Carl: September 2009 Archives

I wouldn't call Argentina a developing country, certainly not if you compare it to Malawi. So I was very curious to see the reaction to the five micro-solar products that just arrived in Jujuy. The plan is to conduct a small market study with the three sets of five products we have. These would take place in Bariloche (thanks to Gustavo from Gente Nueva) and in El Arca in Mendoza (thanks to Pablo and Eduardo).

Here up north, my plan was to go out to the communities living in the Puna, Salta and Jujuy provinces and in Tarija (Bolivia) and hope to convince myself that there is interest and need for the kind of products that proved to be so useful for the people in our African projects.

First on the list was the community of Cerro Negro in Salta province. Livorio Flores, a very socially active member of Cerro Negro, had gathered people of his community. We went through a questionnaire to find out what people use for light, how many hours per day they use their radio, how they charge their mobile phones and how much they pay for candles, batteries and kerosene. Then we showed them the five different products and how to use them.

Five of our micro-solar products being tested in our community-based market study

People had never seen such small solar panels as these. It turns out that some people have big solar panels on their homes but they were still interested in the micro-solar products.

"Many of us get our income from animals such as goats or llamas. Often we leave our houses for a couple of days with our animals. We rely on batteries for our radios and lanterns during those days. A portable product like the one you show us will save us a lot of money on batteries", said Pablo.

Some members of the community in Cerro Negro test our micro-solar products and give their feedback.

The product with the most possibilities was the most popular but many, especially the youngsters, also liked the "cool" table lamp.

More about the next community I visited in my next blog.