Areas of Focus: Basic education and literacy, Community economic development
Activity Type:
Community Development: General
Summary: 75 Watts of Love Solar Lights distributed in Keto, Homo Bay thru Rotary Club of Nairobi, Kenya to families
Access to solar lighting eliminates the need for a costly fuel source and offers immediate savings. Solar lighting also means people can continue daily activities after dark, which directly impacts household income, safety, and overall health. Solar light starts people on the pathway to prosperity. In 2020, the Watts of Love Foundation, https://www.wattsoflove.org/, launched a Lighthouse pilot program in Kenya. The Lighthouse program is a model that allows our Host, RC Nairobi, and International Club, RC Goodyear PebbleCreek (RCGYPC) members to work with the RC of Nairobi, deliver solar lights and financial literacy education. This RC project will deliver 75 solar lights and impact nearly 375 individuals or 75 families in rural Kenya. Methods and Strategies: Watts of Love Foundation with RCGYPC intentionally seeks out the most vulnerable people in the developing world, who live without access to electrical light. For our mission to be sustainable, we will partner with RC Nairobi. Using a unique financial literacy curriculum, the Watts of Love RCGYPC team will gently and compassionately instructs these future entrepreneurs how to save, invest and build for the future. We will train families on how to properly use the solar light and provide education on the importance of compound savings. We emphasize the significance of redirecting funds previously used to purchase kerosene or other dangerous light sources and invest their savings in books and sanitation. RXGYPC will purchase 75 WOL lights in the USA and one RCGYPC member, Colleen Malany, will deliver to RC Nairobi President, Miriam Mwonge, 2023/2024 and then help distribute lights with educational training. This would be the second District 5495 request by RC Goodyear PebbleCreek and is our second priority for Dist. 5495 funding after our Xmas Food Baskets.
Completed
This project is "Completed". This means the project has been implemented and the report was accepted by the district leadership. The project will stay listed on this website as a testimony of the achievements of the project partners.
Thank you for your application. Please detail how Rotarians will be actively participating in the project. Thanks.
24-Apr-23
by Buddy Sims
System Entry: Project sent for club signatures.
24-Apr-23
System Entry
System Entry: Project signed by Buddy Sims.
30-Apr-23
by Rebecca Wilks
This project cannot go through the signature process until you've addressed this question, asked in a history log question: how Rotarians will be actively participating in the project? Please allow me to start the signature process. Thanks.
30-Apr-23
by Rebecca Wilks
We cannot send this application until your report is in from this Rotary year. That report's due date is today.
30-Apr-23
by Colleen Malany
Rotarians will be the key to distribution of these lights in Kenya. They will make up teams that go into designated areas of need to give lights to families as well as teach the "financial literacy" program that dovetails the distribution. With the leadership of Watts of Love, chiefs of villages are asked to target the neediest of the needy to receive a light. We will continue to go back until all villages are "lighted". The recipient is taught how to save their kerosene money daily (since they no longer need to buy it). The box that the light comes in has a slot at the top making it a "piggy bank". We show them how the saved money enables them to buy a chicken at the end of a week or two depending on the price of a chicken. We extrapolate that money into months for them. Dreams met
30-Apr-23
by Rebecca Wilks
System Entry: Signature Process cancelled by user.
1-May-23
by Rebecca Wilks
System Entry: Project sent for club signatures.
1-May-23
by Rebecca Wilks
System Entry: Project signed by Rebecca Wilks.
1-May-23
by Buddy Sims
System Entry: Project signed by Buddy Sims.
23-May-23
System Entry
System Entry: Project signed by Rick Childers.
16-Jun-23
by Rebecca Wilks
Congratulations! This project has been approved for full funding. We need to do some administrative things, so we don’t know exactly when the money will hit your account, but our best guess is a month or so. We’ll send you an update when we have one. Please also remember that you may not spend money prior to TRF approval and reimburse yourself from grant funds. If there have been changes in your bank account (information for electronic transfer), please get that to Lucinda General (District Treasurer) as soon as possible. treasurer@rotary5495.org. Your report is due April 30, 2024, and receipts are required to complete the report (not invoices, cancelled checks, UPS shipping labels, or any other documents). Thank you for making the world a better place.
16-Jun-23
by Rebecca Wilks
System Entry: Project approved by the District Approval Committee.
7-Aug-23
by Caleb Lowe
Your District Grant has been approved by The Rotary Foundation We expect electronic payments will be initiated before Friday August 11. You may begin making project expenditures now. If there have been changes in your bank account (information for electronic transfer), please get those to Lucinda General (District Treasurer) as soon as possible. treasurer@rotary5495.org. Your report is due April 30, 2024, and receipts are required to complete the report (not invoices, cancelled checks, UPS shipping labels, or any other documents). Thank you again for your good work.
8-Aug-23
by Caleb Lowe
System Entry: Check for DDF payment issued by Foundation Treasurer.
16-Feb-24
by Colleen Malany
1. Training & Distribution of 75 lights to take place 3/22-27, 2024
2. Team of WOL volunteers & Colleen Malany will travel to Kenya to
lead the project
3. 5 each members of the Rotary Clubs of Isiolo & Nairobi-Thika Road
will travel to Northern Rangeland Trust (NRT), Samburu County to
be trained in the distribution & financial literacy curriculum
process.
4. 2-day training includes a mock distribution that models the
process as well as hands-on participation in the actual
distribution of 75
5. These Rotarians will then go back to their clubs and train more
members for subsequent distributions
lights (1 day).
17-Feb-24
by Rebecca Wilks
Thanks for the information - you seem to be on track. The message asking for an update is an annoying automatic function of the website which I can't turn off. Sorry for the inconvenience.
10-Mar-24
by Rebecca Wilks
A friendly reminder: Your completed, signed report form, along with receipts for all project expenditures must be uploaded to this page by April 30. The report form can be found here: https://portal.clubrunner.ca/50335/Documents/en-ca/da933040-cc9e-4230-b2e6-2a5900705ea4/1/
14-Apr-24
by Rebecca Wilks
Just one last reminder you have about two weeks to complete the report for this grant and submit it with all project receipts. Thanks. https://portal.clubrunner.ca/50335/Documents/en-ca/da933040-cc9e-4230-b2e6-2a5900705ea4/1/
23-Apr-24
by Rebecca Wilks
Thank you for beginning the reporting process. Please complete the financial section of the report form and sign it.
1-May-24
by Rebecca Wilks
System Entry: Project has been implemented and final report uploaded.
1-May-24
by Rebecca Wilks
System Entry: Final report approved by the District Approval Committee.
