Light Up The World. Highlights - December What s New at LUTW? Light Up A Home for the Holidays Campaign. Exciting News...

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1 Light Up The World Highlights - December 2008 What s New at LUTW? Light Up A Home for the Holidays Campaign The Challenge: Almost 2 billion people in the world live without access to electricity. Many rely on kerosene fuel as a source of light in their homes which is dim, expensive, unsafe, damaging to the environment and also unhealthy. Inhaling the toxic fumes can be equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day for the people living in the house. These are serious problems which Light Up The World is committed to solving. access to electricity. For $250 CDN, you will provide a solar-powered LED lighting system to a family in need. In return, you will receive a card with details about the people served by your generosity, including the GPS coordinates of their location. Help us spread light that is safe, affordable, healthy, efficient, and environmentally-friendly this holiday season. Help us illuminate lives; light up a home for the holidays! You can also choose to give the gift of light on behalf of a friend or family member. In response to your generosity, the recipient will receive a holiday card from LUTW. This will include the GPS coordinates of the home that has been lit up in their name. If you would like to give the gift of light this holiday season in the name of a friend or family member, please go to: Donate?ID=1590&VER=1&LNG=EN Exciting News... The Solution: Through partnerships with organizations and people living in off grid communities, LUTW works to install solar powered LED lighting. The LED system we use provides safe, affordable, healthy and environmentally responsible lighting solutions. However we need your help. Be a part of creating a brighter future and give the gift of light this year! Light Up a Home for the Holidays: This holiday season, give the gift of light to a family in the developing world that has never before had The Pattison Sign Group has agreed to donate eight billboards to LUTW for this year s Light Up A Home for the Holidays Campaign. The billboards will be placed across Canada over the holiday season in 4 major cities at the following addresses: Vancouver (December 1-December 28) Hastings and Slocan Venables and Vernon 1

2 Calgary (December 1-December 28) 17th Avenue and Center Street SE Memorial Drive and 28th Street SE Edmonton (December 15-January 11) 111 Avenue and 143 Street 118 Avenue and Wayne Gretzky Way Toronto (December 1-December 28) Markham Road and McNicholl Avenue Highway 427 and Rexdale Boulevard Help LUTW spread the gift of light this season by letting your friends and family know about our Light Up A Home for the Holidays Campaign this year! LUTW Has Moved! Light Up The World has become part of the Calgary corporate environment. In September, we moved from the University of Calgary campus to a space generously donated by CTI Resources at #500, Avenue SW. Light Up The World would like to thank Jeff Arsenych and all the staff at CTI Resources for warmly welcoming us into our new home. the solar lighting systems will support the education of over 1200 school children in three schools, 50 teachers and community facilitators, 700 women taking part in an adult literacy project and over 1000 people who use the community library. Currently, all education programs take place during the day and end at around six o clock in the evening once the sun goes down. As lighting becomes available, these spaces will be available after dark and to enhance the lives of the people of Kabala. Project Profile: Sierra Leone The Sierra Leone Lighting for Education Project is an initiative that will enhance opportunities for education in the Koinadugu district of Sierra Leone. This project involves the installation of solar panels and 110 LED lamps in schools and literacy centers, including a community library. In total, lighting systems will be installed in seven buildings which house education programs in Kabala, the capital city of the Koinadugu district in Northwestern Sierra The Sierra Leone Lighting for Education Project is a Leone. joint initiative between Light Up The World, Philips, and CAUSE Canada. The Environmental Foundation This project is complementing CAUSE Canada s for Africa (EFA) and DENG Solar Training Center are education programs in the community of Kabala. also partners in this project. The schools and literacy centers that will receive Photos: Top Right - The Kabala Community Library; Bottom Right - Project Staff using LED light to read. 2

