ACLENet is a pan-African Network of Centres dedicated to decreasing deaths, injuries and property damage from lightning.
With your help, we can save lives and make a difference.
NEW SECTION - Gallery of Schools protected by ACLENet and Donors like you.
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Most Africans have no 'lightning safe' place they can go to when thunderstorms occur.
In the US, we say 'When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors' but that is the WRONG thing to say in sub-Saharan Africa where nearly 90% of the dwelling are made of sheet metal or mud brick with roofs of generations-old, tinder dry thatch or metal sheets held down by rocks and tires in the mistaken belief that the 'rubber' tires will protect from lightning strikes.
Even when people move to the city in search of employment, they will often live in 'shantytowns' like Soweto, South Africa, for many years before they can establish themselves and afford better housing.
For those in rural areas, lightning can cause a temporary paralysis that can prevent even the healthiest people from escaping their homes, resulting in death as parts of the burning thatch roof falls on them. There are many news reports in developing countries of neighbors responding to screams but being unable to rescue their friends due to the intensity of the lightning ignited fire.
Uganda Countryside 2018, photo Mary Ann Cooper
A lightning protection system was installed at Nkurungiro School in 2017 following many deaths from lightning in the community.
The Head Teacher writes:
- Our children are now studying very well without fear when it rains.
- The community around are no longer fearing to take shelter at our school; in fact, if it rains they all want to take shelter there because our place has been known as safer place due to your systems.
ACLENet has maintained a Guidestar Gold Seal for transparency since 2017. Less than 2% of the organizations listed on this
Ludwig Family FoundationLudwig Family Foundation has awarded ACLENet a $99,908 grant to protect 3 model schools in Uganda that will offer lightning safety education to teachers, students, parents and local officials in their districts. It will also allow us to decrease the cost of lightning protection for schools by assembling a list of locally sourced materials to avoid expensive imports and to design a set of lightning protection 'templates' for typical school buildings instead of designing each one separately. The Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports has helped by giving us the architectural plans for the new schools they are building and several experienced lightning protection specialists have volunteered their help as well.
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