SolarBuddy.org

The Elevate Prize would allow Impact funding & support to accelerate our growth in solving the issue for children living in extreme energy poverty - currently affecting 1 in 5 people.  The funding would be used towards growing our footprint in the USA & India.

In the USA where we already have charity status we require a team to be built significantly accelerating raising both awareness on the issue of energy poverty and reaching our goal of donating 6M lights to children in the developing world.  In India we have started building our second manufacturing site built as a social enterprise and these funds would once again accelerate impact for both the local communities by providing equal opportunities and the impact a solar light can have in the hands of children & their families.

The support awarded with the funding would be invaluable across markets and skill sets in our global operations which we currently do not have in-house.

Both funding & assistance as demonstrated in the graph below would substantially increase our impact.  The impact in lights alone would increase and would be even greater through our second goal of raising awareness to 6M people in the developed world. 

I started SolarBuddy after reading a TIME magazine article describing Energy Poverty as the worst kind of poverty.  With three children of my own I couldn't imagine them unable to study, have a safe environment or be denied the basic joy of reading at night.

This is why I started SolarBuddy, a Brisbane based charity focused on placing 6M SolarBuddy lights into the hands of children living in extreme energy poverty by 2030 inline with the UN SDG's. Our second goal of educating 6M people on the issue of energy poverty enables us to achieve this. 

Energy poverty impact all aspects of life: education, health, environment & economic. Killing more people each year than Malaria & AIDS combined this is a solvable issue requiring scale.  

While our initial goal is to place 6M lights into the hands of children with the issue affecting 780M people, with capacity funding my vision is to reach 50% of people currently living in extreme energy poverty by 2030.

Research has shown that SolarBuddy lights:

Increase study hours by 78%

Decrease spend of household incomes on kerosene & firewood by 80%

Decrease death caused by indoor pollution

Reduce carbon emissions caused by kerosene lighting

SolarBuddy exists to end energy poverty for 6M children.  We do this through educating 6M people in the developed world about the effects of energy poverty.

Energy Poverty impacts all areas of life:

Education - children unable to study at night

Health - breathing in toxic fumes from firewood and kerosene is the equivalent of smoking two packets of cigarettes a day

Environment - kerosene lanterns producing 190M tonnes of CO2 annually

Economic - 40% of family income is spent on firewood & kerosene

There are currently 780M people living in extreme energy poverty. 

SolarBuddy are focused on solving this issue specifically for children, enabling them to study at night, have better health & economic outcomes to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty they are born into.  Our key focus areas are: India, Cambodia, PNG, Madagascar, Vanuatu, Kenya & Tanzania.

SolarBuddy places a SolarBuddy light into the hands of children which positively impacts 5 people within the family reducing the spend on lighting by 80% and increasing study hours by 78%.  By working with local NGO's we also replace the batteries and responsibly recycle these very 3 years to give the gift of light for life.

SolarBuddy is built on a model of learn, make, illuminate.  

Our programs have a unique approach and continuous model of innovation - to create ongoing impact to those receiving our lights and create meaningful long lasting strategic relationships with our corporate & school partners.  

Our programs educate participants about energy poverty before they are invited to build a light themselves and pen a note to the child receiving their light, fostering personal connection. Donors are able to follow the story of their light/s & the impact created through our 'Stories From the Field' rolling newsletter, and other personal communications.  

Since launching 5 years ago, we have innovated the following benefits to our model:

The yellow buckets in which our lights are shipped are an essential item for classrooms and now come with a tap and water filter, filtering 10,000 litres of water providing clean drinking water.  

We have partnered with NGO's in each country we operate to facilitate a replacement battery program every 3 years (which are recycled) to create a light for life.

StudentBuddy is SolarBuddy's next innovation - a more advanced system integrated with USB charging capacity and more powerful lighting, designed for high school students.

In 5 years SolarBuddy has positively impacted close to 1M lives, created 900+ million hours of light, offset 20,150 C02e tonnes, and saved families up to 80% on kerosene.

SolarBuddy is now in a position to significantly accelerate impact.

With charity status in AUS, UK, India & USA we are able to provide global partnership opportunities for some of the worlds largest corporations, forming Partnerships for the Goals.

Our impact has double opportunity, creating a change in the developing world whilst generating corporate & individual impact through our focus on educating 6M people.

We focus on dealing with the cause, not just the symptoms. Energy poverty is an issue which can be solved. Ending poverty at large can not be achieved without ending energy poverty. By providing children with safe lighting we enable them to study 78% longer, have improved health & economic outcomes and have a positive impact on the planet. 

We know that educating future generations is key to ending poverty and creating a sustainable future, for planet and people. That is why we provide access to education for children living in energy poverty, and educate others about energy poverty and sustainable solutions to this global issue.