Light Education Development

Light Education Development (LED) was founded by mountain guide and climber Val Pitkethly in the late 1990s. The charity’s mission is to provide affordable solutions to three basic needs: affordable and sustainable solar lighting; basic education and essential healthcare.  

Light, Education and Development

LED operates in the remote and impoverished mountain communities of Nepal and Peru where Val has built key relationships, founded on mutual trust and spanning over 20 years, with the local communities. Staffed by volunteers, the charity's achievements to date include:

• supplying over 4,000 solar lights to families in remote mountain areas;
• establishing two schools and annually providing essential school supplies and equipment to over 20 moountain schools;
• founding a permanent health clinic in the Cordillera Blanca region of Peru; operating mobile health clinics in Nepal and Peru which treat minor ailments and provide basic training in first aid and hygiene.

Keswick Rotary and LED

We have been supporting the charity since 2017. Each year we aim to raise sufficient funds to equip a whole community with solar lights. 

For much of the year in these mountainous regions, darkness descends in late afternoon. With no electricity or other form of lighting, communities rely on kerosene lamps, which are expensive and damaging to health; or wood fires which fuel deforestation.

LED’s solar lights provide a low-tech solution which not only counteracts these disadvantages but brings additional benefits; enabling school children to do their homework and has even contributed to a a significant lowering in birth rates!

Lights are distributed via mountain treks, organised each year by Val, or through a trusted network of local guides who are also trained in the maintenance and repair of the lighting units.