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The Soular Backpack serves the usual function of carrying children’s books.
But it also has a solar panel connected to a battery pack which can be charged by the sun during kids’ usually long walk to and from school.
When they’re at home, the battery can be linked to an LED lamp.
Transforming Lives In Kenya With Solar-Powered Backpacks
by Anne Field for Forbes Magazine. Published 1/17/2015 @ 11:14AM
The Soular Backpack, a very early-stage social enterprise, seems to have it all: a product that potentially can help transform the lives of the people who buy it, provide employment for the community, incorporate a one-for-one model, and involve idealistic students on campuses as champions. And its founder hasn’t even graduated from college yet.
The company is in the last days of an Indiegogo campaign; Jan. 19, in fact, is the last day.
The founder is Salima Visram, a student at McGill University in Montreal, who grew up near Kikambala , a poor village in Kenya, where 22,000 people live below the poverty line and lack electricity. Visram herself isn’t poor: Her family owns a nearby resort. But she started college determined to do something to address poverty.
She plans to form partnerships with UNICEF, the UNHCR, and the Kenyan government to expand to many more schools in the country and throughout Africa.
Read the complete article by Anne Field in Forbes Magazine via Forbes | Entrepreneurs | Transforming Lives In Kenya With Solar-Powered Backpacks
Anne Field is an award-winning journalist with a particular interest in for-profit social enterprise, as well as entrepreneurship and small business in general.
Watch this inspiring YouTube video to connect with the vision of this project.
About Salima Visram
From the age of 4, my parents ensured that my siblings and I understood the complexities of poverty, and that as I grew as an individual and learnt more about the world, I also needed to ensure that the people around me, grew too. Every year since I was very young, I would collect the money I got for my birthday and sponsor an additional child’s lunch for the entire year at the Kikambala Primary School, until a feeding program was introduced.
When I was 12, I formed a social business entity which employed local women from the Kikambala village to make jewelry that I designed. This was sold at a local boutique, and the money raised went towards funding a girls’ choir, so that they could develop a talent and passion, giving them an incentive to stay in school and not turn to child prostitution. Two years later, this choir stood first nationally in all categories at the Kenya Music Festival.
Since then, I have had the opportunity to implement projects with UNICEF, Microsoft and the Government of Kenya, and carried out initiatives in healthcare, education and childrens’ rights.
In 2010, I was invited by Her Highness Suzanne Mubarak to attend the “End Human Trafficking” Conference in Egypt, among delegates such as His Highness the Aga Khan.
This exposed me to child trafficking and modern day slavery, which is a reality for millions of children who do not have an income, or an education to fall back on. The Soular Backpack is an intervention that can break this cycle.
Via Indiegogo | The Soular Backpack
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