Bringing eco-sustainable light to places that have none, educating communities on the use of solar energy and fostering local microenterprises. These are the goals of the NGO Liter of Light.
A plastic bottle, a solar panel, a battery and an LED light: these are the components of the lights that Liter of Light, an NGO born in the Philippines and active in 26 countries around the world, brings to developing nations and to situations of energy emergency. It is an open-source eco-sustainable technology — free from copyright and therefore available to everyone to reproduce.
Liter of Light is a project of the Philippine foundation My Shelter Foundation: it was established in 2011 with the aim of bringing eco-sustainable lighting to communities living in energy poverty, spreading the use of the Solar Bottle Bulb technology developed by Brazilian mechanic Alfredo Moser. An invention as extraordinary as it is simple for illuminating homes in the peripheries of the world: a transparent plastic bottle filled with water and bleach is fixed to the roof and produces light using the energy of the sun.
Liter of Light at Night was born by adding a solar panel, a battery and an LED light to the technology developed by Moser in order to respond to the state of energy emergency following Typhoon Haiyan — or Yolanda, as it is known in the Philippines — which struck the Southeast Asian country in November 2013, affecting more than 14 million people. The driving force behind the project is Illac Diaz, a young social entrepreneur who set out to bring the project to 26 countries around the world, opening twenty national offices. In just a few years, Liter of Light has installed 500,000 lights in the world's darkest places and in emergency situations, reaching a total of two million beneficiaries.
Liter of Light Italia is based in Prato, in the province of Florence. Led by Lorenzo Giorgi, coordinator of European projects, it carries out interventions in various countries around the world, bringing light where there is none and helping to educate people on the use of solar energy. "Sustainability is our watchword," says Giorgi. "Raising young people's awareness of green energy issues is a fundamental step towards a more sustainable future. Our goal is to enable everyone to benefit from lighting through the use of eco-sustainable technologies." For this reason, Liter of Light employs a microenterprise model, training people on the ground who are able to repair the lights and recreate the technology using simple industrial components available locally.
"Every person that Liter of Light Italia trains during international projects is equivalent to a light that will never stop illuminating the future of those communities. The training workshops, where the creation and maintenance of the lamps is demonstrated to community members, are an indispensable element of every international project," explains Giorgi.
Liter of Light Italia was selected by the United Nations as part of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network — the network of sustainable development solutions promoted by the international organisation — in the Youth category, the one dedicated to young people, at the start of 2017. It was thus recognised as one of the innovations best contributing to the achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, the Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals for Sustainable Development to be reached by 2030.
In 2016, Liter of Light Italia installed one hundred street lights in Senegal in the communities of Sossop, Ndianendiane, Tataguine and Bandoulou. The electronic circuits were created also thanks to the contribution of students from the Istituto scientifico linguistico statale Giordano Bruno in Cassano d'Adda. The assembly of the street lights was carried out with the collaboration of students from the Senegalese communities, some of whom were trained to repair and, where necessary, recreate the technology used. This is the first step towards the creation of local microenterprises that can make the project sustainable in the long term, both technically and socially. Through forms of microcredit and technical training, small economically sustainable enterprises are created that can transform the solar revolution into a lasting and productive reality.