The following is an article that appeared in Eye See Media.  You can read the original article here.

Solar Sister eradicates energy poverty by empowering women with economic opportunity.  We combine the breakthrough potential of solar technology with a deliberately woman-centered direct sales network to bring light, hope and opportunity to even the most remote communities in rural Africa.

Describe the process when you invest in the women in a rural village?

Solar Sister is bringing a grassroots, women led, enterprise based clean energy revolution to Africa.  We combine the breakthrough potential of portable solar technology with a deliberately woman-driven direct sales network to bring light, hope and opportunity to communities across rural Africa.  This is the same model, which is used by some of the largest cosmetics companies in the world to sell everything from perfumes to lipsticks to mascara. We creatively apply this approach to bring out a different kind of beauty – the beauty that comes by fighting the darkness of energy poverty.

Solar Sister uses the micro-consignment approach to provide rural women with a ‘business in a bag’, a start-up kit of a variety of clean tech products (like portable solar lights, mobile phone chargers and radio battery chargers), along with the training and marketing support to launch their own micro-solar businesses. Since Solar Sister entrepreneurs sell on consignment, they pay for the inventory “after” they sell it, earning a commission on each sale. This micro-consignment innovation helps reduce the start-up financial risk for rural women who lack the collateral for a high-interest micro-financed loan and are new to business as such.

Solar Sister gives women the techno-financial tools and the confidence to step into a new role as clean energy evangelists for their communities. Solar Sister Entrepreneurs, when equipped with these tools, are the most powerful marketing force in the world, using their tremendous social capital to bring clean energy to their communities’ doorsteps. When women succeed. We succeed.

What type of method do you use to empower the women?

Solar Sister’s foundation is that investing in women is not only the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do.  Solar Sister empowers women as both the users and sellers of clean energy. How?

Let’s look at the user side first- 1.6 billion people in the world do not have any access to electricity whatsoever. That, for a sense of perspective, is more double the combined population of the United States, European Union, Canada and Australia! This energy poverty has a female face because 70% of those without electricity are women and girls. By improving access to clean energy technologies for women, Solar Sister directly benefits the women who use clean energy and see benefits in terms of increased households savings by displacing kerosene use, extending productive hours for their small businesses, reducing fire and burn hazards by displacing open flame lights, increasing hours for children to study at night, better light in kitchens.

A founding story of Solar Sister is that of Rebecca, a rural farmer in Mpigi, Uganda, who chose to put a solar light in her chicken room. Rebecca knew that chickens only eat when they can see, and by increasing the hours of light, the chickens ate more, and were healthier. They laid more eggs, improving the economics of her operation and providing income that allowed her to buy seeds, and eventually a goat, pigs, and even a cow. From the simple improvement of a single light, Rebecca built a farm and eventually a school where she teaches children to read and write, and also how to do small plot farming. With a little bit of light and opportunity, women like Rebecca have the power to improve their own lives.

Now, let’s look at the supply side: The best way to introduce new technology in a household is through women and the best way to reach women is – through women! When a women gives a testimony for a portable and affordable solar product that she has herself used and benefited from, when she says “My children are safer now, my kitchen is shiny, I am building a new room in the house from the money saved from Kerosene, I am a Proud Solar Sister” – that is powerful for a prospective customer. The women also bring in trust. They are bringing in the best products and are there in their communities to serve the customers. They are not in the business to make a quick sale and get out of sight. That seal of quality in priceless when it comes to clean energy.

What is the common obstacle/struggle that you face when you are teaching these women about technology?

Solar Sister is rooted in the old, albeit slightly modified adage – “ Give a woman a fish and you feed her for a day, teach her how to fish and you feed her for a lifetime.” We are undoing a legacy of aid and freebies, no matter how well intentioned, to create a new paradigm of social enterprise and changemakers.  This new kind of thinking rooted in creating sustainable enterprise for sustainable development. Since the legacy of aid has been long and often deep rooted, one of our challenges is to change this way of “thinking” for the women we work with and their customers.  We have to constantly reinforce the idea that we are not giving anything away for free but presenting a market based opportunity for women to run their businesses.  Our training and their commitment is a powerful combination to create a better life for them– a win-win situation for all. For the customers again, we need to convey that we are not giving anything for “free” or at a “subsidized” rate. Solar Sister Entrepreneurs sell the best quality of clean energy solutions selected on the basis of three underlying principles – design, durability and affordability.  As the old saying goes, “ You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” but you do look a horse you pay your well-earned money on in the mouth! Solar Sister customers benefit from a purchase which with the highest standards of quality, performance and service.

