Tiny solar lamps spotlight the urgency of energy transition

by Ariel Miller, ESRAG Newsletter Editor

Solar Light Campaign striving to Leave Noone Behind

Buffalo, NY, September, 2024: Founded by American Rotarian Sarah Baird, a small nonprofit is leveraging $15 solar lights into a campaign to convince global stakeholders to finally prioritize investing in energy justice for rural Africa. “We’re advocating through a wide range of partners including Rotary, Catalyst2030 and the UN, on how access to clean, safe energy can be a multiplier of all their other programs,” Baird says. Over 50% of the people of Sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to electricity, crippling health care, safety, education, and economic development. 

“Without increased efforts, the continent’s population living in energy poverty or without access to reliable energy could grow to over 1.1 billion people by 2030,” the target date for achieving the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals including energy access for all as we strive to leave no one behind,” she warns.

Let There Be Light…

Baird’s Let There Be Light International (LTBLI) works with Solar Health Uganda and other East African NGOs to solarize health centres and provide solar-powered lamps to households in off-grid communities.  It’s a pocket-sized strategy with a big impact:  in the ten years since its founding, LTBLF has benefitted over 1,250,000 people by providing solar electricity to 88 clinics and solar lights to 42,000 homes.  In addition to helping to run a signature annual fundraising event, Baird’s fellow Rotarians of the Buffalo Sunrise Club in New York State “provide friendship, courage, and moral support,” she says gratefully. 

LTBLI provides solar lights to an array of people who need them, from students to people living with disabilities to home-bound elders. At the suggestion of district health officers in Uganda, LTBLI launched their signature maternal and infant health program, Safe Births + Healthy Homes, in 2019, combining the solar-electrification of frontline health clinics with community education and the incentive of a free solar light to pregnant women who deliver their babies at one of 9 participating maternity clinics. 

Core impacts include reduced unattended birth rates and improved maternal and infant health outcomes. Baseline surveys of participants show that 80% of the patients cited the incentive as important in their decision to give birth at the frontline clinics,  rather than at home or with a traditional birth attendant.

Mitigating household house fires

“It’s inconceivable that women should have to give birth without access to even basic electrification,” says Baird, whose newest grandchild was born by Caesarian section this summer.   Sending moms and babies home with solar lights changes the reality that they would otherwise return to “an unventilated, dangerous home,” she explains. Working with nine clinics, the project has provided more than 17,000 mother-baby pairs with portable solar in the past 5 years.

This campaign has the potential not only to reduce infant and maternal mortality and mitigate climate impacts but also to save lives and money at home. “Most off-grid households use a little tin with a wick, burning kerosine,” Baird explains. “Called a tadooba, which means ‘little stupid guy,’ it emits toxic fumes and poses a great risk of fire. The particulate matter is also incredibly bad for our shared ecosystem. Some moms won’t use their treated bed nets because they are flammable.  Several mothers have explained, ‘I’d rather have malaria – everyone has malaria – than risk a house fire.’”  

“Burning fossil fuels and biofuels creates ambient and household air pollution which is estimated to cause around 700,000 premature deaths in Africa each year,” Baird reports on the LTBLI website. “Women and children are especially at risk because of their traditional domestic roles in cooking and household chores.”  

Baird, who holds a master’s degree in humanitarian service, formed LTBLI shortly before the 2015 launch of the UN SDGs and the achievement of the Paris Climate Accord. Working with in-country vendors in Uganda, Rwanda, and Malawi, they are able to electrify a clinic for $3,500, providing indoor and outdoor lights and power-charging for phones and computers.  The $15 price tag for a solar light covers the full cost of getting it into a mother’s hands: the device, in-country staff time, transportation, educating recipients, and data collection. 

Durable off-grid solutions

Unlike many other development projects, which “push a product, we are technology-agnostic,” Baird adds. “We try to buy products sold in-country that use VeraSol-tested technology under the guidelines of the World Bank.” The goal is high-performing, durable off-grid solutions. 

“We piggyback on existing programs run by local NGOs in our communities of impact,” Baird explains. “60% of all our programming benefits women and girls. Frankly, none of this is sufficient, but since there isn’t a robust social safety net, we have to go broad until the other, powerful stakeholders take ownership.”  For Africa’s rural poor, often the only option is “rent to own,” she explains.  “It’s not ethical to ask people to go into debt for an essential need.

Globally, very, very little attention is paid to the need for energy access in homes with young children and people who are ill.” 

Baird is striving to close this gap by speaking up in international policy forums. For instance, LTBLI was a civil signatory to the Paris Climate Accord. As part of the NGO stakeholder community, Baird participates in the UN’s Women’s Major Group (WMG) and the NGO Major Group, which emerged from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Every year, she participates in working groups that write position papers and agendas in preparation for the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) held at the UN in advance of the September General Assembly meetings.  

“At a certain age, I am just not afraid to ask anymore,” Baird says.  “We’re Rotarians: Service Above Self. Let’s just do it. “

Even though LTBLI’s American team were all volunteers until this year (when the board recruited a part-time associate director), speaking up is “easier than I thought because few are doing it despite it being a critical need,” says Baird. “Energy Access traditionally was filled with big players in oil and gas. Then renewables entered the field. But access to energy continues to be monetized, so participation remains out of reach for people in extreme poverty.”

The Value of Global Partnerships

To end energy poverty, LTBLI is building the case for global partnerships.  “It’s not feasible for a small non-profit in Western New York to meet all of the need: we’re reaching out to aligned groups with the established infrastructure to address the need at scale,” Baird says. “We’re creating solutions and the data to back it up for other groups – whether it’s Oxfam or Rotary – to recognize that energy access has to be part of safe and productive lives.”

Medical projects also partner with LTBLI. Drs. Harrison and Pat Bloom of Doctors for Global Health strive to improve mental health.  “Home-bound elders can become isolated and depressed. Give them light and others in the community want to visit,” Baird explains. “We hope to launch a project with other medical professionals for people receiving palliative care. At night, the pain is often worse. Lights could help them feel more comforted.  Pain medication can be very scarce. If you’re comfortable, you may not need as much.”

Joining Rotary has provided joy, fellowship, and strong support for Baird’s mission. She moved from New Haven, Connecticut, where she and her husband led their careers, to Buffalo, New York in 2017. The Buffalo Sunrise Rotary Club invited her to give a talk about her African projects.  Intrigued, Baird joined the club.  Fellow members, inspired by LBTLI’s effectiveness, help to create an annual Solar Celebration fundraiser, always held around Midsummer Day.  They promote LTBLI across their District, 7090, which spans Western New York and Southern Ontario.

Returning to her hometown, where she hadn’t lived for decades, “I wanted to make new connections,” Baird says.  “My Rotary identity reinforces my commitment to making sure we’re working towards a more just and equitable world.”

To learn more about LTBLI’s projects and strategy, email Sarah Baird at baird@lettherebelightinternational.org

To learn more about ESRAG’s initiative called the Million Solar Panel.

Credit for all photos:  Let There Be Light International