SolarAid Grant
In March 2016, The Rogovy Foundation partnered with the international development charity SolarAid to reach over 38,000 people with life-changing solar lights in the Western and Rift Valley provinces of Kenya.
SolarAid enables access to clean and affordable energy through its social enterprise, SunnyMoney, which seeks to create trust and demand for solar lights in rural Africa through its ‘trade-not-aid’ model.
93% of the rural population in Kenya does not have access to electricity. Most families resort to using the toxic kerosene lamp to light their homes at night. Kerosene only serves to imperil health, impair education, waste household income and emit astonishingly high amounts of carbon.
A small affordable solar light changes everything. Each solar light means a child studies one hour extra each evening. Parents can use the significant savings each year on better food, education or farming inputs. Health improves and life gets better.
“[Since the solar light] my lifestyle has changed, my kids eat well, study well and we are a happy family now.” -Dickson Murumbi in Kenya
The Rogovy Foundation has provided a grant to SolarAid to distribute 7,800 solar lights to empower thousands of families to escape the grinding cycle of poverty.
Over the conservatively estimated three year lifespan of the solar lights, the impact of this partnership will be:
• $2,76 million saved collectively by families to spend on food, schooling and to invest in their futures.
• 7.96 million extra study hours for children to improve their education.
• 11,721 tons of carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide equivalent emissions averted.
• 28,388 people experiencing better health because they are using a clean and renewable energy source.
More information available on their website and Facebook Page.
Photo by Patrick Bentley