Queensland based charity SolarBuddy is launching its first public campaign to shine a light on the 1.4 billion people worldwide living in energy poverty. From 5 August until 16 August, SolarBuddy will be holding the Brisbane Light Lunch, where residents throughout Brisbane and South East Queensland have an opportunity to gather over lunch and assemble solar lights which will be gifted to children living in remote communities in Papua New Guinea.
SolarBuddy Founder and CEO Simon Doble launched the charity on the Sunshine Coast three years ago with the aim of educating people about energy poverty. “SolarBuddy has a big dream to gift six million solar lights to children living in energy poverty by 2030, to help improve their education outcomes and break the cycle of poverty they are born into,” Doble said.“Since SolarBuddy launched in May 2016, we have donated more than 100,000 lights to children all over the world and delivered our program in 500 schools across 13 countries. We have also engaged with more than 85 corporations impacting 35,000 employees. The gifted lights have been donated to children in countries including Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, India, South Africa, Tanzania and The Dominican Republic.”
The Brisbane Light Lunch campaign involves participants ordering a minimum of five lights at a cost of $35 per light. Each donation can be tracked and participants have a connection to the light’s recipient by writing them a letter. People taking part in the solar light assembly gatherings are also asked to take a photo of their team building lights and post it to Instagram using the #BNELightLunch hashtag for their chance to feature on digital billboards around the Brisbane CBD.
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