February 25 Children in Kedungnoyo, Indonesia witnessed electronic light for the first time in their lives.  Kedungnoyo, which takes about five hours by car from the Indonesia’s second biggest city Surabaya to get to, is one of the poorest cities in Indonesia where about 223 people are making money by growing and selling crops. Since the electricity does not reach this town, the residents have never used any electronic goods or light at nighttime.

The Korea Green Foundation helped bring light to the town by pushing for the campaign to help cities in Asia without electricity to have sunlight-generated lamps. The foundation started this campaign because it realized that it is necessary for a lot of poor cities in Asia to have not only water, but light to enhance their quality of life.

According to the statistics released by the International Energy Agency (IEA), about 600 million people in Asia have no approach to the electricity. The statistics reveal that about 300 million people in India, 90 million in Bangladesh, 60 million in Indonesia, 50 million in Pakistan, 20 million in the Philippines, and 4 million in China, do not have any electricity.

The Korea Green Foundation decided to push for this campaign in April 2012, and devised the plan to distribute about 10,000 sunlight-generated lamps to people in Indonesia, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar from November 2012 to end of this year.

The sunlight-generated lamp is designed to last almost ten hours once it is charged for about four hours under the sunlight. It costs $200,000 to make one lamp, but once it is made, it does not cost any extra money to use, and this product can be used semi-permanently.

Korea Green Foundation is planning to raise about $2 billion to finish its campaign successfully, and it has already secured half a billion dollars from Korea’s Samsung Group.

The foundation was founded in 2002 as Korea’s first public foundation aiming to conserve the environment. It focuses on educational and cultural programs to raise awareness for urgent environmental issues. For that purpose, it annually holds the Green Film Festival in Seoul to introduce various environment-related films to the world, publishes books dealing with environmental issues, organizes forums and educational programs for children to adults, and runs the Eco Shop with eco-friendly products.

Image Courtesy : Timekin

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About the author

Tae-jun Kang
Tae-jun Kang graduated from Korea University with a business degree as well as a minor in Russian language and literature. He had worked as a riot police in Korea for 2 years before he started his degree. This gave him an opportunity to focus on the social issues which he overlooked before, and spiked his interest in the field of journalism. In 2011, he worked for Voice of America Seoul News Center for nine months as an intern, building his goal to become an international journalist. You can reach him by sending an email to taejun.kang@toonarimedia.com

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