“Can you imagine
finding time to earn your living if you had to spend hours every day collecting
firewood?  Or how you would study with no
electric light in the evening?  One quarter
of the world’s population do not have reliable access to electricity; 70% of
these are women and girls living in developing countries.” 

Soroptimist International President Ann
Garvie 2013-15

Soroptimist International President Ann Garvie is launching her December
10 Appeal, See Solar, Cook Solar, which will support Soroptimist projects all over the world providing
education and solar solutions to women. Read President Ann’s
full message.

Energy poverty is a significant barrier to women and girls’ education
and empowerment in many parts of the world. Around 1.4 billion people have no
access to electricity and a billion more only have access to unreliable
electricity networks. About 3 billion people rely on solid fuels (traditional
biomass and coal) to meet their basic needs.

Women are particularly affected because of their role in collecting
fuel, cooking and other domestic work. It forces them to spend hours a day on
manual labour to prepare food or collecting firewood. It damages health,
because of harmful smoke from cooking fires or by compromising health services.
It hinders communication by internet or mobile phone, prevents women and girls
from studying or working in the evenings, and places women at greater risk of
violence in low-lit or darkened streets.

See Solar, Cook
Solar:  Educating, Empowering and
Enabling Opportunities

“Sustainable energy—energy that is accessible, cleaner and
more efficient—powers opportunity. It grows economies. It lights up homes, schools
and hospitals. It empowers women and local communities. And it paves a path out
of poverty to greater prosperity for all.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s Sustainability for All initiative

President Ann’s December 10 Appeal will support Soroptimist projects
that educate women about renewable
energy and empower and enable
opportunities for them, by providing solar lanterns and cookers.  Project sites around the world will be announced soon.

By increasing their access to solar energy, the projects
will provide women and girls with:

• Increased time to pursue other activities
• Ability to read and study at night
• Ability to undertake income generating
  activities at night
• Health benefits (decreased access to harmful
  smoke)
• Increased access to health services (powered by
  renewable energy)
• Water purification
• New jobs and areas of employment
• Decreased risk of violence with increased
  lighting, particularly in refugee camps and other notably dangerous areas
• Increased communications and access to
  information (mobile phone chargers, radios, etc.)

Photo: SI Denmark & SI Kenya joint solar project (Else Larsen)

Soroptimist International clubs and federations already have a strong
track record of supporting solar energy projects.“A Soroptimist
International of Europe Club partnership between Denmark and Kenya has shown
how successful such solar projects can be, with over 200 women benefitting”,
says President
Ann, who was particularly inspired by this SI Eldoret (Kenya) project to
provide solar chargers, lanterns and cookers by, winner of one of SIE’s 2013
Best Practice Awards. Read more about the
SI Kenya/Denmark solar partnership.

Get Involved – Action
Ideas for December 10

The “See Solar, Cook Solar” campaign will officially launch December 10,
2013. During the initial phase, while the project sites are finalised, why not
raise awareness and understanding of sustainability, energy poverty and solar
energy?

• Organise a “See Solar, Cook Solar” quiz evening to test your
  knowledge!  We’ll provide the questions
  (and answers), which will be available from the SI website soon.
• “Lights out” for December 10 – get a taste of what it’s like
  for the 2.4 billion people who do not have access to reliable electricity by
  committing to go mains-free for a day, an evening, a club meeting… you could
  ask for sponsorship or donate the money that you’d have spent on electricity to
  the Appeal.

Club resources will be available soon from the SI Facebook page and website.

More information

What does it mean to be a woman in a place without energy? In this video, Helen Clark, Administrator of the UN Development Programme and member of
the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Group on Sustainable
Energy for All, describes how access to basic energy can transform lives.

UNDP Fact sheet on Universal Energy Access