A Bag of Light Building Futures in Tanzania: Juma Island, July 2026

A Bag of Light Building Futures in Tanzania: Juma Island, July 2026

You know when you’re scrolling on Instagram, come across something and think – “hang on, this is absolutely brilliant”. Well, that’s how we found Soma Bags founded by a young man called Innocent.

The name comes from soma, Swahili for "to learn" or "to study." And the bags do exactly that. They're school bags with a small solar panel sewn in, connected to a little lamp that fits inside. Kids walking to school in the day passively charge their lamp, which they can then use in the evening to do homework, read, or study. Life-changing in places where electricity doesn't exist.

We decided to reach out to its founder, Innocent, to tell him how awesome his product was and how impressed we were with the work he was doing and the impact it was having. Before long, we were talking about a collaboration and how we could support his work.

What we didn't know at the time was that Innocent had just returned from a trip that had shaken him. He'd visited a remote community and seen something that broke his heart: children from different families, gathering in the evenings to share a single solar lamp so they could study. He wanted to help immediately but didn't have the resources. Our reaching out to him was perfectly timed.

To be clear, this isn't how Soma Bags usually operates. Normally, orders take weeks to plan and execute as materials need sourcing, production needs scheduling. But Innocent had already identified the need and was simply waiting for support to meet it. So when we said yes, he was ready to move.

Within 24 hours before we had even sent a penny, he had commissioned the production of 50 bags by his team based in Mwanza, Tanzania. These aren't factory-made—they're hand crafted from used cement bags from Twiga, Tanzania's largest cement company. Each one is different, each one repurposed, and each one built to last up to four years with proper care.

Within 48 hours, the bags were ready.

By the 72-hour mark, Innocent and his assistant were travelling to Juma island – in the middle of Lake Victoria, to make the distribution.

Juma Island is a tiny patch of land in Lake Victoria, Tanzania. It's not the kind of place you can just pop over to – it takes a two-hour rickety boat ride from Mwanza and an overnight stay as the boat only runs once a day. There's no formal power grid on Juma - just families living quietly, and kids trying to study however they can.

As mentioned, Innocent from Soma Bags had visited before. They'd distributed bags to some children there, but not nearly enough! So, on a warm Saturday morning on Juma island, Innocent and his assistant made their rounds to nearby houses, visiting door to door, handing out bags and showing the kids and their parents how the solar panel works, how to charge the lamp, how to make it last.