There are 1.6 people without electricity, which makes one quarter of the humanity. Currently, these people use kerosene lamps, which is very harmful for health and uses expensive fuel. People use kerosene lamp because it is easy to make and portable. Present solar lamps exist which expensive (10 $ minimum) and repairing these solar lamps at the village level is very difficult. These reasons make it difficult for the people in the village to buy solar lamps.

We designed a 2 $ electric lamp which has potential to replace kerosene lamps in developing countries. It is made up of 4 components: (1) LED bulb (2) switch (3) cellphone battery rechargeable in any cellphone (4) Solar PV (5) locally available materials such as empty transparent bottle, which make it easy to build and repair by users at the village level. All the components are chosen in such a way that it doesn’t require a control system which drastically reduces the price of the lamp, making it world’s cheapest lamp.

Our mission is to empower people in developing countries to make their own electrical rechargeable lamp, using locally available material to promote sustainability and health, develop skills and gain jobs. This also helps in creating awareness about sustainability.

We started this project in India where we trained almost 30 people and then the project was improved after the feedback. Our second pilot project was done in Africa. We held three workshops in Kenya and one in Tanzania, training around 100 people, which include unemployed youth, women and school children.

We help people to create business in rural part and also help schools to develop practical session on building lamp for the students. This has helped students to study late night. We also train volunteers who can go to un-electrified part and train other people as LEDSafari ambassadors.