Uganda, 4 June 2014: Africa has some of the poorest nations in the world and the population there are in need of assistance and help to grow and come on par with the other countries in the world. There have been numerous initiatives from both within and outside the continent to provide the basic essential needs of the locals. Uganda is among the nations which is in need of global assistance both in terms of monetary and infrastructure. A noble move by LiTeAfrica has been initiated to help the African Families living in Uganda by distributing life-improving products. These products include distribution of solar lamps, fuel efficient stoves, etc. to the lo-income rural households across Uganda.
The entire objective and mission for distribution of these life-improving technologies is to help in development of health, education and income levels of low-income households. The charity is a crowd funding program and invites people to contribute their bit and help to make this a successful effort. Presently Uganda is going through a deep energy crisis where almost 8 out of 10 people in the country do not have access to electricity. This has been a big problem for people and businesses in the country. Another figure which might astonish people is the fact that over 580 million people who live in sub-Sahara Africa are still cooking by using the traditional firewood and charcoal stoves. As per the figures released by WHO it is estimated that about 20,000 deaths each year are caused due to indoor air pollution in Uganda.
With this initiative to distribute the life-improving technologies such as the solar lamps or the fuel-efficient stoves, the lives of these people would definitely improve. There have been instances where such initiatives have been made but it had hardly reached the real end user. Also, inefficient distribution coupled with lack of financing and poor after sale service has been a cause of concern in this area. The model which LiTe-Africa initiates to practice is a channel of effective distribution where clean energy technologies would be supplied to the retail stores and local markets. Instead of the popular “business in a bag” this cause would include the use of existing retail network. Here the Low-income consumers would visit these family run shops and markets on a daily basis.
The other aspects which the initiative tends to help the customers with is offering products at low cost. The costs of these lamps are as low as $15 for a solar light. The other facility which is available with these lamp is the option of pay-as-you-go where customers have the option of paying in small installments. Reliability is another aspect which has been worked upon where the products would come with warranties and repair assurance.
About LiTeAfrica:
LiTeAfrica was founded by Alyse Daunis and Hashim Mutanje who are from America and Uganda respectively. They initiate to offer their services to help the households in Africa to develop and grow. Through this initiative they try to distribute solar lamps and cooking gases to help low-households to get access to energy.
