elumisfoundation

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Volunteer Virtually and Earn Community Service Hours

Elumis Foundation recognizes the importance of community volunteering and realizes that countless students are unable to fulfill their volunteer hour requirement for school due to the pandemic.  It is vital to think creatively in order to continue to help those in need, even if it is done virtually.

 As a result, the Elumis Foundation has created a virtual volunteer campaign to allow students around the world to obtain certified community service hours from their homes. While community service may be typically considered an in-person activity, such as giving out food at a local homeless shelter or cleaning a river in one’s town, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced all of us to reimagine the volunteering landscape.

 Virtual volunteering with the Elumis Foundation will assist your local and broader community while demonstrating to colleges and potential employers that you are hardworking and persistent.

 Our typical volunteer is a person that is compassionate and cares about the plight of the underprivileged. We are seeking creators and thinkers. Our students should be independent, hardworking, and self-motivated and should have a strong interest in making the world better through solar energy.

 We are also looking to grow the awareness of our foundation by attracting new followers, new donors, and creating general public awareness of the foundation. Thus, our volunteers are encouraged to use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Students are encouraged to think “outside the box” so that they can find a way to bring awareness to the foundation.

 Our platform is created in a way that the volunteer can self-tailor a program that is suitable for him or herself. You can volunteer as much or as little time as your schedule allows.

 The following list includes acceptable examples of volunteer service. Please contact the Elumis Foundation if you would like to volunteer your time in another manner not listed in the following examples.

 To report your service hours, please email evidence of every task completed to info@elumisfoundation.org. We will provide you with a certificate of completion for the hours you have contributed. All volunteers who have achieved a minimum of 5 hours of volunteer service will be recognized as ambassadors on the foundation website (with approval of parent or guardian).

 1 hour of volunteer service

  Like the Elumis Foundation     Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pg/ElumisFoundation/about/) and get three other likes on the page (when submitting your evidence,     please list who you recruited)

Follow the Elumis Foundation     Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/elumisfoundation/) and get three other follows on the page (when submitting your     evidence, please list who you recruited)

Tell three people about the Elumis Foundation and its goals (when     submitting your evidence, please provide pictures of how you contacted     these people)

 2 hours of volunteer service

  Recruit a new volunteer     (volunteer must contribute a minimum of 5 hours for you to receive your hours):

Like the Elumis Foundation     Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pg/ElumisFoundation/about/) and get five other likes on the page (when submitting your evidence, please     list who you recruited)

Follow the Elumis Foundation     Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/elumisfoundation/) and get five other follows on the page (when submitting your evidence,     please list who you recruited)

Tell five people about the Elumis Foundation and its goals (when     submitting your evidence, please provide pictures of how you contacted     these people)

 3 hours of volunteer service

  Write a 500 word+ blog     in regard to a topic in renewable energy or sustainability. The Blog topic     must be pre-approved by the foundation.     Please submit your request to info@elumisfoundation.org.  Please check our past blog posts to ensure     that you are not writing about something that is already talked about.

Like the Elumis Foundation     Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pg/ElumisFoundation/about/) and get 10 other likes on the page (when submitting your evidence,     please list who you recruited)

Follow the Elumis Foundation     Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/elumisfoundation/) and get 10 other follows on the page (when submitting your evidence,     please list who you recruited)

Recruit 2 new volunteers     (volunteers must contribute a minimum of 5 hours for you to receive your     hours):

Solicit a donation for 2 thermometers - https://www.elumisfoundation.org/infrared-thermometers.php (when submitting your     evidence, please list who you recruited)

Create a gaming tournament     which sponsors the Elumis Foundation (when submitting your evidence,     please provide evidence and a screenshot of your donation to the     foundation)

 5 hours of volunteer service

  Write a 1000 word+ blog     in regard to a topic in renewable energy or sustainability. The Blog topic     must be pre-approved by the foundation.  Please submit your request to info@elumisfoundation.org.  Please check our past blog posts to     ensure that you are not writing about something that is already talked     about.

