"Electricity provides the means and opportunity for people to safely light their homes, provide for their families, and communicate with loved ones."

Empowerment

Climbing the economic ladder in rural and impoverished communities is incredibly challenging. Access to electricity is the means by which people access opportunities they would not have otherwise, and become aware of better and more productive ways of doing things.

JikoPower is excited to be running a pilot program in Kenya focused on women's economic empowerment later this year. 

Disaster Relief

Relief efforts save millions of lives each year after natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanoes. In the wake of such horrific destruction, access to electricity is vital to finding shelter, connecting with loved ones, and receiving life-saving medical assistance.

Mailyn Berko M.D. is an international aid worker who was in Haiti after the earthquake and tsunami. She was incredibly frustrated by the inability to communicate with other medical teams and the local hospital, even though everyone seemed to have cellphones. Without a charge, the cell phones were useless and it cost people their lives.

Health and Environment

Globally 1.5m people die each year from kerosene used for lighting and cooking. These are all deaths that can be prevented through uses of cleaner technology like LED lights. Additionally, traditional cookstoves used in rural communities produce over 190 billion tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere each year, which contributes to global climate change.

Although clean cookstoves have become increasingly prevalent in countries such as Kenya, many people prefer to cook the way their ancestors did and do not see enough benefit to switch over.  However, people ate 2.8x more likely to use a clean cookstove if it has a TEG attached, drastically improving their health and reducing the impact on the environment.