Angel Charity Highlight: Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF)
Providing energy access to underserved communities across the globe
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The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is an organization that uses the power of the sun to provide solar energy solutions to those living in some of the poorest places on earth. SELF’s Executive Director, Bob Freling, explains the vital need to bring energy access to the developing world.
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SELF brings solar lights to those who live in energy poverty. Is that right?
This was SELF’s focus in its early years, but over time it became readily apparent that we had to do more than install household lighting systems to truly improve the lives of those who suffer the consequences of energy poverty. Because energy access is foundational to improving food and water security, healthcare, education, economic opportunity, and much more, we now harness solar power to address the energy needs across the board of those who will never be connected to a conventional utility grid. In short, with the help of the sun, we help narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Over the past 30 years, we have provided custom solar solutions in nearly 30 different countries. Our goal has been to design and test replicable and scalable models that can be widely shared throughout the developing world. If you would like to learn more about SELF and the projects that we have done, please look at our annual reports, as well as the project highlights found on our website.
How do you decide what solar solutions will best fit the needs of a community?
SELF depends upon the communities where we work to tell us what they need. For example, we were invited to work in the Kalalé Commune in northern Benin, a region that suffers drought conditions six months out of the year. In the course of our initial discussions with the local community, it became clear that their top concern was the lack of food, especially during the six-month dry season that runs from November through April each year. Without water to irrigate crops, hunger and malnutrition would continue to plague the people of this region.
Our solution to this endemic problem was the Solar Market Garden (SMG) — a combination of solar water pumping and drip irrigation technology that enabled local farming cooperatives to grow nutritious crops year-round. We were invited to present the project at the 2015 Climate Summit in Paris as a replicable innovation that helped to mitigate the impacts of climate change on food security. Since the project’s implementation, solar drip irrigation systems are commonplace throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Women farmers in Kalalé have now been able to grow enough food to both feed their families and sell surplus produce at the markets — providing them with an opportunity to maintain a steady income for the first time in their lives. This has allowed them to pay for their children’s education and healthcare. They have found that the nutrients from their gardens have made a dramatic improvement in their children’s health. Meet little Bana to see the results for yourself:
What is SELF currently working on?
We are working with the Rape Hurts Foundation in Uganda to find ways to reduce the instances of sexual assault against women and girls in the region. Oftentimes they must walk miles through the bush in search of water and firewood for their families. The solution was to build a solar-powered water station in the village and introduce solar cookstoves in place of wood fires to reduce the need for women and girls to leave their community in search of these resources. Since the start of these interventions, local police have cited a 30% reduction in reported sexual assaults in Bukyerimba, where the Rape Hurts Foundation is located. We expect those numbers to continue to improve over the coming year as additional elements of the project are implemented.
SELF is also in the process of completing the installation of 24 solar-powered water stations in northern Benin to make it safer for women and girls to collect water in Kalalé Commune. This project will also help to reduce the likelihood of contracting water-borne diseases that account for one fifth of the death and disease in Benin every year. In addition to installing 24 water stations, we will distribute solar direct-drive, battery-free vaccine refrigerators to health clinics in each of five villages in Kalalé Commune. The refrigerators will be monitored to make sure vaccines are kept at a constant temperature to guarantee their efficacy until they are administered. This technology is a critical public health tool to fight COVID and other potential pandemics.
Where can I learn more about SELF?
Check out our social media links:
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