Solicit a donation for a solar     kit - https://www.elumisfoundation.org/donations.php (when submitting your     evidence, please list who you recruited)

Create a local community-based     fundraising program (when submitting your evidence, please provide     pictures of the program and a screenshot of your donation to the     foundation)

Like the Elumis Foundation     Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pg/ElumisFoundation/about/) and get fifteen other likes on the page (when submitting your     evidence, please list who you recruited)

Follow the Elumis Foundation     Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/elumisfoundation/) and get fifteen other follows on the page (when submitting your     evidence, please list who you recruited)

Recruit 3 new volunteers     (volunteers must contribute a minimum of 5 hours for you to receive your     hours)

Solicit a donation for 3 thermometers - https://www.elumisfoundation.org/infrared-thermometers.php (when submitting your     evidence, please list who you recruited)

  Special Programs:

 Please contact us if you are a college or graduate student and would like to perform the following:  

 1. Write an independent research paper  

2. Perform an academic research with an accredited research University

Any research paper topics will have to be pre-approved by the foundation.  

*  Please note that when volunteering with the Elumis Foundation you understand that the hours you contribute will not be financially compensated. *

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Infrared Thermometers – How they can help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus and protect our first responders

Amid these unprecedented times in the US and abroad, the Elumis Foundation is adopting new measures to help those most in need of protection against the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19.  There are tens of thousands of first responders who risk their lives every day, just by going to work.  Since first responders are on the frontlines, they cannot practice social distancing, and therefore, must have proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to help them minimize the spread of this virus, and to help protect themselves and their families from infection.  PPE includes gloves, surgical masks, eye protection, face shields, and gowns as well as infrared thermometers that may help in the initial identification of potentially infected patients through detection of elevated temperature. Shortages of personal protective equipment are posing a tremendous challenge to the U.S. healthcare system.

 As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting nearly every element of public life, and first responders are bearing the burden of responding to this crisis on the frontlines. Doctors and nurses go to work without having adequate protective gear, forced to reuse masks and gloves due to lack of supply. EMS workers are struggling to keep up with the influx of 911 calls, police departments are facing a worst-case scenario with large numbers of the workforce out sick or in quarantine, and already-shorthanded fire departments are attempting to keep communities safe amid volunteer shortages. First responders are all being put into situations that were unfathomable just a few months ago.  As a result, the demands that have been put unto first responders have been overwhelming. Exhaustion, stress including that resulting from not having adequate PPE, spending time away from family members, and having fewer child care options, have all taken a tremendous toll on these heroes.

 We at the Elumis Foundation have temporarily redirected our focus to providing infrared thermometers directly to our first responders.   Infrared thermometers can be a useful tool in initially screening and triaging patients who might be infected with the novel coronavirus, given that fever is a common symptom of COVID-19.  They offer the advantage of non-contact temperature assessment that can quickly evaluate large numbers of patients while minimizing the risk of spreading the infection. Infrared thermometers have been in short supply and many front line workers may not have access to them. With your donation, we will be able to provide medical grade infrared thermometers to our front line workers. These will be useful devices for them to have at their disposal that can help them to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect themselves.

 Therefore, with every purchase of an infrared thermometer for your own use, the Elumis Foundation will make a matching donation of an infrared thermometer to a first responder in the US.  Together we can help our frontline heroes fight COVID-19.

https://www.elumisfoundation.org/infrared-thermometers.php

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Fighting the Pandemic in the Dark

Are We Really ‘All in This Together’?

The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted life across the globe in almost every way over the past several months. Taking precautions—such as social distancing and frequent hand-washing—has helped limit exposure to the virus. But that’s only possible for some

While statements such as ‘we’re all in this together’ may offer solidarity to some, it doesn’t take into account the millions of people living in places where basic services, such as electrical power, are unavailable. We are not quite all in this together. 

Advising people to stay at home and follow strict social distancing rules to ‘flatten the curve’ is advice that’s difficult to follow for people living in city slums and isolated rural areas in places like sub-Saharan Africa.

In these environments, most people’s livelihoods rely on work that earns a daily income. With that daily income, they buy the day’s food and other necessities for their household. There are no savings to fall back on. There is no option to stock up on essentials. People are forced to leave their homes daily, exposing themselves and their family to the disease just to survive. Social distancing measures, as important as they are, may be almost impossible to achieve in some areas. 

