First, an update
- We ran 2 amazing fellowships! Fellowships are always an awesome time for us, it's like Christmas 5 times per year :-) As you know, we welcome a group of 10 amazing international people in the Hive and together with a group of 5-6 amazing local people we work with them on exciting stuff!
- For example, in December we performed a needs assessment for the street dweller population of Kolkata. The group completed a total of 46 extensive surveys, and although their conclusion was that there was not much we could do to help these people right now, it has been a very interesting learning experience for us. Indeed, we learned more about how they live, what they need and don't need; for example, they don't need a solar light since most of them use the street light for lighting. And there are some options for solutions in the future of course. The group also took on to gather stories about all the people the Fellows met and post them on a Facebook page. Like it if you like it!
- In February, we installed 2 large home solar systems for a 30 day trial in our customers' houses (photos below). We're particularly excited about this, as it is something that we've had a lot of demand for and it provides a complete household solution (it includes lights, a solar fan and a TV!). AND one of them is modular, which means that you can keep adding extra panels and batteries the more power you need. More details on this after the next fellowship!
- In both Fellowships the teams analysed further the possibility of helping people to switch from using Kerosene or wood for cooking to LPG. This is taking a little more time than foreseen but I'm confident we'll get there, and I'll keep you posted when we will :-)
- And of course during each fellowship we train an amazing group of new Pollinators! We now have a team of 9 Pollinators, and they have sold more than 300 lights since they started! That's 300 families that switched from darkness and kerosene to solar light. And there's more everyday.
Happy International Woman's day!
Soma has been working with us since September (our first female Pollinator)! She had trouble adapting to the work at first (first time she'd used a smartphone for example), but we saw potential in her and kept investing in her training. She was always very disciplined and therefore in December we gave her an award for that (you should have seen her face, below :-)). Her numbers were OK, but not at the top. So we kept training her. And I'm proud to say that this month she has reached her target and been nominated by all her peers to be the best Pollinator of the month of February. When she told me her story we all teared up (Soma, myself of course and also Tabrez who was translating it :-)). Here's her story (and a bunch of pictures of her):
"I'm 29 years old, and a single mother of an 11 year old son. I was forced into marriage to a 33 year old man when I was 16. I didn't want to get married. I wanted to study but my father forced me to marry.
My husband was very sick early in our marriage and his medical bills were so expensive that sometimes I couldn't even buy milk for my son. He died of a heart attack at age 40. That same year, my father also passed away so my mother came to live with me.
I always felt like I deserved better. If my father would have allowed me to study I would have been better able to support my son. Since then, I decided I would do everything I can, so he could do everything I couldn't.
I used to make paper packets for a living - only Rs 500 (approximately AU$10) per month. My brother-in-law had to help me out for my sons' studies, and other family members would sometimes provide us food. But it wasn’t enough.
I got a loan from Ujivan, a Microfinance institution. When I asked the manager at Ujivan if he had a job for me, he introduced me to Pollinate Energy. With their support, I started my own business selling solar lights. Now I'm very happy. I'm able to manage my money, and even save a little bit some months.
I am very proud of my son. He's a very good student and wants to be a doctor and help poor people get affordable treatment. He's even helping me sell lights! He talked to his teacher about my work and they want to buy a light for the school!"