Women with little formal education trained to become solar technicians, transforming villages and tackling patriarchal norms

In a dimly lit corridor of a mud-walled house nestled among coconut trees, Sharifa Hussein stripped red and black cables, a screwdriver voltage tester balanced between her lips and rolls of cable lying by her feet.

Then, with the help of three other women, she attached the two wires to an electronic device nailed on the wall.