Our intern, Prajay Singh is soon heading off to India to help implement safer lighting and cooking methods. Read about this great initiative and how you can help support Prajay.
Imagine living in a 2.5m x 2.5m tent. You can barely stand upright, and there are no windows, water or electricity. At night, you have to cook with a kerosene cooking stove that fills the small space with eye-watering smoke. On top of the stove, you have a candle burning or a kerosene lamp in order to see.
Apart from the obvious fire hazard, kerosene smoke also presents a major health hazard. Read more about indoor air pollution related deaths from the World Heath Organisation. Across India, 25% of the population is still living without electricity.
Economic migrants live in tents, which are made of blue tarpaulin sheets and advertising banners with wooden poles as support beams. They live in these conditions because they cannot afford higher quality accommodation, or they chose to save money to send back to their families.
Pollinate Energy is an Australian not-for-profit social business that aims to improve the lives of such migrant communities. To do this, Pollinate Energy enables local Indians to start their own franchise of distributing solar lights and smoke-free cooking stoves to those in need. These franchisees are called Pollinators.
Fellowship Program
Each round of the Fellowship Program is a chance to establish operations in a new region. This is where the majority of fundraising money goes. Each fellow is partnered with another fellow, an Indian intern and their Pollinator. The role of the fellow is to support and train the Pollinators with the skills necessary to become self-reliant.
To date, Pollinate Energy has achieved the following results:
- installed 2,632 solar lights
- reached 12,107 people
- services 250 communities
- saved 156,901kg of CO2 emissions
To support Prajay, Competency Training will be hosting a sausage sizzle fundraiser at our Spring Hill training facility, 433 Boundary Street, Spring Hill, 4000. To donate towards Prajay’s efforts, please visit the Pollinate Energy website.
