SolarBuddy is an Australian charity based in Brisbane, whose goals are gifting solar devices to children living in extreme energy poverty, and educating people to be agents of change to end such poverty.
Kenmore Rotary has been involved with the SolarBuddy programme for 10 years, partnering with local primary schools to provide JuniorBuddy solar LED lights to children in remote villages. The lights are delivered to our schools in kit form, and the children, in year 5 or 6, assemble them, guided by their teachers and Rotarians. The children also write a short letter to the recipient of the light.
The morning at each school includes a presentation, with video information explaining types of renewable energy, how to assemble the lights, and describing energy poverty, which is a lack of reliable, or indeed any, safe form of power. The children are able to compare the lives of children in such villages with their own. The children work in small groups and the teamwork helps to expedite the assembly process. They also write a short personal note to the recipient of the light.
The benefits to the recipients are the impact on education (they can read and study at night), and health and safety, when wood or kerosene lighting is replaced by solar. The solar light construction uses recycled materials and is recyclable after its 10 year lifespan. The educational benefits for the local children are quite broad, and often enmeshed with their curriculum.
The cost of the lights is shared equally between the schools and Kenmore Rotary, with our share this year being funded by a District Grant, sponsorship from our local councillor and several businesses, and general fundraising. Since Kenmore’s involvement with the project we, in conjunction with local schools, have gifted and distributed over 2,500 JuniorBuddy lights to children in developing countries.
The project aligns with several of Rotary’s Areas of Focus, namely Maternal and Child Health, Basic Education and Literacy and Supporting the Environment.
For Kenmore club members, it gives us the opportunity to be involved in a hands on project helping the children, while cementing the Club’s relationships with the various schools and their staff. We can see the impact that the project has on the children we work with, and it’s great to help them understand the correlation between their actions and the positive effects for children who are less fortunate.
