Humanitarian Projects

Joan Arwa is successfully running her solar bakery in Kisumu, Kenya (here). Not far from there, in Sego, she recently trained a great group supported by World Vision for the Noswet program. The group members have known each other for years and are very appreciated in the community.

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It is in the village of Agnam Lidoubé, in Senegal, that four solar ovens are installed thanks to Adscal association and especially thanks to the extraordinary persistence of Mr Mouhamadou Touré. The ovens will improve greatly the village’s daily life.

Three ovens are going to equip existing bakeries. One will go to a group of skilled women baking biscuits and cakes. The women are in charge of a magnificent garden.

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The local association Elevate Africa Mozambique installed their Lytefire Oven in 2024. The plan is to start a solar powered bakery to support their youth center by reducing energy costs, creating additional income and sustainable jobs! The project was made possible with the support from the Swiss association Wungana Mozambique who visited the training center a few weeks after the installation. They shared the pictures with us and we could see that despite the complex and tense political context in this country, people are happily baking solar "pao" bread!

NEA Energie is a renewable energy company based in Madagascar. They install solar systems for industrial and private customers.

As part of their RSE projects for 2023, they have installed two solar ovens in two isolated villages in order to support circular economy. The remote assistance to the installation went well and the first solar bread baking have been a real success.

We are very happy to share with you that we are starting three exciting projects with UNDP (United Nations Development Program) in Africa.

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Our partnership with STEM Synergy is in place since 2021 and keeps going. It started with empowering the first entrepreneurs in Ethiopia to run their bakeries not on firewood, but instead on clean, affordable, direct solar energy. This is accomplished with the Lytefire Solar Oven, that is (…)

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After a training organized by Plan International and our team, Prudence Yoo Acel Ladegi, Benedict Bithola and friends were so passionate about baking with the Lytefire that they kept going with learning and marketing their recipes. At Smart Up Solar Bakery, they bake 4 times a week. People like the products and sometimes come from miles away to buy their bread or order occasion’s cakes to Smart Up Solar Bakery Nebbi.

→ Great update from 2025

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We are very happy and humbled to announce a new partnership starting with SELF and RHF who are joining forces to empower victims of rape in 2022 and 2023. SELF - Solar Electric Light Fund - is a US based NGO financing this project to support Rape Hurts Foundation, created by Hellen Lunkuse (…)

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We are back in action in Uganda with Plan International Finland and Plan Uganda! We already delivered two of our solar bakery and entrepreneurship trainings at Plan’s SmartUp Factory Hubs in 2018. Now we’re back to do another nine installations and trainings, and two refreshers! We have a bigger (…)

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The 105 women of Lougsi village, situated 30km away from Ouagadougou, have been supported by the local association SOS Energie, our team and Jansen Primesteps Foundation to get a solar oven. After 2 years, 15 of them that have been trained to solar baking and are using their Lytefire in order to produce bread 5 days a week and sell it all around. They no longer buy wood and coal and the solar oven allows them to save 750 to 1000 CFA per day (entre 1 et 2 Euros), which is significant in this tough rural context.

The project with Mwanza’s Montessori school started in 2021 and is a full success because the school is since then not only solar baking 300 buns per day and saving on the energy bill but they also sale their extra baked production. The canteen is equiped with several Lytefire Pro. The (…)

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Tujijenge is a women community group that is producing both dehydrated fish and baked goods. They also engage in roasting peanuts and baked sweet potatoes. Before a project with them, every month they spent about $400 in charcoal expenses, and we were happy to see that the Lytefire has been making a big financial difference. Monica Matcha is the lead person and listening to her team’s experience is enlightening.

After a project with Plan International Uganda and Plan International Finland in 2021-2022, the Tororo District Youth Advocay Network (TDYAN-YOVANU) continued to use their Lytefire Oven and have a few clients. They are a Community Based Organization.

This group is based in Kampala, Uganda. They use the best ingredients and a Lytefire solar oven to bake cookies, party cakes, donuts, cupcake and more!

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We are happy to share that good news: we won our first tender and we’re starting soon in Sudan. This projected is implemented in Alagaya refugee camp in the White Nile region with Plan International and it is funded by the Islamic Development Bank. It is meant to install a community Solar (…)

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Tora de Caux is a small French association based in Normandy, France. It is active since years in Burkina-Faso, in the Bam region. In particular, the team supports rural life in Nasséré through various actions managed by a project manager based in Ouagadougou.

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After the successful implementation of 3 solar ovens in Embu’s vocational school during Spring 2022, the project is replicated in a northern region impacted by the refugee’s crisis. With Don Bosco Jugendhilfe Weltweit we have found a new project partner dedicated to empowering youths. (…)

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We are very happy to start a new cooperation with the Don Bosco salesian institution and their local group in Kenya for the implementation of several Lytefire units during 2021. Don Bosco has a wide reach, with over 100 institutions worldwide. Our first cooperation is starting in Embu. Embu (…)

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Their full name is "Change Lead Agency for Social Support". And this very dynamic group of young bakers has been part of the solar baking and bakery setting up training given with Plan International and Smart Up Factory in Uganda in 2021-2022. Since then, thanks to their hard work and their Lytefire Oven the solar bakers sell delicious doughnuts, cookies and cakes to clients in different markets on Mondays and Thursdays. The sales range goes from 12000ugsh to 60000ugsh. They are based in Alebtong.

