Enda Gergis Women Empowerment

Background

Enda Giorgis is a village located in the Debub Region or Zone about 120 km south of Asmara. It is out of the national electricity grid and hence without any electricity services. The whole village was using kerosene fueled lanterns for lighting their household that were not only costly but also detrimental to health. They were not able to watch national TV as well. Frequently, the village communities and families used generators for celebrations and social events. In collaboration with the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW), who were also concerned with the situation of the village and seeking solution, we went to work to mitigate the issues with appropriate solutions to enhance the life of the village community. We partnered with NUEW to and provided HEBCOSS solutions.

 Objective

 The objective of the initiative is to establish women owned HEBCOSS powered income generating businesses and to enhance ways of life of the Enda Giorigis families utilizing energy-as-a-service concept.

Solutions

 The NUEW established a group of three women and gave them a line of credit close to Nakfa 100,000 for them to ensure the ownership of the solution and services. LinkedLinnes trained the women on how to operate HEBCOSS products for more than four hours. After the training and staying about three months in business, the three women were fit to become HEBCOSS Energy Technicians (HET). LinkedLines was thus able to provide Enda Girorgis HET team with two packages:

• HEBCOSS SB-150 (Two 150 W panels; 150 AH battery and 600W inverter) to:
  • Power 40 2W LED bulbs for 3 hours per day
  • Charge up to 40 mobile phone per day
  • Power up a speaker of 500W for 6 hours for DJ service
  • Power 50” TV for four hours per day
• HEBCOSS SB-10 (one 30W panel and 12 AH battery) to:
  • Leasing of light for events
  • Leasing of 15” DC TV
  • Mobile charging on markets
• Cables, 2W, 6W and 11W LED bulbs, dividers

On day one, the HET distributed 20 2W Led bulbs to neighbors of the HEBCOSS Hub and were charging 100 Nakfa per month. They were also charging 10 to 20 phones per day at the rate of 10 Nakfa per charge. Every evening they started educational and entertainment TV programs for kids, youth and adults at Nakfa 2 per episode. They were able to lease the system for events for light for Nakfa 170 per day and Nakfa 1,000 for DJ services. On average the HET were able to generate Naka 7,000 per month.

Impacts

The solutions provided had the following impacts:

• It created a job opportunity and hence an income generating activities for the NUEW members,
• It helped to reducing noise and air pollution previously created by fuel powered generators,
• It enabled the villagers to celebrate events using cheaper and appropriate energy source,
• It allowed twenty households to use 24 hours’ light services,
• It permitted all village members, whenever they wanted, to access lighting services through leasing,
• It created the opportunity to watch TV programs.

---

Also in Projects