(CNN) -- Eva Walusimbi knows well how it is to live in darkness.
As a community leader in the small town of Mityana, central
Uganda, she's been witnessing the health hazards and financial
strains that a shortage of electricity can bring to people
living in energy poor, rural areas. "Just three miles away from
here, people in the villages don't have electricity -- some of
them use candles, some use kerosene lamps," says Walusimbi, who
runs schools for orphans and disadvantaged children in Uganda.
"One morning there was a kid that was picked from school early
in the morning because her sibling had died in a fire," she
says. "[The kid] had lit a candle in the house and then went
outside to do some other chores, so the candle melted away and
the house was all on fire. By the time that they came back to
see what's going on, the whole house was burned down and the kid
was burned to ashes." In Uganda, some 90% of the population
lives without access to electricity, according to World Bank
figures. Apart from the heal