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Wärtsilä’s sponsorship is a great opportunity for us to approach one of the biggest refugee’s camp in East Africa. Our project managers have been able to organize a demo and we believe the the solar oven is very well adapted to the specific constraints of the location. This is the first time (…)

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Sponsored by Wärtsilä corporation, in partnership with Autodesk Foundation and in cooperation with World Vision Finland (Weconomy program) and World Vision Kenya, this project enabled solar entrepreneurship in high-impact areas where people are in dire need of a clean and affordable energy (…)

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It was an exciting moment when David pulled out the first batch of freshly baked muffins from his Lytefire Oven in 2016, for a project with World Vision in Kenya. After that, David used the oven daily for years before moving on to new adventures. When we met, David was baking with an electric oven but the grid was so bad that he couldn’t develop the business properly. When the power was out he couldn’t bake, and with charcoal his product would be low-quality and his profit margins would be slim. With the launch of his solar bakery, David has been able to reduce his fuel costs and increase his output! The shiny Lytefire also attracted many visitors to the rural bakery, and so he decided to open up a small cafe to sell snacks and beverages to the interested crowd. With a clean energy source adapted to his needs, David had the opportunity to be a creative and productive baker as long as he wanted to. His enthusiasm has been such a great inspiration for the team!

World Vision Finland has a program named Weconomy, created to facilitate the synergy between impact business and field constraints. In 2016, we have decided to work with that program and we started with two GoSol Lytefire5 units built locally and installed at local communities in Kisumu, near (…)

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C’est encore grâce à la motivation de Mr Vincent Nikiema, fondateur de SOS Energie Burkina Faso, qu’un nouveau projet local a été possible au Burkina-Faso cette année avec le soutien de la Fondation PrimeSteps. Notre collègue Martin Pouabidjie, s’est chargé de superviser la construction et (…)

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Mr Vincent Nikiema, founder of SOS Energie Burkina Faso, has been following our work for a decade. Thanks to the support of ASW and the generosity of our supporters, Lorin Symington, Samuel Martin, who’s joining now Lorin in his work, and Marin Pouabidjie, our representative in Burkina-Faso, (…)

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For this new project with Remar, a solar oven is needed for an orphanage in Tabarre, Port-au-Prince. The place is taking care of about 20 young boys, providing a safe space for them to grow, learn and play. The orphanage is in a nice big sprawling house in Tabarre, not far from Doctors (…)

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Tora de Caux is a small French association based in Normandy, France. It is active since years in Burkina-Faso, in the Bam region. In particular, the team supports rural life in Nasséré through various actions managed by a project manager based in Ouagadougou. With the aim of offering young (…)

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We are proud to announce the start of our cooperation with the Swiss based Jansen PrimeSteps Foundation. With the support and advise of the PrimeSteps team we will equip and train entrepreneurs with Lytefire solar ovens across different locations in Burkina, with a focus on women’s groups and (…)

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It wasn’t long after starting in Burkina Faso that Remar Niger wanted to get their own Lytefires. We are excited to announce this new project with Remar which will include a broad set of Lytefire solar applications. This project is titled “Enhancing food security and Livelihood (…)

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We have been selected to participate to the VMAP+, a program from Finnish Innovation Partnership Program (IPP). It’s an honour for us, we have been selected for the 2 phases and we have been very lucky to cooperate with Mrs. Pham Thi Thanh Huong, Business Advisory Manager at SNV Netherlands (…)

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CarbonCycle is a Filipino recycling company and a renewable energy startup. They decided to tackle climate change and poverty issues by introducing the Lytefire5 to three communities from which they are buying bio-waste to make fertilizer. CarbonCycle is focused on the sustainable (…)

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In partnership with the US based NGO Forest Trends, we started a new cooperation in the Brazilian Amazon to empower indigenous people with sustainable solar technology. Through their Communities Initiative, Forest Trends has partnered with the Yawanawa and the Surui people of the Brazilian (…)

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In partnership with Plan International Finland and Plan International Uganda, we started a new cooperation in Uganda in 2018 providing Lytefire units and educational trainings to the SmartUp Factory program in Uganda. Since its creation in 2015, SmartUp Factory is driven by the idea that (…)

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Our company started 3 new pilots in Tanzania’s Mara region with the NGO Global Resources Alliance and a sponsorship from Finland with Wärtsilä Corporation. Mara region is on shore of lake Victoria, where solar thermal energy can play a key role in improving livelihoods of rural people. It (…)

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Plant, harvest and cook food while learning about sustainability and green jobs - that’s what happens at GrowNYC’s Teaching Garden where one of our Lytefire solar concentrators is regularly used by students since our first cooperation back in 2015. During 2 years, every week, students from (…)

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Lorin Symington has a special connection with Haiti and thinks that if Lytefire workd there, it can work everywhere! With the logistic support of a small local NGO in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Communiterre, the goal of the first project was to train a local artisan to build the technology, start a (…)

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Abiodun Alabi and Funsho Folabi are two Nigerian friends based in Finland. Together they have founded SF Green Resources Nig. Ltd. They want to pioneer best practices and new technologies that will ameliorate livelihoods in Nigeria and simultaneously improve sustainable production in line with (…)

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Remar reached out to us after seeing videos of solar baking with Lytefire in East Africa and Europe. They are creating a bakery training centre for women from Kossodo in Wend Kuuni, Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. It took less than a month from first contact until Lorin arrived (…)

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