By Simon Doble | Founder and Global CEO
Lights illuminating lives in Cambodia
Let's meet the children from Tray Primary & Secondary school.
Their school experience is a bit different from what your time at school may have been, as theirs is located in a floating village along the Sangke River in Cambodia. This is an area that experiences energy poverty, and so as you can imagine, school can be quite challenging.
Last month, 393 of our lights were delivered to the hands of these children. We could not have done this without the help of our valued on-the-ground partner Prek Toal Moving Ahead. They are a non-profit organisation that shares a similar value with people like you and me in giving children opportunity through energy. Your lights will allow these students to continue learning and completing their school exercises at night, as well as significantly reducing the cost of electricity for their parents.
Reducing energy poverty is a crucial part of solving climate change and lifting people out of energy poverty will reduce negative health, educational, and economic outcomes.
It is essential that we address both the social and environmental factors of this climate emergency simultaneously. We must do this at scale and we must do it now.
Please consider donating today to end extreme energy poverty.
Ring that bell!!
For me personally, one of the most exciting moments in what we do is moments like these, when so many people have come together, including people like you, to ensure 3000 lights can start their journey to children in Papua New Guinea.
Our partner, PNG Gulf Association of Queensland, will make sure these arrive safely into the hands of children who need them. In the Gulf Province of PNG, remote villages and towns have little to no energy infrastructure. A light from us will have an immediate positive impact, providing light to study and also security and comfort for children moving around villages at night.
Lights leaving SolarBuddy
Meet StudentBuddy
Something I am extremely proud of happened recently.
The team attended the Design and Technology Teachers Association Conference, to launch our brand-new product, StudentBuddy.
From 2012-2015 I spent time living across different regions in Africa, learning in the field, how energy poverty affects children. While the lighting was obviously a main factor, something I expected less was how important the charging of devices is.
I saw firsthand how children, and often girls, were forced to walk long distances and pay large amounts to charge their families’ devices in town. This took away from their learning time at school, and often put them in dangerous situations. As a result, StudentBuddy was designed, developed, and now launched, which provides not only solar lighting but two USB charging ports!
Let's talk about Sustainable Development Goals
I made it my mission to make sure all our actions here at SolarBuddy are aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), an agreement for which we should all strive, to reach peace and equality for all people and the planet by 2030 and onward. As a valued donor, you have shown you are individually taking steps to reach this, and I couldn’t be more grateful that people like you exist.
Through our mission of gifting millions of lights to children living in energy poverty, we strongly align with Goal #3, Good Health and Well-being for all. Here's why.....
A staggering 3.8 million people die each year from illnesses caused by exposure to toxic sources of light, and 32% of them are children under 5!
Mothers and young children are far more at risk of developing these illnesses, due to spending more time indoors completing domestic duties.
Mothers who are exposed to indoor air pollutants are at a far higher risk of delivering babies with abnormal and fatal lung conditions.
The positive news? Just one of solar light, generously gifted through the support of people like you, positively impacts the health of a family of 5 – it offsets 166 CO2kgs of toxic and pollutive carbon emissions, and has the potential to improve the health of women and children by 60%!
Do you want to help deliver on the UN SDGs and see future generation thrive? Please consider donating today.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for playing your important part in the journey with us to lift millions of people around the world out of energy poverty.
Simon Doble
Founder and Global CEO
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