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Help replace paraffin lamps with solar lamps in Africa

posted on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 03:07 PM

have decided to share with you a story about my friend David Speakman,founder of Jua Taa company.It is his project on an incredibly serious problem in developing countries that is almost totally ignored.

It is a cause very close to David's heart.Please read on:

"Following our arrival at Entebbe Airport late one night on a recent visit to Uganda, we drove through a trading centre on the main Kampala Entebbe road.

"The familiar sight and sound of countless people milling around the trading centre greeted us. All along the roadside people were selling their wares... fruit and vegetables, cooked food and household goods... all manner of things were available here.

"My eyes gradually became adjusted to the darkness caused by the non-existence of street lighting, and my ears were assaulted by the cacophony of sounds being generated by both the passing traffic and buyers and sellers alike thronging the roadside.

"However, what shocked me most was that the air around us was so thick with the overwhelming smell of burning fuel oil that you could almost cut it with a knife.

"Every six feet or so, a paraffin lamp was perched atop someone's pile of tomatoes or mangoes. This was not the type of paraffin lamp we expect in the West, but a simple tin can with a cloth wick protruding from the top.

"The small amount of flickering light this generated was partially obscured by the black smoke that filled the air with such density that it showed up as fog in the headlights of the passing traffic."

You may think that David's experience of the appalling pollution these people have to live with every day, with its consequent effects on health - not to mention the degradation of the environment - is bad enough. Actually, this is only part of the story.

Now ,David and his friends have set up a Head Office in Kampala,Uganda where they will be starting production of solar lamps. All employees will be local, and they will also be setting up a salesforce that will require salespeople right down to "village" level across Africa and other developing nations.

This salesforce will also need a field force of Area Managers and Regional Managers to manage them.

They are also looking for licensees for each country in Africa (and across the developing world as well). They will set up manufacturing in each country, and will also need a large salesforce down to "village" level.

So they are planning to create a lot of local jobs through-out Africa and the developing world.

Comments

Paula Chege

Thursday, December 18, 2008 06:13 AM

HI peter. Am always inspired by your dreams and good ideas. Keep it up