The reality is approximately 840 million people–predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa, but also in other parts of Africa, South East Asia, Central America and India–are living without access to electricity and hundreds of millions more only have access to limited or unreliable electricity. 

It’s a massive problem and one that can’t be fixed easily or quickly. But options, such as solar power, can begin to change the situation. And while it seems overwhelming, each of us has the power to make renewable energy available for a family to save lives.

No Connection

How can a family be expected to stay at home indefinitely without electricity or any connection to the outside world for information? Many schools are now teaching pupils through online platforms, allowing them to learn from the safety of their homes. But these innovative approaches exclude children living in off-grid areas and in slums, where electricity access is limited. How do these communities keep their children engaged in school activities without electricity to connect kids to the outside world through radios, televisions or computers? How can a person work remotely, if that was even an option, without access to electricity?

Compromised Health

Kerosene, the main source of power for many people, causes devastating indoor pollution, emitting a potentially deadly combination of carbon monoxide and carcinogenic gases. A room lit by kerosene typically can have concentrations of pollution 10 times safe levels. Smoke from kerosene lamps is responsible for respiratory infections, lung and throat cancers, among other illnesses. The World Bank estimates that 780 million women and children breathing kerosene fumes inhale the equivalent of smoke from two packs of cigarettes a day! People whose lungs are already damaged in this way are more likely to get more seriously ill if they develop COVID-19.

If they do fall ill, the healthcare available is likely to be poor. One in four health facilities in Africa has no access to electricity and only 28 percent of health facilities and 34 percent of hospitals have what could be called reliable access to electricity.

Energy is key to preventing disease and fighting pandemics—from powering healthcare facilities and supplying clean water for essential hygiene, to enabling communications and IT services that connect people while maintaining social distancing.

The bottom line: Without access to reliable, affordable electricity It’s nearly impossible to take the necessary recommended precautions to tackle the pandemic. 

Our work has already helped keep families safe from kerosene fires and respiratory damage; protected them at night; and made education a reality. Now, your contribution can help people stay safe in a pandemic. Let’s make ‘we’re all in this together’ true!

[elumisfoundation]

Solar Energy: Harnessing the Sun to Teach Computer Skills in Third World Countries

We live in a technology-driven and technology-aided world. Computers are an essential part of the information age. Technical competence is a must. You’re reading this article using a computer. 

Being able to comfortably navigate a computer, website, or application is becoming more and more important in the modern world. Think about how much of our lives happen on a computer today. Education, job searches, healthcare and transportation are just a few critical things that require commuter or digital literacy for access. 

For people living and working in North America, Europe, and other relatively prosperous parts of the world, access to computers and the internet is a given. Even people who can’t afford a private computer can access one in public libraries and for those who can’t afford subscription-based fixed or mobile account, Wi-Fi hotspots offering free internet access are relatively ubiquitous in coffee shops, public libraries, and even in certain mass transit stations, which lets everyone with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop access the Internet. We even complain that people spend too much time on their computers. Given such easy access, it’s easy to presume that the entire world is on par with computer and internet access.

The Developed World is characterized by the increasingly efficient use of information technology. IT has generally improved life and business in all segments and sectors of society. Unfortunately, the developing world has not kept pace with the growth in the developed world. Technology affords tremendous opportunities in bridging the overall gap that exists between developing and developed countries.

Computers and the internet have revolutionized the way of doing business in industrial countries, but the poorest nations are not benefiting from this transformation. Only one in seven people living in the world's least developed countries (LDCs) has access to the internet.

Yet in the undeveloped regions of the world, more than one billion people have no electricity, let alone computers and internet access. Being able to tap into the power of the sun can fill their world with light and prosperity by making computer literacy a reality. A small, portable solar panel kit, costing as little as $100 U.S., can open the world to endless possibilities.

People will be able to connect to the outside world. Solar kits powered by the sun can provide electrical power for up to 24 hours.

