the village. Agripina is currently in the third grade at Ilimano’s primary school. At her age of 14, she could be at grade 8 but being delayed to start school is a very common reality, especially in rural areas of Timor-Leste. This can be explained by the fact that children often enroll in education only after they become old and strong enough to walk for hours on the mountainous paths between home and school. 

On 24th May, her house received a solar panel kit from the Pacific Green Transformation Project. As soon as it was installed, she grabbed her notebook and sat outside where one of the lightbulbs was hanging. It made it much easier for her to enjoy her after-school time studying or playing with her younger siblings in a brighter and safer environment.