12
Apr

PROINSO Launches Social Entrepreneurship CSR Initiative to Tackle Use of Kerosene


Six years after launching its CSR initiative – Solar Energy Solidarity (www.proinso.net/corporate-social-responsibility), solar energy distributor and integrator, PROINSO, is launching a new corporate social responsibility initiative. The initiative aims to tackle youth unemployment in underprivileged communities by promoting social entrepreneurship with a focus on solar. It is also designed to reduce health risks by replacing fossil fuels with such as by distributing the SM100 solar light manufactured by Yingli Europe. This is regarded as the world’s most affordable solar light and has an important role in this mission.

PROINSO calls on aspiring entrepreneurs, start-ups, business incubators and young professionals with an interest and experience in solar energy generation, to send us inquiries and proposals for stewardship and potential partnership. We take the opportunity to invite you to join our Solar Energy Solidarity initiative in rural and off-grid areas, which we can jointly enlighten with solar energy lamps.

At PROINSO, we believe solar is becoming central to powering our homes and businesses. We aim to be at the forefront of this energy revolution. Solar Energy Solidarity, started as a solidarity initiative carried out by PROINSO to embrace social responsibility and commit to providing off-grid communities with the technical tools to use the sun as a source of energy.

In 2017, Solar Energy Solidarity, is aligning with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SDGs. Dea Jancic, Head of CSR at PROINSO, said: “Our sustainability pillars will power vulnerable communities across the world. We will embark on tackling issues related to health, education, safety, environmental protection, and economic empowerment; particularly targeting both the youth population with entrepreneurship potential and vulnerable women.”

PROINSO’s latest corporate philanthropy project was launched at the Solar Show Africa (March 28-29) in Johannesburg featuring our new product, the SM100 solar light (www.proinso.net/SM100). Each purchase of a product contributed to the donation of a single unit to orphans in Ga-Dikgale communities in Limpopo, South Africa. The initiative has been implemented with the support of Aluwani, a non-governmental organization that has provided child-care facilities and support to over 3,500 orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa. The project aims to mitigate health and safety risks by replacing expensive and hazardous kerosene lamps, while allowing children to safely study after dark. In the coming months, PROINSO will launch more initiatives of this nature in other parts of Africa and Asia.

The SM100 solar light is manufactured by Yingli Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Ltd., one of the largest solar module manufacturers worldwide. The lamp provides 5+ hours of light powered by solar energy, comes with a 1 year warranty and is regarded as the world’s most affordable solar light of this quality on the international market. SM100 solar light has been tested through Lighting Global’s rigorous Quality Assurance framework* and certified as meeting their quality standards.

For orders and partnership enquires, please contact Dea Jancic, Head of CSR at PROINSO (djancic@sales-proinso.net).

In 2011, PROINSO launched a social media campaign in the framework of an innovative corporate social responsibility initiative, titled ´Solar Energy Solidarity’. With a click, users who visited the company’s Facebook page could contribute energy watts. These would eventually become PV supplies donated by PROINSO to develop PV projects in underprivileged areas across the world lacking electricity power resources. In partnership with NGOs and local governments in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia, Solar Energy Solidarity developed a number of solar energy projects that has provided access to clean energy to over 28,000 people since 2011.

*Lighting Global is the World Bank Group’s platform to support sustainable growth of the international off-grid solar market as a means of rapidly increasing energy access to the 1.2 billion people without grid electricity.