[L-R]: Anne Agbakoba (Solar Jooce); Awele Awanyai (Team Leader, Project 'Green Hands']

Awele with members of the Climate Change Club (CMS Senior Girls' Secondary School, Bariga), planting one of ten trees

July 2011... Lagos, Nigeria. Solar Jooce launched its tree-planting exercise, tagged project Green Hands in the month of July, 2011. The project kicked off at CMS Senior Girls' Secondary school, Bariga (Lagos, Nigeria) in association with the school's vibrant Climate Change club.

Project Green Hands is headed by Awele Awanyai, a final year student at the university of Lagos, Nigeria. Its target is to plant 100,000 trees a year throughout the country.

More pictures: www.facebook.com/media/set/ 

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Solar-for-the-Masses | Dustbin Estate, Ajegunle

(L-R): Tolulope Sangosanya (Director, Project LOTS); Anne Agbakoba (Solar Jooce) 

Dustbin Estate, Ajegunle

[more pictures: www.facebook.com/media/set/

June, 2011... Lagos, Nigeria. Tolulope Sangosanya, Director of Project LOTS, has her modern-look office right inside the Dustbin Estate (Awodiora Community, Ajerunmi local government area of Ajegunle). There, she provides free after school lessons to the children of Ajegunle.

For the record, Dustbin Estate is an area filled with, and built on, trash. Tolu caught Solar Jooce's attention last year when she won the Future Awards (Nigeria) and brought the Dustbin estate to prominence.

Solar Jooce teamed up with Tolu on Thursday, June 23, 2011 and under her expert guidance we identified the most suitable recipients for our solar light/phone charging units.

The most intriguing recipient was Madam Ogene Eze Mmili who is:
1. a midwife. She delivers children within and outside the community. We were introduced to one of her patients who had just had twins)
2. a bone healer (she sets broken bones) and
3. a spiritualist. She says she eliminates the spirits of 'ogbanje' or 'abiku' - repetitive cases within a family of children who are born but do not stay long in this world. We caught a glimpse of her shrine but were not allowed to photograph it.

At the end of the solar install in her one bedroom where she sleeps and tends to maternity patients, Ogene Eze Mmilli broke into song and dance. She prayed endlessly for Tolu & team Solar Jooce, saying we had saved her the painful expense of having to buy kerosene for her lantern; we had given her reliable and enhanced lighting that will enable safe delivery of babies; and given her a phone charger to boot so she can charge/use her phone even when electricity is cut for days/weeks on end as is the case.

This entire visit was quite emotional but worth every second.

On the team were volunteer solar engineers:
1. Ekundayo Ojo - who came in all the way from Ilorin, Kwara state just to live this experience
2. David Osokolo - with an eagle eye for detail

The RCCG (Abundant Grace Parish, Port Harcourt), headed by Engr. Nosyke Okoye, sponsored four of the lights for this project.

[Ajegunle visit, Phase II, in pictures: www.facebook.com/media/set/:

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Powering West Africa | African News and Current Affairs

                    May 2011

A UK publication, New Africa Analysis, has written a feature on Solar Jooce titled Powering West Africa: newafricaanalysis.co.uk/index.php/2011/04/powering-west-africa
 

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Flashback - Solar Jooce 70s Dinner-Dance & Fundraising

May 2011

Ag. Nigeria High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador Dozie Nwanna (OON)

Weeks after, the Solar Jooce 70s Dinner-Dance & Fundraising (held on May 07, 2011, at the Chelsea Old Town Hall in London) continues to attract support for the work of team Solar Jooce across rural Nigeria.

We couldn't have succeeded without super support from the Ag. Nigeria High Commissioner to the UK, His Excellency, Ambassador Dozie Nwanna and his team.

First, the High Commission encouraged Solar Jooce fundraising mission by purchasing the largest number of tickets (20 units) for the evening.

Then, on the day, Amb. Nwanna made an engaging speech, giving first-hand account of how kerosene hurt his eyes as a child - and confirming that solar was definitely the perfect replacement for dirty, expensive and harmful fossil fuels such as kerosene. He secured a few solar converts for Solar Jooce after his speech. 

[Read Ambassador Dozie Nwanna's speech here: www.scribd.com/doc/56401780]

The High Commission team also made the auction exciting, ensuring they outbidded everyone in the hall for one of the silk dress donated by renown designer, NKWO. The dress fetched a princely £425! Ambassador Nwanna drew a round of applause when he instructed that the dress be donated back to Solar Jooce for the brilliant work it was doing.

A huge thanks also goes to guests who fell into several categories - University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN); OLD Girls| Queen's College, Lagos-Nigeria (OGQC); ex-Colleagues from Fidelity Bank, Nigeria; relatives, and solar enthusiasts.

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Solar-for-the-Masses: Obinna Okoli | Akokwa (Imo state)

April 2011

Obinna Okoli (7th from right) - Deep Water Exploration Manager at TOTAL Nigeria - took Solar-for-the-Masses to his hometown, Akokwa in Imo state of Nigeria. The project was overseen by Solar Jooce CEO, Dave Agbakoba (3rd, right) . 

Obinna showed his belief in solar energy [as the solution to powering areas of Nigeira with little or no access to electricity] by sponsoring his village with 240 units of Solar Jooce's basic solar kits. He thus became the single largest sponsor of Solar Jooce lights to date.

Obinna also cleverly distributed the lights to benefit: TEACHERS who can better educate the populace in brighter lit conditions; INTELLIGENT CHILDREN who want the opportunity to read at night; MIDWIVES who sorely need efficient lighting during child birthing; and MICRO-BUSINESSES (above), that can now extend their hours of business into the evening, and also make use of the unit's phone charger as an income-earning device (customers pay to charge their phones).

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Imagine Solar (USA) Interviews Dave Agbakoba

October 2010

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Nigeria gets first solar power campaign

Africa's renewable energy potential is well-known. The problem is that it's mostly well-known to people living outside the continent, therefore increasing awareness of renewable energy technology among the African people is vital.

Fortunately there are plans afoot to do just that. Solar Jooce  has announced that it will start a "Solar for the Masses" campaign in an effort to heighten solar awareness in rural communities in Nigeria. The campaign is expected to kick-off in Abuja this May.

A statement from Solar Jooce said the campaign will last around one month and its sole aim is to increase people's knowledge and understanding of solar energy and its benefits, as well as increasing the presence of the technology in Nigeria. The company's initial ambitious target is to provide basic solar appliances to 3600 homes within the 36 states, an average of 100 households per state.

Lighting up Nigeria

"I believe strongly that Africa, which has remained at the bottom of the Human Development Index for centuries, will make a radical turn for the best when our world distinctly enters the Solar Age. The continent will be propelled into the First World by her comparative advantage in the supra-abundance of Solar Energy," said head of Solar Jooce and former Minister of Science & Technology and a member of the Solar Energy Society of Nigeria, Major-General Sam Momah.

The social and environmental benefits of solar power are significant and will be vital to improving Nigeria's energy security as well as teaching why it's important to value and protect its surroundings.

The company will be calling on corporate Nigeria to support the Solar for the Masses campaign year after year by "Sponsoring a Community" - until most of rural Nigeria is lit up with solar energy.

source: www.ngpowerenergyafrica.com/news/newsnigeria-solar-campaign/