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Franz Kies, Solux Member, sends this report from Ghana

In 2008 Solux e.V., the German non-profit organization participated in a competition of the World Bank to provide alternative lighting to Africa: “Lighting Africa”. Solux e.V. won the award and a budget with it to start and run a project “One Child One Solar Light” in Ghana. Now, after one year the World Bank was asking for a report to evaluate the project.

Working with Solux for some time but so far being an outsider to the Ghana project, I was asked to fly to Ghana to evaluate what had been achieved so far.

One of my major tasks was to visit schools in the countryside, specifically in off-grid areas, i.e. areas without access to the electricity grid, where SOLUX solar lights were introduced under the One Child One Solarlight project. Among many others I visited two schools sponsored by the “Gymnasium Neutraubling”, a secondary school in southern Germany. Their sponsorship enabled Solux and our Ghanaian subsidiary Solar4Ghana S4G to subsidise the costs of solar lamps at some selected schools.  So e.g. in Katapar 46 pupils/parents were able to purchase SOLUX solar lights at the reduced cost of € 10.00 instead of the usual € 30.00.

And at an Islamic school I was invited as a special guest to personally hand out each solar lantern to each individual child. At first being rather timid and extremely disciplined, the children started to almost overwhelm me with joy and fun when they experienced me as an accessible person.

And again and again I met extremely motivated young teachers deep in the countryside in areas without any power supply. At night they are using the same sources of light for reading or preparation of lectures as their students, i.e. kerosene lanterns or candles. The pictures show some of these likeable, enthusiastic teachers at Jansu primary school.

I was able to do some good evaluations and statistics to determine the use and value of the SOLUX solar lights in Ghana. A detailed report will be delivered to the World Bank.

To sum it up in a few words:

The objectives set at the beginning of this project were met, the money and the efforts have been well spent. Solux has brought a tremendous improvement to the quality of life for a lot of people in Ghana. So far about 25.000 people, to a great part children, profit from Solux Solar Lights in Ghana. Let’s keep going!!!  Find more pictures here

The SOLUX info-event in the EineWeltHaus Munich was very well received by the audience. People were very interested in the presentation of the SOLUX philosophy and products, as well as in exciting reports of projects in Papua Neuguinea and West Africa. We had a lot of good conversations with potential customers and volunteers. Many thanks to all participants and contributors!

Click here for some pictures

On March 17, 2010 the German National Committee of the UN Decade of Education declared SOLUX’ Ghanaian project  “One Child One Solar Light” an official UN Decade Project.

In 2002 the United Nations (UN) proclaimed the years 2005 to 2014 the World Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. International initiatives in this area intend to help embed the principles of sustainable development in education worldwide. UNESCO has been appointed the international lead agency for the Decade. The German Commission for UNESCO (DUK) is implementing the initiative in Germany with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the patronage of the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Horst Köhler. The DUK declares projects as official UN Decade projects, which prove exemplary sustainable thinking and action to help people achieve a better future.
In the One Child One Solar light program the provisioning of the SOLUX solar lights, and overcoming commercial and logistical challenges are only part of the scope. A comprehensive education campaign, both in Europe and among the consumers in developing countries is making people understand the importance and advantages of ecological sustainability. We are very proud of being honoured by the UNESCO.

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

If you are in the Munich area and speak German, please come! We’ll present SOLUX solar lights and share how they are used around the world. You’ll hear about projects in Papua New Guinea and Ghana. Hope to see you there!

http://www.solux.org/DOCS/SOLUX_EWH_19_3_10_Info.pdf

SOLUX proudly presents: the SOLUX solar radio. Listening to news and music anywhere at any time, with your own eco-friendly power supply. Forget about expensive and polluting batteries! The SOLUX solar radio gives you three choices to charge it:

1. with the built-in solar module when the sun is shining
2.  with a crank handle running the built-in dynamo
3. via USB cable from a laptop

pricing:

• 18,5o€ for 1-9 pieces
• 15,50€ for 10-199 pieces
• 12,50€ for 200 pieces and more

plus VAT and transport

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.

Free offer for schools: we give away various solar panels (1.5W and 3.0W) for demonstration and experimentation purposes. The panels come with frame and cables. Solar lights and adapters are not included.

Give your students a hands-on experience of a really cool technology! Contact us here or at info@solux.org. First come first serve!