The path out of poverty

Education has long been considered a means to move out of poverty and computer literacy may be one of the most valuable components of escaping poverty. Becoming computer literate can have positive effects on those living in developing countries. However, it is often not the first thing on the list of necessary improvements. Many communities look to more immediate requirements, such as increased access to health care and basic necessities like food and clean water. 

But for those living in poverty, computer literacy and internet service provides a multitude of opportunities, including jobs, access to global current affairs and education and is an essential tool for sustainable economic growth. Computer literacy is a necessary step on the road to breaking the cycle of poverty.

In 1998, the World Hospitals and Health Services Journal released an article discussing the advantages of internet access, arguing that “Access to information is an essential condition to development.” More than twenty years later, researchers and institutions are still looking to the internet as a technique for reducing global poverty. 

A report by Price Waterhouse Cooper went so far as saying providing internet service could lift 500 million people out of poverty and the World Bank said that Broadband (or high-speed) internet access is not a luxury, but a basic necessity for economic and human development in both developed and developing countries.

Computer literacy and technical skills are great educational equalizers

The greatest opportunity technology provides is the ability to level the playing field for people from all walks of life. It gives a student in an undeveloped country the opportunity to digitally connect with just as many people and access just as much information as a wealthy student at a private university. Students cannot reach their full potential without becoming computer literate. 

Employment doors are opened with computer literacy and technical skills

Technology is a mainstay in the private and public sectors and operates on an increasingly technology-based economy. Most decent-paying jobs require technical skills in computers and basic office applications. In order to be competitive with other markets, undeveloped countries need to use technology to promote increased industrialization. Some job applications are only accepted electronically and require, at the very least, that the applicant has an email address.  Many quality jobs require a basic level of computer literacy as well as some computer experience. These stipulations have the effect of "raising the bar" and making even entry-level positions inaccessible for many individuals in undeveloped countries.

Solar panel kits provide safe, clean energy that can power computers to connect people in undeveloped countries with the world; create previously unthinkable economic opportunities; and eradicate a life of poverty. Use your power to help us harness the power of the sun to transform lives.

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Empowering Women & Children with the Power of the Sun

A midwife attends to a woman giving birth in the middle of the night, but without a reliable source of light, she can’t see that the mother is hemorrhaging and the mother dies. A girl uses the outdoor toilet facilities after dark and becomes the victim of a physical and sexual attack. A young woman prepares a meal for her family using kerosene, inhaling deadly fumes that are the equivalent to burning 400 cigarettes an hour.

It’s not the script for a horror story, it’s a reality in developing countries without electrical power. It’s hard to grasp for those of us who live in a world where electricity is an everyday commodity, yet every day, women around the world face the worst consequences of not having modern energy access.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a woman dies every minute from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, often due to a lack of electricity and inadequate lighting. And the indoor air pollution caused by the use of biomass is responsible for over four million deaths per year, more than the combined death rate for malaria, HIV/AIDS, and lung cancer combined.

"Energy poverty," as it’s sometimes known, affects more than one billion people in developing countries. It disproportionately hurts women and children, who make up 50 percent of the global population, with nearly 75 percent of them experiencing energy poverty. Access to electricity is the most powerful catalyst for prosperity known to womankind. The overwhelmingly positive influence of energy to the human condition has been proven time and time again by radical advancements in life expectancy, child mortality, maternal mortality, public health, nutrition, economic growth, poverty, income, environmental quality, and nearly every other metric of human flourishing.

Electricity offers so much more than light to women in impoverished countries. It offers the unprecedented opportunity to escape not just physical and financial poverty, but also the poverty of time that too often prevents women from improving their lives.

There’s no question that it’s a massive problem, but it’s one that can be addressed by harnessing the power of the sun for solar power. Solar power generates no smoke or noxious fumes, doesn’t start fires and once purchased requires no ongoing refueling costs. Solar power can transform the lives of millions of women in developing countries. Just one solar lamp can provide hours of clean, sustainable power and innumerable benefits and opportunities for women and children including:

More time for education. In households using solar lanterns, children have more time to study, read and complete homework at night. An overwhelming 90.6 percent of survey respondents reported that their children’s academic performance improved after they started using solar-powered lighting. A study in Brazil found that girls in rural areas with access to electricity are 59 percent more likely to complete primary education by the time they are 18 years old than those without. 

