Bring light to the children of Kenya

Help us provide a 100 solar lamps to the school children of Olgulului Primary School and their families. For USD 55 you can provide a solar lamp that replaces kerosene, a dirty and expensive fuel that still is the primary way of lighting homes in Sub-Saharan Africa.

By making the change from kerosene to our solar lamps:

• Students have access to clean light to do homework after sunset resulting in a 25-50% improvement of grades on average
• Families are not exposed to the harmful effects of kerosene fumes: It slowly suffocates you, scars your lung tissue for life, especially if you are a child, and gives you a headache
• Families save an average of USD 180 per year on kerosene and mobile charging

Through GIVEWATTS’s self-sustaining business model, an autonomous micro-market is created generating new jobs while producing all the benefits above. Our initial purchase of 100 lamps will get the self-sustaining business model started.



Olgulului Primary School

The Olgulului Primary School is located next to the Amboseli National Park in the Amboseli region of Kenya, just at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro. The school has a total 442 pupils, 248 boys and 194 girls, from 7 to 15 years old. The area is off-grid and the most common source of light is from firewood and in some cases kerosene (paraffin), making it difficult for pupils to do homework when they get home. Currently the school has set up some boarding facilities where children can work after school under kerosene light.

The students have a 5-day week in school and sometimes have remedial/makeup classes on Saturdays. Most of the students miss on average 2-3 days a month from school with a high occurrence from the boys who are left at home to look after the cattle on market days. Currently boys are performing slightly better due to the fact that girls face more challenges in this area, with more household work after school.

GIVEWATTS

There are more than 1.5 billion, mostly young, people on our planet that don’t have access to electricity, or almost 1 out of 4. GIVEWATTS is a non-profit organization that brings renewable energy solutions to off-grid rural areas of Africa, replacing firewood and kerosene, both costly and dangerous for the health and the environment. GIVEWATTS promotes an innovative self-sustaining business model centered around schools providing solar lamps to students and their families in Kenya.

So far we have issued 3’000 solar lamps:

• Reaching 15'000 people
• Improving school grades by 25-50% in the first 6-12 months
• Saving each family $180 per year on kerosene and mobile phone charging
• And reducing CO2 generated by 200 - 400 kg per year

In 2014, we anticipate a reduction of 1,500 tonnes of CO2 . Plus a savings in fossil fuel imports of US$ 780 000 for Kenya

Business Model

GIVEWATTS has created a distribution channel through a network of schools and entrepreneurs, here is how it works:

1. We use your donation to buy solar lamps
2. The lamps are delivered to the selected school that is run by a head teacher and the Parents Teacher Association (PTA).
3. The PTA assigns a lamp to each child for them to take home and do homework. Initially the lamp is borrowed by the student, but with the option to buy it.
4. The families that choose to purchase the lamp pay with small installments and the school can keep a margin on the sale. Until the lamp is fully paid the solar charger stays at school
5. The PTA collects the funds and once a lamp is paid in full that money is used by GIVEWATTS to buy a new lamp and start the cycle again.