Solar lighting for emergency shelters: Field insights from Ukraine
In summer 2025, BRIGHT deployed 710 solar lamps across Ukrainian emergency shelters, schools and displacement settings. Field monitoring data from Kharkiv shows how solar lighting supports safety, mobility and education continuity in conflict-affected environments.
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![Repair trainees learn how to fix solar lamp PCBs as part of BRIGHT’s humanitarian e-waste programme.]()
- Sustainability
- Field work
- Humanitarian
- Repair
- Insights
Why producer engagement is important for solving the e-waste challenge in displacement settings: Lessons from Cox’s Bazar
Solar lamp producers who supply humanitarian organisations in displacement settings have a critical role in supporting organisations managing electronic waste (e-waste). Explore how BRIGHT’s Repair Program supported impactful repair initiatives in Cox’s Bazar Kutupalong settlement.
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![BRIGHT solar lamp Repair Program in Bidibidi Uganda. Group photo of E-waste Management project participants, featuring representatives from BRIGHT and IOM (© BRIGHT).]()
- Stories
- Sustainability
- Field work
- Humanitarian
- Repair
BRIGHT’s solar lamp Repair Program: A circular economy model for humanitarian e-waste
In Uganda's Bidibidi refugee settlement, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) leads a multi-stakeholder e-waste management project that Norway's Innovation Norway and IOM's own reporting to the UN describe as the leading e-waste initiative in the humanitarian sector — the first comprehensive circular economy model tested in a displacement setting. At its centre is BRIGHT's solar lamp Repair Program, which trains local technicians to turn e-waste into opportunity through repair, refurbishment and battery recovery. Since the project launched in 2022, technicians have collected 11,650 solar lamps, repaired and returned 9,379 to use, and recovered over 20,000 lithium-ion cells for reuse in second-life battery packs. By combining circular economy principles, community ownership and a direct feedback loop into product design, the Repair Program offers a working model for e-waste management in displacement settings — aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).
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![BRIGHT Fieldwork hands on solar lamp repair program in Cox Bazar Bangladesh]()
- Field work
- Sustainability
- Humanitarian
Solar lamp repair & e-waste management in Cox’s Bazar Kutupalong refugee camp
In the heart of the world's largest refugee camp, access to reliable solar energy is more than a convenience, it is a crucial lifeline. Cox's Bazar's Kutupalong settlement, home to nearly one million Rohingya refugees, faces ongoing challenges from a long-running humanitarian crisis and increasingly frequent climate-related disasters. Recognising this, BRIGHT has made it a priority to improve access to sustainable solar lighting and energy in the camp by talking with end-users, understanding the e-waste challenge in the settlement, and by providing hands-on training on solar lamp repair.
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