Affordable Solar Light for 17000 African Villagers

The funds raised through the Global Giving website from US donors have allowed us to greatly expand the reach of our program. We give our sincere thanks to all of you who are supporting our work and helping families in Tanzania to purchase their first electric light and their first solar panel.

With these funds we have been able to reduce the price of hundreds of solar lighting systems by 50%. This reduction has enabled many village families to purchase a system. They simply could not come up with the money to invest in these systems at the original price, which was at our cost. During March and April we held a half-price sale using your donations. Our market research indicated that this was the price where many people could afford the systems, and we were very pleased to verify this. Nearly 1,000 homes were equipped with solar lighting during this promotion. This is as many lights as we sold in the entire previous year.

TanzSolar worked with Juasolar staff to build a shade structure and to step up our efforts to reach as many village markets as possible. We have a list of 15 of the larger village markets that we are attending on a regular basis in an effort to educate as many villagers as possible. We also have representatives going to schools and religious institutions to spread the word about the solar lights. These lights are an ideal first solar product for the rural populations since they are about the lowest cost way to get high-quality solar LED light.

TanzSolar staff and all of the villagers we serve thank you very much for your support.

• May Newsletter (PDF)