Help Women lead their communities out of poverty

Mother of four, farmer, wife, and small businesswoman, Patricia is a determined and creative Zambian woman. When she’s not managing the household and raising four children – including twins! – she brings in extra cash by making nutritious sorghum flour to sell door to door. Patricia also farms a small plot of land to provide staple food for her family. She is always looking out for ways to learn and improve her family’s life.

“Whenever I see opportunities, I go for them, I do not let them pass!”

There is no grid electricity at all in the small, rural village of undi, some 80Km from Zambia’s Eastern Province, where Patricia and her family live. People here use kerosene and firewood to light their homes and cook their food. It is the women of Undi who manage their home energy needs. This means spending hours searching for wood and spending money paying for kerosene. Not to mention the hazards and health problems that these fuels mete out on the women using them.

So when Patricia heard about Kukula Solar’s entrepreneurial opportunity in clean energy, she was inspired to try it out. She signed up in July 2022.

People here were aware of solar, says Patricia, but they didn’t know where to get quality and durable solar lights. Market sellers sold solar products at low prices but they were unreliable and broke quickly. Patricia says most people had very little awareness of the health, time, and economic benefits of cooking with clean cookstoves.

Through 12 months of Kukula Solar's training and mentoring, Patricia learned about the most durable and affordable clean energy products available and how to set up a sustainable business to deliver clean energy to people who need it. After using solar lights and a clean cookstove herself, she understood personally how much she could save and the myriad benefits of switching to clean energy.

“I have learned a lot of things from Solar Sister, it makes women strong and alleviates energy poverty. And it makes us know that women can take care of their family without depending on others.”

Thanks to our donors for all your continued support in empowering women to be energy entrepreneurs while ending energy poverty.