We’re excited to announce some amazing news about the impact of your donation. In 2013 every £5 donated helped us get one solar light into the hands of a family in Africa. This year that cost has fallen to just £3 – meaning that all donations to SolarAid will have nearly twice the impact.
We help create opportunities for rural families to invest in solar lights as an alternative to dangerous, costly kerosene. Our social enterprise SunnyMoney sells these solar lights at a full but fair market price so that we can stimulate the growth of fully sustainable market.
This cost reduction from £5 to £3 is significant because it demonstrates that our model is working. Getting solar lights to remote rural areas and raising awareness about their benefits is both costly and challenging. But over the last year SunnyMoneys’ distribution chains have become more established, demand has been created and lights are selling faster – allowing us to order lights in larger quantities and reduce distribution costs significantly.
This is cause for celebration because it shows that as solar lights become more popular, SunnyMoney becomes more efficient and our business based model will increasingly reach more people.
This does not affect the cost of the light directly as SunnyMoney must continue to sell solar lights at a full market price in order to encourage local entrepreneurs and other organisations to enter the market. We want local people to begin to stock and sell solar lights so that they become permanently available in rural communities across Africa.
Just like Anosisye Mwamsiku – a solar agent who has already sold £350 worth of solar lights in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. The cost of solar products must offer a reasonable profit for entrepreneurslike Ano to be able to make a living and for this market to be fully sustainable.
SunnyMoney can now get more solar lights to where they need to be, and quicker. This is vital if we’re to keep up with the growing demand and get more families switched on to affordable, clean, safe solar lighting.
Our business based approach does not compromise our social goal – it means we will get there faster and have a bigger impact. Your donation is invested into our social enterprise and recycled time and time again. This will be the key to eradicating the kerosene lamp by 2020. As Nobel peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus once said “Charity money has only one life but if you transform it into business money, then it becomes a life of eternity.”
If you would like to make a donation and see your gift stretch twice as far you can do so here.