SOLAR MAMAS

Putting power in the hands of women

In 2019, Great Plains sponsored nine ‘Solar Mamas’ to leave their villages in Botswana to attend a five-month solar power training program in India. They returned home with the skills to install and maintain solar home lighting systems, run a business and provide sustainable energy for their communities.

The current phase of the project aims to supply equipment for the Solar Mamas to electrify rural households in their remote communities bordering the Okavango Delta. Solar electricity is a safer and more sustainable energy source than paraffin, candles, or firewood and electricity is a natural deterrent to wildlife in this game-dense area. The project also aims to increase community-wide educational and economic activity after dark and advance gender equality by supporting women to become entrepreneurs. The Solar Mamas program is unique in its ability to address all of these areas of community life with an environmentally sustainable technology at the program’s centre.

Help us put power in the hands of women. Your gift will support these trailblazing women who are bringing light and clean energy to their rural communities. $250 helps purchase and ship a solar household lighting unit.