A Lantern can grow.

One Lantern teaches 24 children at a time, and about 150 share its seats across the week. Some villages need more. When the seats are full and children are waiting nearby, a Lantern can grow into a campus, piece by piece.

Help light a Lantern Talk to us about a founding campus

Planned. No Lantern has grown yet, so every new piece on this page is planned and none is built.

Design visualization of the Lantern: the classroom with the facilitator’s home above, its solar roof and first canopy — Design visualization of the Lantern with its first canopy, not a photograph

Watch one village grow.

Scroll, and a village that needs more places to learn grows around its first Lantern. Each piece prints onto the sheet as it arrives.

Design visualization at dusk: a Lantern grows into a campus of four classrooms round a courtyard, with canopies, two Wash Houses, a second home and a fenced Power Station — Design visualization of an illustrative campus at dusk, not a real village and not a plan for any site

Design visualization of the Lantern — Design visualization of an illustrative campus at dusk, not a real village and not a plan for any site

One Lantern: a classroom, a home above it, and its own light.
Its canopy grows to full length: more power for the evening, shade below.
A second classroom faces it across a courtyard: 24 more seats.
A Wash House: proper toilets and clean water for two classrooms.
Two more classrooms, a second home and a second Wash House close the ring.
A Power Station for the nights, and every window lit.

First, the timetable.

A Lantern grows only when the timetable is full. Until then, more seats would sit empty, and the money would light the next village instead.

It grows when

the seats are in use at least 85% of opening hours for eight weeks running,
about 40 children who live within walking distance are waiting,
and a trusted adult is ready to lead the new room.

Otherwise, the next village gets a Lantern. Walking distance is the whole idea.

Seat times

Form VL-T

Open: Six days a weekDaytime hours, typically 09:00 to 17:00
Seats: 24 at a timeOne learning station each
Seat-hours: 1,152 a week24 seats × 8 hours × 6 days
Children: About 150Enrolled, sharing the seats across the week

Every piece, and what it costs to keep.

A Lantern grows in five kinds of piece. Turn a stamp over for what is inside, when it is added, and what it costs to build and to keep lit.

The LanternVL-C1Lanternfrom$180k
CampusVL-C3Canopyfrom$22.5kPlanned, not yet built
CampusVL-C2Classroomfrom$120.5kPlanned, not yet built
CampusVL-C5Wash Housefrom$52kPlanned, not yet built
Wash House
VL-C5 · Planned
Contents
Four toilets with locking doors, one of them accessible, a urinal, drinking water that is treated and tested, handwashing, and a separate adults’ toilet.
Added when
One for every two classrooms, where the borehole can supply it and a cleaner is paid from day one.
To build
$52,000 to $60,500
To keep lit
about $340 to $450 a month more
Talk to us about funding it: Wash House
CampusVL-C4Facilitator Homefrom$28kPlanned, not yet built
CampusVL-C6Power Stationfrom$70kPlanned, not yet built

Planning estimates, October 2026, for a Lantern in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya or Rwanda. A piece is built only where a Lantern’s data shows the need.

Design visualization of each piece, not photographs

Explore a whole campus.

Here is one way a fully grown campus could look. Choose a number to light up that part of it.

Design visualization of an illustrative campus at dusk, not a real village and not a plan for any site

Design visualization at dusk of a fully grown Lantern campus: four classrooms with solar canopies round a courtyard, a second home, two Wash Houses, a borehole with tanks, a fence and gate, and a fenced Power Station beyond — Design visualization of an illustrative campus at dusk, not a real village and not a plan for any site

The whole campus

Illustrative, not a plan

Four classrooms, about 600 children.

To build and run for three years: About $795,000
To keep lit after that: About $5,360 a month

Example costs for a campus in Edo State, Nigeria, planning estimates, October 2026.

Joined at the perforations.

Each classroom is complete on its own. Buildings are joined the way stamps are: close, connected, and still able to stand alone.

Illustration of how campus buildings join, not a wiring diagram

Power by cable
Every building keeps its own roof, inverter and battery. A cable lets a building with sun to spare carry a neighbour. Batteries are never shared.
Lessons by fibre
Buildings talk over fibre, and each classroom’s dish backs up the next, so lessons and sync carry on if one link drops.
One failure stays local
If one classroom’s power or computers fail, the others carry on. A classroom could even be moved to the next village.

The pieces that change a village most.

Design visualization of a full solar canopy along a classroom’s long side, with a bench and a ball in its shade — Design visualization of the Canopy on a classroom, not a photograph

The Canopy

More solar than a roof can hold. It charges the Lantern’s batteries and keeps the lights and computers running into the evening. Underneath is shade for play and for village evenings, and its gutter fills the rain tank. Whatever power the Lantern doesn’t use goes on to the public building next door.

See its stamp: Canopy Talk to us about funding it: Canopy

CampusVL-C3Canopy$22.5kTo build$22,500 to $27,000To keep litabout $100 to $130 a month more

The Wash House

Four toilets with doors that lock, girls’ privacy, one accessible toilet and a urinal, drinking water that is filtered, treated and tested, and handwashing on the way out. Its air is pulled out above the roof so it stays fresh, and a paid cleaner keeps it that way. Adults have their own toilet beside it.

See its stamp: Wash House Talk to us about funding it: Wash House

CampusVL-C5Wash House$52kTo build$52,000 to $60,500To keep litabout $340 to $450 a month more

The Power Station

For a full campus only: a battery house and a fenced field of panels that carry the nights, the pumps and the Wash Houses. It charges the campus first. Only what the campus doesn’t use goes to the public building, and it is built only where a load study shows the need.

See its stamp: Power Station Talk to us about funding it: Power Station

CampusVL-C6Power Station$70kTo build$70,000 to $86,000To keep litabout $340 to $410 a month more

Every campus starts with one Lantern.

Help light the next one. Or, if your village needs more than one classroom from the start, talk to us about a founding campus.