Project LifeLight set to illuminate African homes -- no electricity required

First it was radios, now lights. The Freeplay Foundation has undertaken a new project -- dubbed LifeLight -- which aims to provide just a few hours of lighting each night to the 500 million or so sub-Saharan Africans without appropriate access to electricity. The idea is to place a wind-up (or foot-pump driven we presume) base station into the home which charges a collection of detachable lights. Similar to the technology behind the 150,000 wind-up Lifeline radios (pictured) they've already distributed. Freeplay hopes to replace expensive and unhealthy kerosene or battery powered lamps currently in use with their low-cost, environmentally safe alternative -- local women will be trained to sell and repair the devices. Prototypes are being readied with tests to begin in Kenya in the "next few months."