The Nitty Gritty: Let There Be Light

Check out Barefoot Power - featured lighting in Nightjar’s Sand County shoot. Learn how proper lighting can fight poverty at http://www.barefootpower.com

——-

From: Tanit Sakakini
To: Brian Burkhardt, Jason Loik
Cc: Sam Andrews
Date: October 2, 2009 1:12:53 AM EDT
Subject: Barefoot’s products for photo shoot

Hi Jason and Brian -

I’m forwarding you Sam’s email where he explains Barefoot Power’s mission.

I think we’d want to go with the ones with the brightest output.  Sam’s cc’d here, so please just let him know what products you think you’d like to work with on the shoot.

Thanks all!

- Tanit
——-
Begin forwarded message:
From: Sam Andrews
To: Tanit Sakakini
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 17:44:43
To: Subject: RE: Barefoot in our photo shoot

G’day Tanit!

Sounds interesting what you are suggesting, it’s not a form of promotion we have ever considered! In fact we do very little work in regards to promoting our product in Western countries, because we make no sales there - but it’s certainly something we should consider in regards to raising awareness of the problem, and then that awareness transferring to word of mouth and the belief that there are solutions available to solve the problem, and hopefully those in the right places with the ability to do something about the problem might seek us out.

So what is the problem I’m talking about? Well, there are about 1.6 billion people in the world without any access to electricity. This means every day, they go without some of the most fundamental basic services that we all take for granted, such as efficient, cheap lighting in the evening for our children to study by, for us to work by and lighting that just generally extends our hours of occupation beyond daylight hours. Those that don’t have electricity tend to either burn sticks for light, or more commonly - burn kerosene in a kerosene lantern for a very poor quality of light. Kerosene is unhealthy (toxic gases). It’s been found that sitting by a kerosene lantern for an evening is more unhealthy than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. It’s dangerous (countless children are burned everyday from studying by an open flame; the lucky ones only receive minor burns - and wooden huts are often destroyed by an overturned kerosene lantern) and most importantly to the poor - it is expensive. The poor pay an equivalent of $15/unit energy to what we enjoy in the developed world of $0.15/unit energy. They typically spend about $2/week on kerosene for lighting, so they are literally burning a very high percentage of their household income for an incredibly poor quality of service. What we are offering is a clean, affordable, renewable alternative that costs the same as about 2 months worth of kerosene use, but last for 1.5-2 years with no ongoing costs. And after that, the only costs are replacement batteries every 1.5-2 years which cost less than a week of kerosene usage for most households. Not only are the lamps saving people money, but they are also creating a household asset that can later be sold, and proceeds can be used to upgrade their lighting to larger, brighter systems. Other advantages to our lighting solutions? The light is 10-15x brighter than a kerosene lantern, which means children’s eyesight is less strained when doing homework in the evening, and most importantly the light can extend hours of work in the evening, thus allowing household incomes to grow and assisting the poor to pull themselves out from poverty.

So that’s kind of our mission. The numbers are a bit mind boggling - about $10billion every year is spent on kerosene by the world’s poorest, which is a bit less than half the global aid budget - so imagine the results achievable if we can stop that money being burnt, and divert it into investments for the poor.

I’ve attached our catalogue for you - I will send over a range of products for you to use, but let me know what is of most interest to you. The Firefly12 is the brightest lamp, and this is our most commonly sold lamp as it is affordable, even for poorest, and is designed to replace a kerosene lantern - it’s also the brightest of the small lamps. But I can send samples of the other lights too. Let me know what address you would like me to send them too - probably have to wait a week to send them as it’s a week holiday here in China now, but won’t be any problem to make your photo shoot in time!

Well, think I’ve rattled on long enough! Hope this is all of interest to you, and that the products are sexy enough to sit by your models!

Take care,
Sam