IOM’s Global Solar Lanterns Initiative

Make a one-time or monthly contribution.

Benefits of Solar Lanterns

Support for Education

Completing homework is difficult for children with no access to electricity. By providing solar lanterns youth can study at night and improve their performance.

Reduced Risk

Women and men living in camps can experience assault and insecurity. By using solar lanterns at night to carry out routine chores or travel to and from water and sanitation facilities, they can feel safer.

Increased Health and Safety

Replacing kerosene lamps with solar lanterns helps avoid inhaling toxic fumes and greatly reduces fire hazards and dependency on expensive, non-renewable resources.

Communities You've Reached

• Somalia: Approximately 347 internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps on Bossaso, Galkayo and Garowe, Somalia have been given solar lanterns.
• Ghana: Solar lanterns have been distributed to child survivors of trafficking who were rescued from fishing communities along Lake Volta.
• The Philippines: Solar lamps were distributed to populations in remote, hard-to-reach and/or high-risk areas across typhoon-affected areas.
• Ethiopia: IOM has distributed around 2,400 Panasonic solar lanterns, targeting displaced families in the rural areas of Ethiopia.
• Mauritania: IOM provided 342 solar lanterns to off-the-grid and vulnerable households in Mauritania.
• Sierra Leone: IOM provided 288 lanterns to displaced persons and flood victims in Sierra Leone.

Solar Lanterns for the Rohingyas

IOM and Waka Waka, a solar lanterns company, have teamed up to help the Rohingya¹ community in Bangladesh. Fifty-five thousand Rohingyas live in makeshift settlements where basic services and infrastructure are practically non-existent. Rohingya children often grow up without formal education and most families have lost their traditional forms of livelihood. The lack of electricity impacts the community: children struggle to study in the evening and women feel less secure when neighborhoods become dark. For every Waka Waka solar light or charger that you buy, IOM will distribute one Waka Waka to a Rohingya family in need.

 

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_{¹“The largest Muslim group within Rakhine State self-identify under the term “Rohingya,” a designation that is not accepted by the majority of the ethnic Rakhine population and is not recognized by the central Government of Myanmar as one of the 135 official nationalities in the country. In order to preserve neutrality on the issue, IOM Myanmar alternatively refers to this group as “Muslim minority of Rakhine State.” In line with the National Strategy of the Government of Bangladesh, IOM Bangladesh refers to unregistered members of this minority group as “Undocumented Myanmar Nationals."}

Partnerships

• UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency)
• Panasonic
• Waka Waka
• GOGLA (Global Off-Grid Lighting Association)