World Renew Celebrates Earth Day

World Renew highlighted Earth Day, which was April 22, by celebrating the Na Rympei Community Learning and Business Resource Center (CLBRC) in India.

This is where 12 impoverished communities are taking a no-win way of life and turning it into a win-win situation through a project they call “green livelihoods.”

The Na Rympei committee created several smaller, community-based groups whose members focus on health, literacy, leadership development, or income-earning activities.

The green livelihoods project began in 2011 when the income-earning group developed a plan to reduce unemployment in their villages and preserve the environment at the same time.

“World Renew works in a lot of rural communities, where 70 percent of the world’s poorest people live, by introducing new agricultural practices, promoting environmental sustainability, and increasing crop yields so that hungry people are better nourished,” says Kohima Daring, a consultant with a World Renew partner in India.

“But more than a third of those who subsist in extreme poverty today live in India…. It’s the second-most-populated country in the world. ”

That’s why the 2014 theme for Earth Day, “Green Cities,” is particularly appropriate to Na Rympei’s green livelihoods project.  The project members decided to introduce a solar-powered lamp and stove that would burn clean and reduce the need for firewood.

“Collecting firewood is not possible in our communities because the forest is very far away,” said Noni Lyngdo, a project participant, “and buying firewood for cooking costs 500 Rupees (US$8) a month. That is a lot of money for people who earn about US$500 a year.”

Na Rympie began the project as a value-based business and trained two community members in green livelihood promotion.

The women are employed full-time and paid on commission by the community group. They also have the opportunity to earn additional income by repairing the lamps and stoves.

The community members have found that they achieved a number of “wins” by purchasing the solar stoves and lamps at affordable prices. The stove costs US$38, and the lamp is US$22.

• The women’s solar lamp and stove business is helping to reduce unemployment in the communities
• The solar stove has reduced the cost of buying firewood for cooking from US$8 a month to US$1 a month, making it affordable for all of the families in the community
• The reduced use of firewood saves trees and helps to preserve the area’s forests
• The solar lamp saves poor families money by eliminating the need to purchase candles or kerosene oil to burn at night
• The solar stove burns clean, reducing air pollution and the chronic respiratory illnesses that are caused by cooking over a wood fire.

“The light from the solar lamp is like an electric light bulb, and it can be used like a flashlight for traveling or working at night,” says Lyngdoh. “The solar lamp and stove reduce my household expenses and don’t hurt the environment.”

Learn about the CRC’s action on care of creation and climate change here.