Richard Turere ~ Lights to protect livestock from KENYA
Ok. Am excited about this one since its from my hometown! Yay!!!
Richard Turere comes from Kitengela, he is a young boy aged 13. His hometown is located next to the Nairobi national park and thus there is a lot of wildlife migration in and out of the park. The lions would usually roam intoTurere’s village at night and kill their herds of goats and cows.
So at age 11 Turere started to think on how he could stop this menance. He had noticed that the lions were generally afraid on light. If at night someone roamed with a flashlight the lions would not attack. Thus Turere started out at his task. He took broken flashlights and rigged up an automated lighting system of four or five torch bulbs around the cattle pen. The bulbs are wired to a box with switches and to an old car battery charged with a solar panel that operates the family television set. The lights don’t point towards the cattle, or on any property, but outwards in the darkness. The light flash then gives the impression that someone is walking around the pen.
Its been 2yrs since he put up the lights and the livestock have not been attacked by lions since.
A simple innovation that has saved lives and money.
Source: Friends of Nairobi National Park