Miguel: October 2009 Archives

We're excited to announce that the Kenya team have just taken delivery of 500 units of our new and improved microsolar product - the Kadzuwa 1000! (Kadzuwa means 'little sun' in Chichewa, a language used widely in Malawi, where the product was first developed).

With harvest time upon us in Kenya we anticipate an increase in seasonal income. We try to adhere to the seasonal patterns of income and so we forecast lower sales figures of microsolar products during the hungry season and higher sales during the harvest season.

SolarChill update
In our last blog, we told you about an exciting new partnership with SolarChill. We're very pleased to announce that the first SolarChill fridge has now been installed in a clinic in Mahuru Bay. This is a pilot testing phase but we hope to be implementing more solar fridges in clinics across Kenya. During this pilot stage we'll be looking in particular at how effective the fridge is, how user-friendly it is and we'll also consider any space issues within the fridge itself. Ultimately we'd like to replace all generator-powered fridges with SolarChill fridges. We'll be prioritising clinics that currently have little or no supplies and resources. Having access to refrigeration opens up many possibilities to these rural services, storing vaccinations and blood samples being just two examples.

Finally, I'll soon be arriving in Nairobi for the start of an extended period in Kenya and Zambia, and so I'll have more updates from the field soon.

Until then!
Miguel