One of the biggest challenges in developing countries is extreme energy poverty. ‘SolarBuddy’ is an organisation dedicated to bringing light to children in difficult home situations. They chose Ecco La Luna as their Belgian partner to raise awareness about this among companies during a special CSR-oriented team building.
Energy poverty is an issue that weighs on health and well-being, educational outcomes and economic stability. “In many countries, people have no electricity or light, or make it themselves with unhealthy products such as toxic petrol,” says Geert Debusschere of Ecco La Luna. “SolarBuddy is an organisation that wants to address this issue. Based on a philosophy of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), they want to give companies the opportunity to co-invest in fighting such ‘energy poverty’.”
Since their inception in 2016, SolarBuddy has donated hundreds of thousands of solar-powered lights, literally illuminating the lives of nearly 1 million people in 19 different countries. These lights – which capture sunlight during the day – help children read and study longer at night.
SolarBuddy has a representative in each country, and in our country the choice fell on Ecco La Luna. “We offer companies a team-building/energiser activity consisting of three pieces. In the first part “Learn”, we will educate participants on what exactly ‘energy poverty’ is and why we want to help fight it. Then in a second section “Make”, they can assemble (or mount) their own Solar Buddy light – which works on solar energy. In the process, they can write a personal message for the recipient. Finally, there is the third section ‘Illuminate’, where the lights are delivered to children in developing countries. The impact is huge: in just 1 hour, one can change the life of 1 child for as many as 10 years – because that’s how long the lights work.”
With this approximately one-hour energiser, companies get the chance to contribute to eliminating energy poverty. “We are proud that SolarBuddy has chosen us as their partner, and we are going to put our full weight behind this. If companies feel like doing a CSR team building, they can come to us. Our colleagues from other agencies who want to offer a SolarBuddy teambuilding to their clients are of course also welcome to join us,” Geert Debusschere concludes.
