Social Impact

I am very happy with the solar lantern because it gives enough light during cooking and eating time, and is much brighter than the torch we had before. Out of 3 brightness settings, we can select the one that we want and I can charge my mobile phone even when the light is on, which is great! Best thing is that I don’t have to cook dinner before the sun goes down like I did before.

I bought a solar light from Harness Energy during last Ramzan. I charge it through a solar panel in the morning and it gives me very bright light for my stall at night. I also offer free mobile phone charging to customers and this has helped increase my sale of bananas and kinnows! Till last year I used to close my cart by sunset, but now I stay open for an extra 3 hours at night. This light has helped increase my daily income by Rs. 200 and I am able to provide better for my family now.

Abbu [father] got me this solar light for my studies. When we had a kerosene lantern, I used to find it hard to do my homework at night. Because of the dim light, I had to keep my book right in front of it to read properly. Also the smell of kerosene burning was very bad. Now I keep the solar light on the shelf, and do my homework comfortably.

My wife and daughters used to spend more than 50 minutes every day making dung cakes to burn for fuel. We had no other choice because we had to cook 2 daily meals by burning dung cakes as fuel, as firewood has become more expensive. One day a friend told me that we could make gas out of cow dung, if we got a biogas plant. After seeing a plant in operation in a village nearby, I decided to get one constructed near our house [from Harness Energy]. Now we just pay Rs. 1200 per month as installment of our plant, and get clean gas to our cook stove for free! Can’t tell you how happy my wife and daughters are now.

I have been married for 22 years now and have been cooking daily meals for my husband and family. I collected firewood from our vicinity and sometimes bought it from a trader, and used to cook on an open fire outside my house. My children used to play close by. I could see them coughing regularly but didn’t realize how dangerous the smoke was for them. Then I lost my 3 year old boy in 2013 to chronic asthma and the doctor told me it happened because of inhaling toxic smoke. I was dejected, angry, and frustrated but didn’t know what to do. My mother and her mother before that, had been cooking the same way, and we knew we could not afford LPG cylinders. A few months ago, my sister-in-law told me about a clean stove that completely eliminated smoke. I told my husband about this and we bought one on installments to test it out. This stove has changed our lives. It not only saves us Rs. 300 per month in firewood cost, it does not have any smoke! I have been using it for 18 months and it has not given me any problem yet. Will recommend it strongly to all women of our village if they want to ensure their kids live in a healthy smoke-free environment.