To celebrate the 125th anniversary of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Luke worked in Freetown, Sierra Leone in collaboration with their ARISE programme.
Helping to empower local communities they worked with local teams to install 21 solar powered LED streetlights within the informal settlements (sometimes referred to as slums) of Freetown. They installed the permanent lighting in public areas including water collection areas, alleyways, and toilets.
Collaborating with local artists to create paper lanterns around ARISE themes of safety, education, work, play and pride, they were paraded through Freetown as part of a streetlighting opening ceremony. The 60 small LED lights used to illuminate the lanterns were then given away to the participating children afterwards enabling them to navigate at night more safely and do their homework in the evenings. Local midwifes were given the larger lanterns for use on their rounds.
As a part of the project, the team also restored the local primary school (see images 9 & 10 of slide show below), fixing the roof, painting the walls, installing more toilets and painting an educational mural.