What is the outcome of the investment that Solar Sister has done amongst these women and what has it meant to their villages?

We started in early 2010 with a group of 10 women. Today, we have 177 Solar Sister Entrepreneurs in Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan who are bringing the benefits of clean energy to over 12000 Africans.  Through the power of African women’s enterprise, we have brought in a wide variety of grassroots and technology partners to provide the most cutting edge clean energy products that can be within reach of rural communities. Statistics are important but even more important is the real life stories of faces behind these numbers. For example, Solar Sister Florence , a member of Ntulume Village Women’s Development Association in Uganda, tells the story of her customer – a lady tailor who earlier had to rent out a shop with electricity supply to do tailoring but who can now run the business from her house because she has light of her own. The same lady has also started a chapati (African flatbread) business because with light, she has more productive work hours in the evening. She feels more comfortable leaving her young children with a solar lantern than with a kerosene lantern or a candle. Florence thinks that with addition of a light in the house, this customer has gained so much respect of the community that she should even consider standing for elections! Solar Sister Reverend Janet says her kitchen is now shiny because of her solar light and she can prepare her sermons better. Solar Sister Mary says she is now “connected” thanks to Solar Sister’s mobile phone charging solutions. Children in her community don’t have to get burnt by candles any more. Solar Sister Zuura, who is also pursuing a Bachelors of Nurse degree, talks about the need of light for night and evening shifts in health clinics while putting up ivy fluids, emergency blood transfusions.  We thus see that the impact of clean energy – most basic of which is light and connectivity through mobile phones – is profound for both the Solar Sister Entrepreneurs and their villagers. We are creating a ripple effect of increased households savings, improved health, better education opportunities, thriving small businesses and women who are confidant, strong and role models for their communities and all of us.

What can we as individuals do to support Solar Sister?

Solar Sister is working to building a global network of Solar Sister Entrepreneurs, starting with Africa. 2012 is the United Nation’s International Sustainable Energy for All Year and we are committed to shed light on the female face of energy poverty to drive grassroots action. You can help us increase Solar Sister’s impact in a number of ways:

1)    Seed a Solar Sister Entrepreneur’s Business in a Bag: Support a full business in a bag for $500 or a part of it – as your bandwidth might be! Each contribution counts.  Invest in a Solar Sister Entrepreneur’s future here.

2)    Spread Solar Sister’s message of Light, Hope, Opportunity: Share this story of change with at least 4 more people

3)    Join our community: Show us some love by “liking ”Solar Sister on Facebook and following us on twitter.

Neha Misra is the Chief Collaboration Officer for Solar Sister. You can read her blog Postcards from the Pearl of Africa here and follow her on twitter @LightSolar . Solar Sister welcomes your messages at: solarsister.org@gmail.com

Photo credits: Solar Sister, Inc @ 2011.

Solar Sister's Chief of Collaboration, Neha Misra speaks about light, hope and opportunity on Voice of America's "In Focus".
Part I

Part II

The following is cross posted from UNIDO's Making It Magazine article "Solar Sister: Empowering Women With Light and Opportunity". 

A reader asks: How can people can find the US$20 to buy the lamp. This seems a lot of money for one single outlay for people trying to live on less than two dollars a day. Or maybe they can pay in installments?

Solar Sister's answer: Through our interaction with customers living at the Base of the Pyramid we find that there is acute appreciation for the value proposition of a one time expenditure of $20 versus the weekly expenditure of $2 or more for kerosene.  The family saves over $80 in the first year that can be spent on other important expenses, typically going to education, healthcare and better nutrition. Solar Sister Entrepreneurs do provide payment plans that are designed to meet the needs of our customers.  A rent-to-own scheme is provided to trusted customers to allow them to pay in two or three installments. In some communities, the women have used the collective power of their weekly 'women's circles' to pool their money in a merry-go-round financing plan, buying one lamp each week for a family in the circle. But most often, the lamps are bought outright, even the more expensive lamps that provide light and cell phone charging, as the customers value the product and make their purchase when they have money to spend.  Our local entrepreneurs have the advantage of detailed local knowledge and are able to respond to the seasonality and variability of local incomes.

