aNewDomain — Prior to the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal on April 25, the small country was often forgotten by much of the world, apart from adventurers taking on Mt. Everest. Since the quake, humanitarian aid has poured in, ranging from boots on the ground to rippling social support through Facebook feeds..
MPOWERD, the creator of the solar powered Luci light, wanted to help and has so far delivered more than 2,000 Luci lights to Nepal. When I interviewed John Salzinger, MPOWERD co-founder and chief business development officer, via email he said:
Our company donated 1,200 lights and the rest have been through our everyday business model — reduced sustainable pricing to NGOs and charities, aid organizations and individuals who are distributing the lights to victims there.”
One of his company’s goals is to continue assistance in disaster areas after a news cycle wanes. And to that end, Salzinger said they have “a major global deal with an aggregator of aid supplies that within one month’s time will have mass stock at the ready for disasters globally.”
Along with its donation, MPOWERD, a certified B Corp, immediately began offering discounted pricing on Luci lights to individuals, groups and charities distributing them in Nepal. The company worked with organizations like Global Peace Foundation, Byond Disaster Relief, Rotary International (Taiwan) and the New Zealand-based Sam Johnson Volunteer Student Army to efficiently deliver and distribute the lights in Nepal. Salzinger wrote:
Overall, we are a company that is simply solving problems in a sustainable, incentive-based manner. We take advantage of retail sales globally to increase our volume, thus reducing the costs of our goods. We are then able to pass these reductions on to those around the world who are still, to this day, energy-deprived.”
And MPOWERD likes to empower consumers to help wherever there is a need, too.
We have a call-to-action on all of our packaging whereby consumers can participate in the solution to energy poverty and purchase a Luci light for our NGO partners. One such partner organization of ours is A New Course. Peace was achieved when lights were purchased for and then donated to two factions in Tanzania who had been at odds for generations.”
Kathmandu’s Durbar Square heritage site after the April 2015 earthquake
A house in Kathmandu after the April 2015 earthquake
We will continue to keep you updated on how you can help Nepal, but sending over Luci lights is a great start. You may also want some for your own backyard or your next camping trip.
For aNewDomain, I’m Terry Gardner.
Image credits: Luci Lights and William Ma
