Innovation Africa is a non-profit organization that brings sustainable Israeli technologies to rural Africa villages. The organization operates in Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia and in 2009 alone, changed the lives of more than 500,000 Africans.

Today, 97% of rural African people live without electricity. Without energy, medical clinics cannot store lifesaving medicines and vaccines, students learn in the dark, and the clean and abundant water below ground is inaccessible to those that need it. Water-borne disease is responsible for 80% of deaths in the developing world, killing one child every eight seconds.

The Kaliro orphanage in Uganda, Africa, is home to 300 children, who live and attend school inside the facility.Since its establishment, the students lived without electricity. The orphanage was dark at night and they lacked basic facilities such as kerosene lamps and a refrigerator to stock medicine and vaccines for common diseases such as tuberculosis, yellow fever, polio, typhoid and malaria.

That changed when Innovation Africa donated and installed Israeli solar panels, providing light and energy to the orphanage for the first time.

With the light that Innovation Africa provides, these children are now able to continue their studies at night. They can gather inside the orphanage to work, to play and to learn even after the daylight hours. With access to electricity for radio, television and computer use, these orphans are now connected to the outside

Innovation Africa’s solar energy panels not only provide light and electricity to African schools and medical clinics but they are now being used to power water pumps, which enable Africans to expand agricultural production in locations where food is scarce. In a continent, where 6 million children die of malnutrition each year before their fifth birthday, these techniques provide African villagers with the tools they need to grow more crops, prevent hunger and promote economic growth

With the ‘Bulbs for Africa’ shirt from the NU campaign you help brighten the lives of thousands of Africans every year. The shirt demonstrates how Israeli innovation, together with a kind heart have the power to save lives!