One of the misconceptions about those living 'on less than two dollars a day' is that the income somehow arrives in a regular stream and must be managed on a weekly basis as if they are getting a paycheck each week. In reality, the true challenge is managing a low level of income that is also unpredictable and variable.  A family will earn $100 when they harvest their coffee beans, and then nothing for three or four months. Or the father will move to the city for work and send home money every few months...or not at all.  It is this added strain of unpredictable and variable income that makes household expenditures extremely vulnerable. The impact is felt most acutely by women and girls who make up 70% of the base of the pyramid households. 

Managing the slow expenditure of money (the $2 per week for kerosene) when the income has been received all at once is extremely difficult. Especially in a culture where it is expected that you share what you have.  As one of our customers told us, "When I have money. I like to invest it.  But I don't trust the banks. They have fees that eat my money.  A solar lamp is a good investment. When I invest in a solar lamp, I make money. And my brother can enjoy the light, but he does not reach in my pocket."

In the perverse economics of poverty, the one time expenditure is actually a better fit to income patterns and levels.

video: ThinkEqual for Women and Girls from the World Bank ThinkEqual Campaign

The Heart of Development. Gender Equality.

The good news: The World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development, a publication of The World Bank notes that over the last 25 the lives of women around the world have improved dramatically.  Rights, education, health and access to jobs and livelihoods have all improved. 

The bad news: Despite these gains, gaps remain in many areas. The worst disparity is the rate that girls and women die relative to men in developing countries.  Nearly 4 million women are 'missing' due to gender-vulnerabilities: never being born because of a preference for sons, early childhood deaths disproportionately affecting girls, and deaths due to the risk of maternity. 

The solution: Changing this disparity is at the heart of development.  Closing the gap is a core development objective in its own right. It is also smart economics. Tapping into women's ingenuity, strength, nurture and creative force is critical for a more prosperous and sustainable future.  Working to ensure that women are part of the solution and not just viewed as victims of their circumstances is Solar Sister's core mission. Giving them the opportunity to build a bright future through livelihoods and access to technology that can save lives, especially during the most vulnerable times of early childhood and childbirth. 

Gender equality and solar light: Light is life in so many important ways.  Replacing the unsafe, toxic and expensive kerosene with clean, bright solar light is more than just an 'improvement'.  It saves lives.  Indoor air pollution is responsible for up to 50% of the cases of pneumonia, the leading killer of children under the age of five.  And we have seen the life-saving impact of bringing light to midwives and maternity clinics.  As one of our Solar Sister Entrepreneurs has told us, "It is difficult to help a mother in the dark. I have delivered babies by holding a candle in my mouth to provide a little bit of light while my hands were busy to catch the baby."  And access to safe light goes beyond the moment of delivery. One of our entrepreneurs is also a community health care worker. She reminds new mothers that using a solar light instead of an open flame kerosene lamp during the late night breastfeeding is both safer and healthier.  And you can easily imagine that she is right, a baby at the breast in one hand, and an open flame in the other.

Access to clean, safe light is is such a simple but effective intervention. So basic in fact, that it is often overlooked as a key to health.  At Solar Sister we are committed to finding ways to provide light to mothers and midwives and nurses and doctors.  And by doing so, save lives. We are committed to finding ways to 'illuminate' this issue so others can join us. Helping us to share the story of light and life, award winning photographer Peter DiCampo is documenting the impact of "Life Without Lights" on women's health. You can contribute to his Kickstarter project and become part of the solution by supporting this effort to build awareness through a multimedia storytelling exhibit that will be shown at the United Nations and other venues.

As the World Bank report points out, gender inequality is a pervasive and global problem. Solving this disparity at the heart of development is an enormous problem. We can't do it alone. That is why we need you to join with us and other who are actively working to provide light and opportunity to women in rural communities in Africa.  Solar Sister is excited to be joining together with organizations like WE CARE Solar and Safe Mothers Safe Babies (SAFE) to provide a solution of light, hope and opportunity. 

Please join us. Your tax-deductible donation will support a project that empowers Solar Sister Entrepreneurs to work in tandem with maternity clinics in east Uganda to ensure that everyone has access to clean solar light.

This week, bloggers are joining together to raise awareness of the Girl Effect.  Solar Sister is proudly adding our voice to the chorus.  Watch this video and read about the Girl Effect and the challenges faced by poor girls in the developing world.

This is not about putting the weight of the world on a little girl’s shoulders.  Rather, it is about how education and opportunity can lift the weight of poverty from her shoulders and open her life to new opportunities. 