Reduced health risks. In addition to not causing myriad health problems, such as high infant mortality rates, respiratory disease from indoor pollution and the spread of infectious diseases due to spoiled vaccines, solar power also prevents the developmental impairment suffered by children exposed to even low levels of kerosene fumes.

Increased productivity. Solar power boosts productivity by eliminating travel time required to purchase kerosene, increasing available lighting time after sunset, and allowing people more flexibility to shift the timing of tasks throughout the day. 

Larger household incomes. Families save money by not having to pay weekly kerosene refueling costs, which can be used instead to invest in their children’s education or to pay for food and water. In addition, women have more time to devote to income-generating activities, such as making items to sell (woven baskets, chapatis and other food items or jewelry), farming, taking care of animals and providing services, such as sewing or making repairs. 

Economic and social empowerment of women. Access to power encourages and allows the creation of micro-enterprises; key contributors to rural job creation and poverty alleviation. Women are able to dedicate time to wealth-enhancing activities—whether it be starting a small franchise, selling crafts, or working in the local store—and have reliable electricity for productivity-enhancing machinery. Micro-enterprises, in particular, require electricity to draw in customers, extend operating hours, improve working conditions, automate production, preserve products, and communicate beyond the local market.

Energy access is a powerful lever for the economic and social empowerment of women and, when that energy comes from renewable sources, the socioeconomic and health benefits are amplified even more. A minimal donation can keep women and children safe and enhance their lives. 

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The Definition of Dignity: How Access to Basic Resources Makes A Difference

Those of us fortunate enough to live in the developed world may not always get everything we want, but there is no denying that we live in a state of abundance. We never have to think about making sure we have access to the most basic of all resources. But for billions of people living in undeveloped countries, extreme poverty and a lack of access to basic resources is a way of life. The damage extends far beyond lacking resources. The long-term toll is a loss of dignity; our inherent value and worth as human beings.

Poverty Erodes Dignity

Statistically, a great majority of the world’s human beings live in a condition of poverty that’s difficult to comprehend. They live without access to clean water, electrical power or reliable food sources. Living in poverty creates a scarcity mindset and may rob individuals of the ability to plan for a better future. Because they can only provide for themselves from one day to the next and are constantly lacking financial resources, they lose their long-term perspective. The scarcity mindset heightens and perpetuates the problems and issues surrounding poverty.

Poor people suffer physical pain that comes with too little food and long hours of work; emotional pain stemming from the daily humiliations of dependency and lack of power; and the moral pain from being forced to make inconceivable choices, such as whether to pay to save the life of an ill family member or to use the money to feed their children.

Children living in poverty are especially vulnerable populations. They underestimate their intelligence and capabilities, which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that strangles, if not completely destroys, their ability to advance.

Perhaps more damaging in the long term are the findings from studies on how people feel about themselves when they live in poverty. It’s not difficult to understand that they are less confident in their ability to succeed, leading to a deceased professional and educational attainment, depression and anxiety. Studies also report a negative self-stereotyping effect, whereby people in long-term poverty believe themselves to be fundamentally flawed.

Making Access to Basic Resources Possible

While this makes for depressing reading and feelings that the situation is intractable, there is hope. Solar power can help break the cycle of poverty at the macro and micro level and each of us has the ability to make solar power a reality for impoverished people in undeveloped countries. 

Solar kits for families last for years and can provide light and electricity for a family for up to 24 continuous hours enabling education, safe cooking, electronic connections and an overall healthy environment. Children can study after dark and women can funnel money that would otherwise have been used to purchase dangerous biomass material for cooking to purchase more basic resources.

Infrastructure solutions enabled by solar power can create self-sufficient and sustainable communities on a macro level. Solar-powered water tanks and storage tanks can deliver a continuous supply of clean water. Harnessing the power of the sun can deliver electrical power to schools to foster computer literacy education to ready students to be active participants in a technological-driven world. 

While it may take a worldwide effort, vast financial resources and some of the world’s greatest minds to deliver power to billions of people, a single individual has the unprecedented opportunity to restore dignity. What could be more powerful?!

