Studying by the light of the oil lamp a challenge in Senegal

Surging oil and gasoline prices in Africa usually weigh most heavily on the emerging urban middle class, making it a struggle to put fuel in cars and to pay home electricity bills. In Senegal, the energy shock is starting to filter down to isolated rural areas, where illiterate parents hoping their children will have a better life through education are worrying about how to put fuel in oil lamps so their children can do their homework. “It is very difficult, because at night, we need to make light but there has not been any petrol in the area since last year,” said Abba Diallo, president of the Parent–Teacher Association in Thiancone Boguel, a town in northeastern Senegal, some 690 kilometers from the capital, Dakar. Read the article at IRIN News.