Here at Solar Sister, we talk a lot about empowering women. Yes, women entrepreneurs are at the core of Solar Sister’s business model.  But, no, that is not where our work ends.  Our programs and impact reach all members of the communities in which we work -- women, men, girls, and boys. Solar Sister programming includes a focus on advancing girls’ science, technology, engineering and math education. 

In our work to advance girls’ education and empowerment, Solar Sister employs deliberate strategies that connect learning with real-life experiences that incorporate technology and business skills.  By providing Solar Sister girls with life skills and business smarts, we empower them to spread the use of affordable solar products and support the work of their community groups.  And, by harnessing the power of the Girl Effect in our programs and in the programs of so many others around the world, all of us let girls shine their own unique light on the world.  

 

-- by Gina Porto Spiro, Director of Girls' Empowerment, Solar Sister

Note: I love the The Girl Effect logo - Notice how the girl really does look like she might grow up to be a Solar Sister!

by Daniel Carlton

Sept. 16, 2011 and performed Sept. 18, 2011 at Illuminate a NextAid and Solar Sister event

Illuminate
Because light is your fate
So why is it so easy to hesitate?
Darkness lies
About questions why
Like who gets to live
And who has to die
Like who walks on sunshine
And who's shut out of time
They are manifested as shadows in the dark
In need of a spark
Don't ask them questions
You'll only end up with more lies

Lie number one
Denies the sun
And keeps dreams on the run
But in a whole lot of somewhere
Creation happens in spite of fears
And in the middle of blinks
In the armor there's a chink
Light can be seen through the tears
And who can deny that when a hungry child cries
Everyone searches for an alibi
Photosynthesis starts with a seed
Looking for light feeds the need
For the natural magic
Blocking its flow turns everything tragic

And in confusion about which darkness to curse
The lie makes it about colors of skin
Which just makes it worse
Truth be told, it's a story about thirst
Resources poured into gold chalices first
Land left dry changes the search
Basic survivial becomes the order of the day.

Shadows in the dark now have a place to play
Moonlight becomes the time of wishes
Love manifests into stolen kisses
But a moonlight wish ain't like one during the daylight sun
It shines its light on near misses
It shines its light on guns

Lie number two
Is that there's nothing one can do
Hopelessness can never be true
It's not a question of why, It's a question of who
Steps up and pulls off the veil
And challenges the narrative of who tells the tale
Not about who's wrong and who's right
But more about sun rays and their wonderfully powerful lights
It's crazy to think that this would even be a fight

Illumination
Shines over lines of demarcation
Clearing roads to real transportation
Journey to a soulful education
Proclamations of true emancipation
Finally a true peoples nation
But in order to fill the need
Remember that every thing starts with that seed
Spotlights on the fields/needed to avoid exploitation based on greed
It's on us to erase them those and they / and change it to we

Illumination lets everyone see
That when it's time to face fate
Hate always comes early
Love is never too late

But
At the end of the day
When it's all said and done
No powers on earth
Overpower the sun

This month, Neha has been traveling throughout Uganda visiting the Solar Sister Entrepreneurs.  Neha is a natural story teller and poet and has been writing a blog about her expoits, Postcards from the Pearl of Africa, that you should not miss. Today she shared this story about a Solar Sister named Florence and one of her customers that brought a smile to my face.

Solar Sister Florence is a member of Ntulume Village Women's Development Association in Uganda. In Florence's village, many people live without any power and use paraffin (kerosene) for light.  Florence is very proud to be a Solar Sister Entrepreneur, as it is an opportunity for her to be a source of light for people in her village while also earning an additional income.

Florence sold a solar lamp to a woman in her village who is a tailor.  Before she had her own light, the tailor used to rent space for work.  But she was so impressed with the Solar Sister solar lights that she said, "I must have lights for my little house"!  Florence then sold her a solar powered  system with 4 lights. Her whole house is now lit and she is very proud of it. She says that she now lives like a queen and her children are very proud of her. She is now safe from fire and knows that if she gets late at work, her children are safe at home.

Now she says that she has her own light and can do her tailoring from her own home she will no longer have to pay rent and will make more money.  She also makes chapati (African bread) as a business and says that she is now more successful than before.  With the light she can finish making the chapatis at night and early in the morning she wakes her children who help in delivering them to customers.

In the area where she lives, the tailor-chapati baker is the only person with light.  The women in her village come to her inquiring about where she got the lights and how she could ever afford such light.  Florence proudly says, " My customer tells them its very little money. Go to Florence and she will sell you those lights. She even says the light has given her new status, maybe she should now stand for elections!"  Florence is confident that she will sell solar lamps to more people in the area and make more money from the sales.

