By Katie Murphy | Executive Director
Wow, friends! 2014 is off to an amazing start and I'm excited to share lots of great news with you–our dedicated partners. With your help, Elephant Energy Namibia started the year continuing to scale our solar product distribution model from one shop and fifteen rural sales agents in the Zambezi Region to an additional thirty-five businesses and sales agents across six additional regions in the country’s north. We brought on four new Regional Sales Managers who carried-out our first large-scale marketing campaign, with a focus on radio and a strategic ground campaign in towns and rural villages across the north. These two components, coupled with positive word-of-mouth endorsements, have been critical in establishing Elephant Energy as a trusted name in solar products, and in delivering products and educational information about solar energy to the critical “last mile” of off-grid, rural villages.
That said, going to scale with a business model targeted to poor customers and in a country with one of the lowest population densities of any country on earth has been no easy feat! Thanks to our incredible Project Manager, Adam Pearlman, and our exceptional team of Namibian staff leading our efforts on the ground, we have emerged from this expansion stronger than ever and are continuing to make an incredible impact on the lives of our clients and friends.
Speaking of our clients and friends, I want to share a few stories with you that I think really demonstrate our impact on the ground. Sylvia is from the Eshoke village and lives in a traditional stick hut with her entire family. One night, she woke up, smelled smoke and realized her house was on fire. A few years earlier, Sylvia lost her mother to a fire when her mother's house burned down while she was sleeping. Sylvia rushed to get everyone out of the house and managed to do so safely this time. Although everyone is safe, Sylvia now she suffers from smoke inhalation, which requires medical treatments. After the recent fire, Sylvia saw her neighbors using an Eco that they purchased from an Energy Entrepreneur. Her neighbors introduced her to an Elephant Energy Regional Sales Agent named Amelia, who sold Sylvia a Sun King Pro. Sylvia said she will never buy candles again, and has told her friends or family to make the switch to solar lighting.
In another instance, Frida Namene is a teacher in rural Oshikoto who used to pay people with cars to charge her cell phone. After purchasing a Sun King Pro from an Energy Entrepreneur, she now charges a fee to other people in her village who need to charge their phones, and she is making N$500 per month! Frida also invites all of the other teachers in the village over to her house to share her light while they mark papers together.
Your support has been instrumental in increasing safety and health, as well as improving the economic livelihoods of people in rural Namibia. Thank you for your ongoing interest in and support of Elephant Energy. We look forward to continuing to update you as we keep changing lives in these underserved Namibian communities.
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