IN KENYA
John Ngunjiri
Technical Manager
John is Mr Mwezi light. He leads on assembling the solar lights, servicing them and fixing broken ones. He has been with us since the beginning, in 2014. John provides a weekly stock report and liaises with the directors regarding component orders.
Julia Akinyi
Schools Manager
Julia has been with us since 2019. As a schools manager she is responsible for bringing new schools into the Mwezi solar light programme, and looking after the schools which already have lights. In term-time she usually travels twice a week to 5-6 schools each day, spending the rest of the time communicating with teachers and keeping her reports and photos up to date. Julia visits each school at least twice a year.
Antony Kiarie
Country Manager
Antony is responsible for delivering our Mwezi lights project in Kenya. He ensures that there are enough lights in stock to distribute and that our funds are spent wisely. With a background in field research, Antony also works closely with Biasha to report back to donors on the difference their funding is making. He manages the team and liaises with the UK directors, as well as running his own portfolio of schools.
David Oluoch
Technical Assistant
David joined us in January 2024 to help with the increasing volume of Mwezi lights being manufactured and fixed to be redonated. He has a degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Mombasa and has spent several years working as an electrical technician.
Biasha Said
Schools & Media Manager
Biasha has a diploma in supply chain management, and experience in graphic design and social media. In addition to her own portfolio of schools, she produces all our social media content, and works closely with Antony to ensure that we produce timely and informative donor reports.
Our teachers
Kenya
The teachers in the schools that we support are the real leaders of the Mwezi solar lights project. They manage the distribution of lights amongst their students deciding who has a light – and devising the most effective rotation system for their school. They complete regular audits, where they collect in all the lights and photograph them, to show the Mwezi schools managers how many they still have, and follow up on any that are lost. They also report on how many lights are faulty and need replacing. They communicate with the schools managers by WhatsApp and email, liaising over visits. They also have a direct link to the UK directors through WhatsApp. This all takes them time and requires use of their mobile data, and we are grateful for their dedication.
IN THE UK
Mike Hamblin
Purchasing Director
Mike is the original director of the Mwezi Foundation, having been involved since its incorporation in 2014. He is responsible for sourcing components from all around the world, including Kenya, to ensure that John can keep manufacturing lights. This is not as easy as it sounds!
His career was first as a barrister and then as a solicitor, starting his own legal practice, which he ran for 20 years before his retirement in 2013.
For many years Mike has been involved in fundraising for charities with the Round Table and as trustee of several other charities, including his local Citizens Advice Bureau and Handybus scheme.
Mike spent his early years in Aden and East Africa and has always travelled extensively, globally and in Africa. He has a keen interest in using green technologies to address energy needs, poverty, and environmental and educational issues.
Claire Paye
Management Director
Claire joined the Mwezi Foundation in 2015. Her role is the day-to-day management of the team in Mombasa and overview of the schools within the Mwezi lights programme. She also works hard to provide feedback to donors, including photos of the lights they have funded and the children receiving those lights.
Claire’s day job is marketing director for a small M&A consultancy. She has considerable experience of travel in Africa, having grown up in South Africa and The Gambia, as part of a diplomatic family, and then having led UK trade missions across Africa. She is familiar with the ‘challenges’ of operating in Africa and so helps ensure the Mwezi Foundation works at a grassroots level, in direct contact with the beneficiary schools, which she finds to be the most efficient and effective way of helping the next generation.
Ali Miller
Trustee | Finance Director
Ali joined Mwezi in 2025 as our Finance Director, bringing over 25 years of experience from a career in clinical research, aiming to make an impact on people’s lives. Ali has heard much about the journey of the Mwezi Foundation and is excited to join the team and make a tangible difference in the lives of young learners, empowering them to continue their education at night.
Martin Keat
Trustee | Human Resources Director
Martin joined Mwezi in 2025, keen to contribute his experience and passion to our important work. He works for a charity that works to improve STEM education in schools across the UK. He also has 30 years’ experience of development, environmental and human rights work across Africa, the Middle East and South America, including work with the UN and the late Desmond Tutu.
Martin’s working life began as a volunteer on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in 1993. He is intent on rediscovering his Kiswahili as he lends his help to the Mwezi Foundation from his home in the South Pennines.
One of his Martin’s favourite proverbs from his time in Tanzania is ‘Mtoto umleavyo ndivyo akuavyo‘, or ‘The way you raise a child is the way they will become’ – which fits well for Mwezi.
