SOLARAID
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Mission Statement
SolarAid is a charity tackling poverty and climate change by building a sustainable market for solar lights in Africa. Solar lamps provide families with safe clean light; improving health, saving money and allowing children to study after dark.
About This Cause
SolarAid is an international charity that combats poverty and climate change by providing access to solar lights in some of the most remote regions of the world and building a movement to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa by the end of the decade. We are working towards this goal by selling lights in Malawi, Zambia and Uganda through our social enterprise SunnyMoney, which was founded in 2006. Since then SolarAid and SunnyMoney have sold over 2.2 million solar lights, reaching 11.9 million people reached with clean, safe, renewable solar light SolarAid’s unique ‘trade-not-aid’ model empowers people to choose solar and creates initial demand in poor and rural communities, this approach led to the catalysation of the first African solar markets in Tanzania and Kenya. The problem: 600 million people are still living without electricity across sub-Saharan Africa. They have no choice but to rely on candles, torches and, worst of all, kerosene lamps to escape the dark. These filthy devices are imperilling health, impairing education, wasting household income and emitting astonishingly high amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. These are the world’s poorest people and they have to spend a higher proportion of household income on energy than anyone else on the planet. With the current rate of electrification behind population growth in Africa, people are suffering because they have no choice but to sit in the dark or spend on sub-standard alternatives. The solution: With a solar light, everything changes. These little lamps are safe, clean and affordable. They give off hours of light in the evening so families can earn, learn and feel safe after dark. Just one lamp can transform the fortunes of an entire family and is the first step on an energy ladder to full electrification. When a family switches from a kerosene lamp to a solar lights the impact is significant. Over the 3-5 year lifespan of our solar light: • half the household experiences better health • over 1000 extra study hours are created for children • $126 is saved by families to spend on food, education and livelihoods At SolarAid we are constantly working on innovative ideas and pushing towards affordability whilst the rest of the solar sector moves away from it. We are creating solutions where no one else will act, and going to the poorest communities where no one else will go. We recognised that the solar lights available on the market were still unaffordable to millions of African families and decided to act.