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12.000 Lights for Haiti
While we still have a few weeks of nice weather ahead of us, a camping trip should definitely be on your agenda. It’s the perfect moment to step away from daily routines, get some fresh air, and recharge in nature. Studies show that spending time outdoors improves both your mental and physical state, reduces stress, boosts your mood, and well, simply perks you up!
In the successful crowdfunding campaign for the WakaWaka Power at the beginning of this year, the slogan was: “Buy one, give one”. Once the official campaign finished, we doubled the donation on our ownwww.getwakawaka.com with the slogan “Buy one, give two”.
Haiti was the focus of both campaigns from the beginning. So during the campaigns we already started to liaise with local and international NGO’s on Haiti to see what the best method of distribution would be. And thanks to our excellent contacts with some Dutch expats on Haiti we were able to check the requirements for and the feasibility of the many requests for lamps that were send to us.
Very quickly it became clear that giving away without any obligations attached, would not be a good idea. People attach greater value to something that they have paid for. Either in money or in effort. And although the principle of the donation of the lamps is still in place, we have agreed with all parties involved that from every receiver of a lamp, a small service will be required. This can be the cleaning up of debris, the collection of styrofoam, attending a training on house repair, being involved and help with building a communal house and carry rocks and sand, and get cement to build a safety wall around the community/camp.
The lamps will be distributed through the whole of the country with special attention to off grid areas. Of course the tent camps around Port au Prince are an important part of the plan. Thanks to a cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) some 2.000 lamps will be distributed to a total of 51 different tent camps. The other 10.000 lamps will be distributed through the networks of a diverse collection of international NGO’s such as Save the Children, Christian Aid, Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs, World Renew, the Luthern World Federation and Aid Still Required. On Haiti we will be working with more than 10 local NGO’s.
In the upcoming weeks we will publish on this website the entire list of projects, plus more details. We now foresee a start of the distribution in the beginning of June, depending on the time it takes for the transport. We will also publish in the coming weeks more information on the pilot plant that will be installed for the packaging of the WakaWaka’s on Haiti itself.