Neha's story of Florence and her industrious customer reminds me of the positively delightful defiance in the song:

In the Sebei region of Uganda, Female Genital Circumcision (also called Female Genital Cutting or Female Genital Mutilation or "FGM") is still widely practiced.  In spite of the recent law that forbids it, many girls still undergo this painful and harmful centuries old tradition soon after they experience their first period, in a ceremony that marks them as 'ready for marriage'.

The girls at the St. Peter's School in Kapchorwa have bravely defied tradition by choosing to forgo the ceremony and remain in school.  It is not easy when tradition and culture and elders counsel that without the cutting 'you will never marry'.  When the girls are sent off to board at St. Stephens, rather than receive strong support and celebration from their communities for their decision to pursue an education, they often face ridicule and shame.  It is a heavy burden to carry all alone for a girl trying to find her way to womanhood.

The pressure to conform is strong.  This article from the Sunday section of the Ugandan Monitor describes the song that the girls are taught to sing as children:

Many argue that FGM is a strong and unchangeable cultural tradition, passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter.  It seems unfathomable to those who have not grown up in that tradition that a mother would inflict this crude surgery on her daughter, when she must know all too well the pain and complications, including the very real possibility of death.

In April of 2010, President Museveni approved a law prohibiting the practice and describing FGM as crude, outdated and an infringement on the rights of the girl-child.  But culture and tradition are strong against a mere law of the land.  Imposing decisions about such an ingrained practice from the top down has not worked in the past.  One note of hope is that in West Africa, Tostan is doing an incredible job educating communities about human rights and health, opening the door for community-led change that allows the communities to make their own informed decision to end the practice.  A bottom up approach that has had tremendous success in the communities that have participated in Tostan's community led programs. 

To me, the most chilling part of the Monitor article is this quote from a Grandmama, who talks about the economic justification for FGM:

If there is one thing even stronger than culture and tradition, is it economics.   All three together are hard to beat.

By providing economic opportunity, and economic choice, perhaps we can help loose the holds on this tradition so that the girls of St. Peter's and their little sisters in Sebei are supported in their quest for an education by the elders of their community.  Economic opportunity opens the door for community-led change.

(guest post by Evelyn Namara, Uganda Program Coordinator, Solar Sister.  This profile was originally posted on her blog: EvElyn's Thoughts ).

Kapchorwa is a lovely city, I can not believe it took me this long before visiting this place. If you have visited the western part of Uganda, and know how hilly and mountainous Kabale town is, that is the closest comparison to Kapchorwa.

The roads that lead up to this amazing town are cut out on beautiful landscaped hills. The village and scenery is just breath taking, all GREEN! You would think they have never had any droughts in Kapchorwa.  And then the winning spot is the Sipi falls - As you head closer to Kapchorwa town, you get to have an amazing view of the Sipi falls, best view ever.

It is in this city that we have a group of Solar Sisters that have gone an extra mile to do a fantastic job in their businesses.

Today, I profile Lydia. - When you first meet this fiery business woman, you can not imagine that she has got the fire for business because of her reserved nature.  She speaks in a low tone, very welcoming but that has nothing to do with her business. Lydia  stays in Kapchorwa town, and is greatly involved with the Church of Uganda activities in Kapchorwa. She is a member of the Mother's Union and we first got introduced to her through the Church of Uganda - Mother's Union in Kampala.

There is no doubt that this woman has the business acumen and is destined for greater success. She owns one of the biggest shops in Kapchorwa, what does she stock? Think about all things electronic from mobile phones, electric kettles et el, household things, pretty much everything.  Because she came to us with such a tremendous business background, it was not hard for her to be a star as a Solar Sister, she knows just how to get the customers buy her products, she has a natural network of buyers who come to her shop everyday, she knows how to keep track of records.

What does she do when she gets the Solar Sister Inventory Stock? She stocks it in her shop and one by one as her customers come to the shop to buy different things, she pulls out her Solar lanterns and shows them just how much they can save by using Solar lanterns in their homes! - This has worked tremendously for her in terms of sales.

In addition to stocking her Inventory in the shop, she visits her neighborhood at night and showcases the Solar lanterns! What better time to show the relevance of Solar lanterns, than at night when they speak for themselves!  Her natural networks consist of her customers that flock the shop day in, day out, her church members, and fellow mother's union network, her neighbors back at home!

She is one of the successful Solar sisters to date, and we are proud to feature her today!

Go Lydia!