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The Danger of Kerosene Heaters and Lamps

A young girl in Africa studies by the light of a kerosene lamp fashioned from a can of bug spray that produces enough light for her to study for just 15 minutes a night. The light is inefficient and dim and makes her eyes burn. The fumes are noxious. It makes her feel ill and tired. When the lamp accidentally spills it sets the house on fire, killing her mother, father and brother. 

Tragically, this story of heart-breaking loss is all too common in Africa and other undeveloped countries that depend on kerosene for power. In the undeveloped world, a lack of electrical power isn’t merely an inconvenience; it's a major safety and health issue. 

One of the main dangers of kerosene is fire. Kerosene causes countless fire catastrophes every year. People suffer from horrific burns and injuries, even death. The fire hazard is compounded because many of the houses are rough-hewn from mud or aluminum and poorly ventilated. Controlled kerosene fires recently undertaken by South Africa’s Paraffin Association revealed that it takes just two minutes for temperatures to reach 1000 degrees C and a mere eight minutes for a corrugated tin shack to burn completely. In many cases, homes are situated close together and fire spreads quickly, making it nearly impossible for emergency services to have any effect, if they are even available. 

Burns are the worst type of injuries in terms of trauma because they are both excruciatingly painful and deforming. Severe burns cause major harm to motor skills and development.  In South Africa alone, an estimated 15,000 children survive serious burn injuries every year. As devastating as that number is, it doesn’t include fatalities or anyone over the age of 12. It’s difficult to get accurate statistics, but based on the figures from South Africa, that number would be astounding. Some estimates place the numbers at 300,000 yearly deaths and six million burn victims each year.

South Africa is the only African country that has a hospital that can deal with large numbers of burn injuries. Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital (Africa’s largest hospital) in Soweto, has a specialized burn treatment center housing one of the world’s most comprehensive burn units, but it has only 26 beds. According to the hospital, most children admitted to the burn unit are under the age of nine. Burn victims usually require multiple surgeries. Add medical care to the cost of emergency services, loss of time, loss of assets and loss of a house by people who have no insurance, and the true cost of kerosene use can never be calculated.

Kerosene also causes devastating pollution, emitting a potentially deadly combination of carbon monoxide and carcinogenic gases. A room lit by kerosene typically can have concentrations of pollution 10 times safe levels. Smoke from kerosene lamps is responsible for respiratory infections, lung and throat cancers, serious eye infections and cataracts, as well as low birth weights. The World Bank estimates that 780 million women and children breathing kerosene fumes inhale the equivalent of smoke from two packs of cigarettes a day! 

Renewable energy is a practical solution that can save and enrich lives in undeveloped countries. Specifically, solar power. Imagine a world in which a family in an undeveloped country can have continuous solar power for years and years. Not only is it possible, it’s economically feasible with a generous, but relatively small donation.

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Power Outage: Understanding Life Without Electricity

Severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, earthquakes and ice storms—there are many natural disasters that can wipe electricity for a short term. For people living in the developed world a power outage is an irritating inconvenience. It usually lasts hours, in rare instances, days, but it’s temporary. Despite surviving without it for thousands of years, we have come to depend on it so much that we have built our lives around it.

Our lives are so dependent on electricity that even an hour of power outage feels like a nightmare. More than ever before, we rely on electricity for everything from charging a cell phone to powering a large office building. We take for granted that electrical power will always be available to us. We’ve grown accustomed to the comforts electricity provides and life without it would be completely different. 

But for billions of people in undeveloped countries living without electrical power is the reality. Ninety years after Thomas Edison started selling light bulbs, approximately one billion people still don’t have access to electricity; and many that do only have intermittent and substandard electric power. Statistics show that nearly 70 percent of the developing world still goes without household electricity. 

Take a moment to think about daily life with no electricity. No television, radio or internet. No quick way to heat water for cooking or bathing. No reliable light to complete any tasks after the sun goes down. Not having electricity isn’t just inconvenient, it can have a tremendous negative repercussions. 

It affects the health and well-being of billions of people. Alternate resources for power, mainly kerosene, are responsible for respiratory infections, lung and throat cancers, serious eye infections and cataracts, as well as low birth weights.

