Dear Friends,
We are all…concerned. We are all…trying to keep our loved ones safe. We are all…longing for some kind of normalcy.
“We are all” has a deeper, more poignant truth now. We are all in this mess together. We are all talking about the same thing. We are all trying to maintain distance while keeping our hearts open. We are all trying to figure out what to do, how to act, in these unprecedented circumstances.
Little Sun, like other organizations working for the public good, is reflecting on how we can rise to the occasion and improve the well-being of those who will likely be most hurt by the crisis. We may be weeks away from the coronavirus hitting hard in the parts of Africa where Little Sun works, but we are preparing for the impact to be significant.
While we will continue delivering on our overall mission of providing affordable and accessible renewable energy to communities across Africa, we will increase our focus on energy for health and livelihoods. Building on longstanding efforts with e-health partners, we will deliver thousands of solar phone chargers to frontline community health workers across Africa so they can provide vital services to patients in remote villages. We will equip rural health facilities in Ethiopia with solar systems that will provide power for cold storage and lighting. We will work with our local partners in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia to protect and improve livelihoods in low income communities, including efforts to use solar power for egg incubation, small scale irrigation, and post-harvest crop processing.
Beyond our work in Africa, we are offering online tools to everyone coping with quarantine, including learning activities for children and educators. Find our online curriculum here and check our social media channels for more in the coming days.
Little Sun is committed to doing all that we can to meet the challenges of this time. We hope you will join us in offering energy, support and love to the people most in need.
John Heller
CEO, Little Sun
John Heller is the Chief Executive Officer of Little Sun. He has extensive experience in the social sector, having developed and led large-scale programs to address issues such as child under-nutrition, clean water access, agricultural transformation, indigenous people’s rights, and public health systems strengthening. Before joining Little Sun, John served as Managing Director at the Synergos Institute, where he founded and led an innovative purpose-driven consultancy that enabled global companies, foundations and social enterprises to achieve social impact in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
