By Julia Alvarez | Executive Director
Greeting, friends and supporters!
If you are at all like me, I imagine you are spending time each evening marvalling at and celebrating these late summer sunsets and the fact that we have light so long into the evenings. Think about how much you are able to get done in these long evenings–gardening, grilling, walking, working, studying, enjoying time with your family. Now think, for just a moment, about how different your life would be without these late evenings–or, without light in your home. This is the reality for so many people around the globe. People in the communities we partner with have no choice but to close businesses and stop studying early because of a lack of light. But with your support, we are impacting these communities, bringing clean, affordable light and changing lives! Since our last report, we have experienced some new developments. First, we bid an emotional farewell to Katie Murphy, our fearless leader, who retired from her position as Executive Director at Elephant Energy. Katie helped our programs launch, grow and become sustainable and we miss her! That said, my name is Julia and I could not be more proud to be serving as Elephant Energy's new Executive Director. Second, we welcomed a new Program Director to the Elephant Energy team. Chris Fry has joined us to oversee and manage our programs in both Namibia and the Navajo Nation. Reporting from Namibia as I write, Chris will re-join the Denver team in a matter of weeks. Third, with the help of funding from the United States Agency for International Development (and supporters like you!) we have started pilot testing a very exciting new technology in Namibia that we hope will truely revolutionize small-scale solar in our last-mile communities. We are very excited to see where this goes and we will keep you all posted.
Finally, no update would be complete without some stories from the field! Our photos below are of a happy Elephant Energy customer who makes around 500–600 Namibian dollars a week (US$46–55) by charging other peoples' cell phones at 5 Namibian dollars per home. Using his Sun King Pro 2, he can charge about 15–20 phones a week, and he is using this added income to supplement his family earnings. The next photo is of a Namibian student who can now study for school at home, under the light of the Sun King Pro 2 that his family purchased from an Elephant Energy sales agent. Finally, there is a photo of another Elephant Energy customer who uses her lamp to cook safely at home after finishing her job as a nurse.
As you can see, together we are impacting the economic, educational and health outcomes of rural poor customers throughout Namibia. We can't do what we do without you! Thank you for supporting our work, for telling your friends about us and for helping impact lives in Namibia.
Sincerely,
Julia Alvarez
P.S., If you live in the Denver area, we invite you to come celebrate a great year at our summer Barnraiser on July 23! More information can be found here: http://bit.ly/1gBDhWl
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