3 Installations have already taken place in the community library at the end of August and will take place in another six buildings in the future. LUTW still requires $13,000 to complete the final phase for the Sierra Leone project. In order to make this project a success we still need your support. For further inquiries about the Sierra Leone project, please contact j.kohlhammer@lutw.org or visit our website at Partner Profile: The Environmental Foundation for Africa The Environmental Foundation for Africa (EFA) was founded in 1992 in the United Kingdom, with a primary focus on Sierra Leone. The Solar Initiative is EFA s newest large scale project line, beginning in The first major project was conducted with the United Nation s High Council for Refugees and consisted of installations at five medical clinics and seven schools in areas with a high concentration of refugees, internally displaced persons and/or returnees in Liberia. Since then, EFA has continued to expand its photovoltaic program, conducting numerous other installations across Sierra Leone and greening its own operations by going solar at its Lakka compound and the Tiwai Island site it jointly manages. The installation of solar power systems have had a great impact on the communities they serve. The clinics, who each support communities of between 10,000 and 80,000 people, are now completely free from costly generator running costs and have vastly increased service. The schools can now operate classes at night, giving a much wider variety of people the choice of an education and training outside of working hours. EFA is also playing an instrumental role in LUTW s Sierra Leone project. In fact, they are participating in project planning, participating in solar system design and layout, procuring (purchasing) equipment, system installation, and training the local community on system usage and maintenance. To learn more about EFA, please see their contact information below: Sierra Leone PMB 34, 1 Beach Road, Lakka, Freetown Peninsula Tel: info@efasl.org.uk Website: Notes From The Field In May, Light Up The World asked some of our partners, who are using the LUTW LED solar lighting systems in support of their own renewable energy projects, to share some of their experiences and challenges they faced from their installations. This is a letter received from William Day of the Golden Hills Community Church in Brentwood, California, who had received twenty four Light In A Box assemblies and 12 individual lights. He tells us where LUTW s lights were installed in Chad, Africa, who they impacted and some of the challenges they experienced along the way. Part of his letter follows below, which demonstrates the many lives his organization has helped to illuminate and his substantial contribution towards achieving LUTW s global lighting initiative. Two LIAB s (Light in a Box) were given to a Photos: Right - EFA s Tiwai Island Site 3

4 missionary couple who have been serving unreached people groups in North Africa for 43 years. They have lived with nomadic tribes in Morocco, Libya and Chad; the last several years they have been living in a small, homemade trailer. Their light had been firelight and kerosene. One LIAB was given to a missionary who has been teaching French, English, public health and agriculture in Chad for 16 years. She has a small solar system in her compound and has now lit an area where children and adults can study. LUTW Past Events: Training Seminar - October 18, 2008: Light Up The World completed another successful training seminar on October 18th. The focus of this one-day seminar was on photovoltaic systems, solid state lighting and system design. The seminar also discussed the economics of energy consumption for lighting in less developed countries as well as what community based Five LIABs were given to an orphanage that houses, renewable energy projects in developing countries feeds and educates about 40 Chadian orphans. At entails. Check our website soon for updates about night, the school had light only from firelight and the 2009 LUTW training seminars. kerosene. The children s dormitory was very dark. Two LIABs and two individual lamps were given to United Nations Day at the Calgary Zoo a missionary who works in an orphanage/clinic/ October 23, 2008: school for Darfuri refugees inside Chad but near The Calgary Branch of the United Nations the border. She has an existing small solar system. Association in Canada (UNAC) celebrated UN Day The LIABs and individual lamps will free up some by recognizing the efforts of corporate leaders and capacity for a small refrigerator for medications. non-governmental organizations that support the United Nations Global Compact. It is difficult to say how many people have benefited from the LIABs and individual lamps - certainly, Calgary Snow Show - November 8-9, 2008: many hundreds. LUTW was able to talk about the Light Up The Bill Day Home for the Holidays Campaign and exhibited at the two day consumer show featuring everything winter! Resorts, skiing and snowboarding are featured, along with snowmobiling, dog sledding and other winter activities. 4

5 Banker s Hall - November 16-17, 2008: LUTW was able to continue promotion of the Light Up The Home for the Holidays Campaign by talking to many people who were going wandering through Banker s Hall on their lunch breaks. 5th Avenue Place - December 2-4, 2008: Light Up The World was raising awareness for the Light Up A Home for the Holidays Campaign in the lobby of 5th Avenue place. Crestmont Craft Fair - November 23, 2008: This holiday fair was extremely successful with over 25 different vendors displaying different Christmas crafts. All proceeds for admission were generously donated to LUTW. Light Up The World #500, Avenue SW Calgary, AB T2R 0H2 Phone: Fax: Website 5