Get involved!
Everyone can play a role in helping change the lives of Kenyans who rely on kerosene lamps. Here are some ways suggestions:
1. Inform – Talk to those that use kerosene lanterns and recommend that they look into solar lanterns. Lack of awareness in solar lanterns is one of the reasons that people continue to use kerosene lanterns.
2. Give a Solar lantern – If you have family in rural areas, or your support staff including gardners, househelp etc travel back home for the holidays, give them lanterns to take home. It is the gift that keeps on giving. And once their rural relatives have used one, they will find the means to acquire more to meet their needs.
3. Buy one for yourself – Do you go camping? Do you have a flashlight for emergencies in your car, house, office etc? Do you have candles in the house for when there is a black out? If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, replace them with solar lanterns. By purchasing one or several, you are participating in increasing demand for the product. This brings down the overhead costs for manufacturers and distributors and incentivizes investment in the space.
4. Invest in us or other companies in the space. Make an attractive return while helping solve a serious problem. And if ever there was an opportunity that can scale, this is one – you only need to look at the electrification rate and future projections, the projected increase in fossil fuels and the movement towards cleaner technologies.
5. If you run an organization that works with the rural poor, from income generation to healthcare to humanitarian initiatives, if you have a lighting budget, consider solar lanterns. If you have the opportunity to educate, include solar lanterns as part of the education process.
Solar lanterns present numerous benefits that touch on a lot of aspects of the rural poor, including income generation (preservation), health, safety and education.