SOLUX Blog - english -

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Eritrea ordered 400 SOLUX Solarlights LED-100 via ASMARA Electric PLC. SOLUX is proud and happy to be of service to the UN. -bk

here’s a brand-new video of our project One Child One Solarlight in Ghana! Many thanks to the producers of this nice youtube clip!

In Sikunda, Gambia, the 700 villagers live without power supply or running water. A few months ago the German charity organisation Yirabah Gambia e.V., based in Borlanden/Germany started a project to bring in some SOLUX solar lights. Leading member Siegfried Ester is pleased that so far funds of 1600 Euros could be raised: “This allowed us to send an initial 60 SOLUX solar lights to the village and sell them using a micro-credit system. The reactions were extremely positive, so we will continue the project”. 

The solar lights allow for a lot of activities after dark which have hardly been possible before, like housework, studying, or social get-togethers in the village. The ability to charge mobile phones with the solar panel is of great importance to the villagers too, since this is the only means of telecommunication in Gambia. Yirabah aims to provide SOLUX solar lights to all households in Sikunda, but there’s still a long way to go.

Siegfried Ester explains his organisations’ self-help approach with an african proverb: ‘if you really want to help somebody, give him a fishing-rod, not a fish’. Yirabah sees donations as the wrong way for sustainable progress and real partnership. That’s why they decided to make the solar lights available through micro credits. The customers have 10 months to pay back the purchase amount - without interest. Yirabah re-invests the money into the project until all households are provided with solar lights.

Some wonderful pictures of a project in Papua New Guinea, where a new workshop for the assembly of SOLUX solar lights was started. Evelin Schwarzer will tell us all about it on Friday March 19 in Munich, EineWeltHaus.

SOLUX solar lights are used worldwide. They are bringing light to the remotest areas of the world.

Check this map (click on it to zoom)  SOLUX map

In Lungi / Sierra Leone a German teacher introduced SOLUX solar lights to his school. Outside the capital Freetown there is no public power supply for the entire country. That means most people have to manage with small diesel generators, which are rare and expensive, kerosene lamps and battery driven torches. Kerosene is very expensive these days. The teacher did the math with his class. Within a year the purchase of a SOLUX LED50 is compensated by the cost savings of not needing to buy kerosene.

In addition, more advantages of LED50 over kerosene were appreciated:

• no matches
• much brighter light than kerosene lamps and all chinese torches available locally
• less weight than a kerosene lamp
• no grime
• charges most cellphones too

Thanks to a spontaneous collection on a birthday party we could send 30 SOLUX solar lights to a children’s home in Haiti. 500 children are living there currently in tents. No lamps. The German Red Cross will take the SOLUX lights to Haiti this weekend. This is just a start. So many more are needed.

The Baobab Children Foundation in Ghana was established in 2001 jointly with a German sister organization. They run the ‘Baobab school for arts and crafts’ in Kissi, a remote bush area in the Central Region of Ghana. Up to 60 children are living in the village. Besides reading and writing the school provides education on practical skills  such as carpentry, bicycle repair and sewing. There’s also room for arts classes like drumming, dancing and painting.

No power supply is provided in the village, and after 06:00pm when the sun goes down there is no light for reading or studying, and the children are left in darkness, listening to the scary noises of the bush.

Human   Cooperations, a NGO based in Austria, stepped up and provided 6 SOLUX solar lights for Baobab.  The purchase went through Solar4Ghana, Accra/Ghana, which was founded by SOLUX e.V. to support the project ‘One Child One SolarLight’.

Want to learn more?

Baobab Children Foundation

Human Cooperations

One Child One Solar Light

Thank you Human Cooparations for sending us this nice report and pictures!

SOLUX lights are designed for the use in developing countries. Meanwhile they are spread all over the world, to the most exotic places. We always appreciate to hear how it goes in the country of destination, how the lights were received and used, how it went to set up a workshop etc. If you are working on a project, went on holiday and brought some SOLUX lights to your relatives and friends, faced some adventures on the road, whatever, send us your impressions, some pictures, some raw data, whatever you have, and we’ll be glad to share it here, for others to enjoy and learn.

Last week we received some notes about a project in San Martin, Peru, amazon region. Two brave Germans were trying to import 200 LED100 assembly kits and set up a workshop. In the end they made it, but it took months and it was quite an adventure. It cost their local contact almost 6 weeks of travel to several provincial cities because the goods were stuck in customs, were re-directed multiple times, and all kinds of logistical problems occured. Dealing with the local authorities was a particular challenge which required supernatural persistence and patience. But, against all odds eventually the assembly kits arrived in the village, and the experienced German instructor could train 15 participants how to build the lamps. 116 lamps could already be produced, although the trainer initially found pretty poor conditions of the location and preparation of the workshop. The roof was licking, the assembly kits could not be stored safely, etc. etc. After the training phase, 4 local individuals were taking responsibility for the workshop going forward. We heard that the locals were extremely happy with the robust lamps providing bright light after dark and the easy usage. Not everybody can afford it though, so we may need to think about some creative ways of financing the purchase.

They came a long way, and in the end it was a big success. Many thanks to everybody involved to make this happen! 

Book Wish Foundation is a U.S. charity organisation with a mission to provide reading relief for people in crisis. In partnership with organizations that work on the ground in some of the most distressed places around the world, they support reading to improve education, mental health, and job training. For reading you need light. So they were considering the LED50 for a refugee camp in eastern Chad and created a very nice video in YouTube. One LED50 provides reading light for 6 students. Have a look!