February 2009 Archives

After travelling for six hours on mud track roads we arrived in North Bongoma to interview 12 candidates for the sunnymoney micro-franchisee positions.

We were greeted so warmly and the feeling of excitement was wonderful. So many smiling faces!

This was my first visit into the bush. It was quite emotional seeing how much the project will help these people and their families. It was also humbling to see how grateful all the candidates were to be given the opportunity.

The ground team had prepared a list of candidates stating how many votes each applicant had received and details including the district in which they live.

Above: Rural North Bongoma

On the interviewing panel was Gavin Bowen (Country Business Manager in Kenya), Clifton from the ground team and myself. Gavin asked questions based on sales experience, Clifton on previous employment and myself on family background, education, and one of the most important questions: 'Why should SolarAid employ you?'

We scored each candidate from one to ten. All candidates were remarkable so I knew it was going to be a tough decision.

Find out more about the interviews and the outcomes in my next blog!

Jenny
SolarAid volunteer

Things are brewing in Kenya's small town of Nakuru. This warehouse (pictured above) is being cleared for something big.

This will soon house a production facility and a crew who will assemble solar packs. The packs will consist of a solar panel, rechargeable batteries and attachments to play a radio, charge a mobile phone or light an LED lightbulb.

Recycled bulbs collected from the slums, waiting to be washed and fitted with low energy, solar powered LED lights