It’s a barrier to education. Schools can’t power computers or access the internet and students have less time to complete homework. 

It’s a safety issue. Kerosene causes deadly fires, horrific burns and injuries, and death. In South Africa alone, an estimated 15,000 children survive serious burn injuries every year. That doesn’t include the many fatalities or anyone over the age of 12.  Those types of statistics are hard to come by even in South Africa.  If data were collected over the whole of Africa, this number would surely be staggering.

It undermines agricultural production. Africa, for example, accounts for 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, yet has among the lowest crop yields of any region globally. Less than six percent of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is under irrigation, compared to 20 percent in the rest of the world. As a result, Africa, already strapped for cash, must import $35 billion worth of food every year.

The lack of access to power continues the cycle of poverty for the undeveloped world. Much of the world without electricity depends on kerosene as a power source, which is far more expensive than electric lighting. Kerosene costs 25 to 30 percent of a family's income—globally that amounts to $36 billion a year. The poor do not use kerosene because it is cheap—they are kept poor in significant part because they must rely on expensive, dirty kerosene.

Electric power access brings many benefits, which include enjoying a range of social, economic, and technological advances. While it may take a worldwide effort and some of the world’s greatest minds to power billions of people, a single individual can make a meaningful contribution to bring power to the world too!

Renewable energy can transform the lives of people around the world! We each have the power (pun intended) to create healthier and safer communities

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Renewable Energy for All: How Solar Panel Kits Change Lives

There have been countless news stories and articles over the past several years about why renewable energy is a step in the right direction. The use of renewable energy provides environmental and economic benefits for everyone. But for people living in the developing world, renewable energy isn’t just important to save the planet; access to renewable energy can change everything!

In fact, there is probably no other single thing that can make a bigger positive difference for the more than one billion people without electricity than a renewable energy source. It can not only change the trajectory of billions of lives; it can even save lives.

A majority of people living in developing countries depend on kerosene to provide light and a way to cook food, which makes their homes susceptible to devastating fires; creates an unhealthy, polluted environment often causing horrendous health consequences; and drains their already strained finances plunging them deeper into poverty.

A small, portable solar panel kit, costing as little as $100 U.S., can change that. It can even mean the difference between life and death. The idea that something small and relatively inexpensive can change lives is exciting and amazing.

The use of kerosene in undeveloped countries is responsible for destructive and often deadly fires every year. Some estimate places the number of annual deaths from fires started by kerosene as high as 300,000. Those who survive may suffer with horrific burn injuries. In South Africa alone, an estimated 15,000 children survive serious burn injuries every year. That figure doesn’t include fatalities or anyone over the age of 12. It’s difficult to get accurate statistics, but there are estimates that six million people are burn victims each year.

For those who somehow escape the ravages of fire, they still face severe pollution created by the use of kerosene. According to the World Health Organization, kerosene emits a combination of carbon monoxide and carcinogenic gases into the atmosphere. Smoke from kerosene lamps is responsible for respiratory infections, lung and throat cancers and serious eye infections, including cataracts, as well as low birth weights. The World Bank estimates that the kerosene fumes inhaled by 780 million women and children is equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day!  Two-thirds of adult female lung-cancer victims in developing nations are non-smokers. 

Kerosene is far more expensive than electric lighting. Impoverished families spend between 25 to 30 percent of their income—globally that amounts to $36 billion a year—on kerosene. The poor do not use kerosene because it is cheap—they are kept poor in significant part because they must rely on expensive, dirty kerosene.

There are a variety of initiatives to put renewable energy systems into place, such as wind, solar, and geothermal generators to power undeveloped countries, but for the most part those are large scale projects that will take a considerable investment of time and money.

It may seem like an insurmountable situation, but it’s not. Yes, it will take time to make progress, but not only can it be accomplished, it can be done though the generous support of regular people. 

Solar panel kits provide a safe, clean and affordable alternative to kerosene and can provide a family with continual renewable electricity for years. You can transform and enrich a family’s life with a single solar panel kit, can keep them safe and healthy and contribute to their financial wellbeing.