Category: Uncategorised
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The entrepreneur who is making more nutritious drinks available thanks to the cooling power of the sun
Awa Sene is a shop owner in Khassid, a village of 751 inhabitants situated 18km from the town of Fatick in south west Senegal. In Khassid, as in many of the neighbouring villages, there is limited access to energy, creating a barrier to local development for small businesses and households, and restricting opportunities for economic…
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Lifelong learner and entrepreneurial spirit
When Onyinye Onye Ndimele heard about the opportunity to sell solar products, she was not convinced she would be able to make a business out of it. She works as a high school teacher and also sells toiletries like coconut oil and shea butter for extra income. “At the beginning, I was worried about how…
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The market gardening entrepreneur modernising rural agriculture, with the help of solar power
Thanks to its fertile soil, favourable climate and plentiful supply of water for irrigation, the small village of Lompoul Sur Mer in the Niayes area of north-west Senegal is an ideal location for market gardening. Practiced throughout the year, market gardening is the primary income source for many women in the village. Aïssata Ba, 45…
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Kenya’s clean cooking entrepreneurs are changing the energy sector: Herma and Asenath’s stories
Herma Okonjo and Asenath Onyango are energy entrepreneurs living in Kisumu County, Kenya. Herma runs an improved cookstoves business. She produces liners for Kenya Ceramic Jiko, Uhai and Upesi cookstoves and assembles them. Asenath owns an energy business in improved cook stoves, briquettes and solar products. Both women have come a long way since…
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Shanti Thokar: How her business has changed her role within the family and community
When she started her business, Shanti Thokar was not aware of the incredible goals she could have reached. As her peers, she married at 18 years and dropped out of school to devote her time to her family. Shanti was engaged in her husband’s grocery store and over the years she became familiar with…
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Bernadette, Virginie and Brigitte: Three energy entrepreneurs changing Rwanda one step at the time
In the lush hillside of Rulindo, a rural district in the Northern Province of Rwanda, not far from the capital city of Kigali, the agricultural village of Ntaruka crests the horizon. This is home to Bernadette, Virginie and Brigitte, three women entrepreneurs collaborating with Nuru Energy, a global social enterprise dedicated to provide households…
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How Suku Maya Majhi is contributing to energy access for all by selling clean cookstoves
Suku Maya Majhi is preparing the Nepali Dal Bath, with lentils and steamed rice in her new kitchen, equipped with an on-site built improved cookstove (ICS) which replaced the old traditional stove.
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Last Mile Learning: The Power of Social Networks
Growing from 10 to 3,000 entrepreneurs, Solar Sister has learned many lessons about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to recruitment of women in clean energy value chains. Identifying women who will thrive in our unique business opportunity is critical to scaling Solar Sister’s last mile distribution. Over the past eight years, Solar…
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When a dream comes true: Neha Shrestha and her story of beauty
Neha Shrestha is 22 years old. Thanks to the ENERGIA and Centre for Rural Technology Nepal Women’s Economic Empowerment project, she was able to pursue her dream. Now, she owns a beauty parlour shop in Sindhuli district, Nepal. Life goes really fast in some parts of the world. But not in the Sindhuli valley,…
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A life as Wonder Woman in Indonesia with Kopernik
Yoselvina Kune, also known as Mama Selvi, is a Christian priest living in Oekam village, a small village three hours away from Kupang, Indonesia. She is part of Kopernik’s Wonder Women Program, an initiative to empower women becoming sales agents of clean energy technologies, such as solar lights, water filters and cookstoves. By selling solar…
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“If we walk together, we can do it”
By Tjarda Muller and Melissa Ruggles On this International Women’s Day 2018, we celebrate women—and the need to further empower women—everywhere. Supporting women energy entrepreneurs is at the core of our Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme. Together with partners in six countries, we support over 4,000 women to become empowered entrepreneurs. Today, we share the story…
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Wonder Woman of Waingapu: Born to be a Leader
As the only female staff working at RESCO, a renewable energy service company established under the Sumba Iconic Island platform, Jetty Arlinda Maro, 26, has to work twice as hard as her male colleagues to prove her capacity. Unlike those men, she is not only responsible for electrical installations, she is also the facilitator and…