Our Story

Imagine life without light! Families in the developing world spend over 30% of their precious income on dirty, unsafe kerosene fuel just to have light after the sun goes down. They are forced to devote their daylight hours to chores, leaving children to study at night around the dim, flickering light of a kerosene lantern. Children who study by kerosene light inhale the equivalent of smoking 2 packs of cigarettes each night. This is the reality of life for over 1.6 billion people across the globe. This is energy poverty, and Angaza is focused on changing this all-too-common paradigm.

Angaza Design was started in early 2009 with a focus on eradicating energy poverty in rural communities around the world. After months of living in rural villages in Tanzania and seeing the debilitating effects of dependence on kerosene light, we set off with a goal of creating high-quality, high-performance solar lights and battery chargers for off-grid families and small businesses, to fulfill their pressing need for clean and reliable energy.

The Impact

We have already raised the funds to establish our manufacturing to turn our human-centered design into a reality; to date, we have manufactured a small initial production batch of our SoLite solar home lighting systems and are selling these in emerging markets across the world: East Africa, India, Afghanistan, Latin America, and the U.S. We have proven that our design works, have existing manufacturing and distribution partners in place, and are ready to scale up our volumes to bring down our costs ... and reach many more people in need! This is where we need your help. Your contributions to our campaign will allow us to scale up our manufacturing and increase our impact around the globe.

The Angaza SoLite has the highest lumen/$ ratio of any solar light on the market... In other words, our light has the brightest light output per price. It is designed to be a permanently-mounted appliance in a home or community building and will illuminate an entire room with bright light - enough for multiple people to share at once for light-intensive tasks like reading, basket weaving, or sewing. Weighing less than 1.5 pounds, our 2-watt system is extremely compact, durable, and high-quality. Customers in rural areas will pay off the product in less than 6 months from savings from not buying kerosene fuel, children will have better access to educational opportunities, and the presence of toxic kerosene fumes will be eliminated from households. One light literally changes lives! 

What We Need & What You Get

Taking advantage of our momentum thus far, we are raising $15,000 to initiate the manufacturing of our next batch of solar lights! We are committed to lowering costs without sacrificing quality, and working with our customers in these often-forgotten rural markets to spread awareness about the cost and health benefits of switching from kerosene to solar. 

The SoLite units we manufacture with the funds from this campaign will be delivered to highly-visible community centers, rural clinics, and rural schools in East Africa - all for community use. Our aim is that, by placing these units in community locations in rural villages, we will help educate villagers about the benefits of solar lighting, spread the high-quality Angaza brand name, and reach a large number of beneficiaries. These initial efforts will help pave the way to scale up on a household level in all surrounding communities.

As a contributor to Angaza's campaign, you will help fund these community-level lights and impact hundreds of lives with a single SoLite. As a funder of our Give One-Get One program, we will also ship you a SoLite to enjoy for personal use - great for camping (see photo to the left), emergency-preparedness kits, or general off-grid lighting applications.

Thank you in advance for your kind support and for helping Angaza on its road to eradicating energy poverty!

Learn More

Please visit www.angazadesign.com to learn more about our mission and how you can get involved!
Follow us on Twitter!: @angazadesign
Stay tuned with our Facebook updates!