Will Durigan
Trustee | Design Engineer
Will was brought into Mwezi in 2021 in order to provide technical assistance with the development of a new Mwezi solar light.
He redesigned the injection-moulded casing to provide further protection for the electronic components, a much simplified assembly, continued compatibility with the same tried and tested components and easy access for maintenance.
He has worked as a product designer for a variety of lighting companies and remains on hand for any technical assistance Mwezi requires.
Will currently lives in Vietnam where he eats noodle soup and looks after his two young children.
Juliet Chalk
Development Manager
Juliet ensures that the Mwezi Foundation can afford to keep growing and donating lights by finding funds that will support us and filling in a multitude of applications. She is always on the lookout for new sources of income, whether from trusts and foundations, corporate donors or individual giving. She also seeks to network with other charities working in similar fields, to harness and promote best practice and to keep learning.
OUR PATRONS
George Nash MBE
George is Mwezi’s resident Olympian. He won a Gold medal in the men’s four at the Rio 2016 Olympics and a bronze medal in the men’s pair at the London 2012 Games.
George is the managing director of an engineering firm in Surrey and is passionate about simple, robust product design.
“The Mwezi Foundation light is a brilliant example of how an innovative, simple design can transform people’s lives not only through the primary use of the device in schools and homes but also through the service and redistribution of the product. I believe wholeheartedly in the Mwezi Foundation mission and am honoured to be a part of the team.”
Alan Pover CMG
“In my career in the Diplomatic Service I spent a good deal of my overseas service in developing countries. I travelled widely in Africa as a Foreign Office inspector, and was finally High Commissioner in The Gambia where a main function was support for a wide-ranging overseas aid programme. I have always been in favour of the leaky bucket approach to official government aid although, like many, have had some reservations about its direction and application.
As a proud patron of the grassroots Mwezi lights programme I have no reservations. This is not a feel-good activity. Providing lights to allow students to work after nightfall in homes without electricity (truly ‘disadvantaged’ pupils in our vernacular) is quite clearly a benefit in itself and, importantly, its effects can be measured in the successes and progress of students in moving through the Kenyan educational system.
It is important also that the work on the ground is being done by local people who know the conditions and capabilities of the schools. Inevitably there are frustrations and problems in guiding the operation from afar but my overriding impression is that the admirable Mwezi programme is successful and deserves to continue to thrive.”
Andrew Bourne
“I’m a specialist recruiter/head-hunter who focuses on Africa 100% of the time. All the effort and focus is for me to find jobs for people across the whole of the African continent: I find locals, diasporas and expats for senior-level positions across a multitude of sectors. How did I get into this niche? Well, like most things it happened by chance, when a client in Liverpool asked me find a CFO for a job in Lagos – at the time I wasn’t sure if he meant in Portugal or Nigeria. I did the job and later on met the Chairman and Chief Executive of the company; this tuned me in to Africa and set the lightbulb flashing. Twenty-five years on, I’ve developed a busy business that covers the whole of the continent and, not only that, I’ve developed friends and contacts all over Africa.
When I was asked to be a patron and support Mwezi, for me it was a no-brainer. Over the years I’ve run many marathons for my charity of choice, Oxfam, but with Mwezi I could see exactly where the money was going to and I could see the benefits. It resonated instantly with me that it supports job creation and also helps school children in Africa so they can see at night-time – something that in Europe it’s difficult to understand with our reliable resources and utilities. What could be a better charity to support than the Mwezi Foundation? I am absolutely delighted to be associated with something so good as this.”
Noel Munga
Noel is the Mwezi Foundation’s Impact Advocate. He is uniquely qualified for this role, as a former Mwezi light beneficiary who truly has maximised the opportunity offered. You can read Noel’s full story, in his own words, here. When Mwezi lights arrived at his school in 2018, Noel led a group of friends in an intensive study programme that involved sleeping at school overnight, often going without an evening meal, and getting up at 4.30am each day for extra study. He went on to win a scholarship to one of Kenya’s top high schools, and is now studying Computer Science at Kenyatta University. Noel has already designed an app to predict disease in crops like tomatoes, which was directly inspired by witnessing the daily farming struggles in his community. He was even able to present his app to an international audience in July 2025, after winning a bursary to travel to the London International Youth Science Forum, hosted by Imperial College.
Noel credits access to a Mwezi light as the start of his success.
“I know I’ve come on this path because of the Mwezi Foundation and the light. The light has just been shining in my life. That is where the journey started – that one simple solar lamp that I got many years ago. Thank you.“
