61,400 households reached
A $40 Lantern, And Someone To Fix It
- Home solar
- Cookstoves
- Community grids
- Local technicians
[ Our Remit ]
A $40 lantern changes a household's evening, and the technician we trained keeps it working for a decade.
Kindling runs no field operations. We fund and train 214 community partners in 9 countries, and they fit the lanterns, the cookstoves and the grids, then keep them working. 91p in every pound reaches a programme.
Programmes
Four Programmes, and What Each One Buys
Household Solar
A rechargeable lantern, or a roof panel and four light points, fitted by a technician nearby.
$240kProgramme goal
$186.5kRaised so far by donors
Clean Cookstoves
A vented stove that halves the wood you burn and takes the smoke out of the room you cook in.
$160kGoal for stoves
$121.3kRaised so far
Community Mini-Grids
One shared array and battery, metered and community owned, for a clinic, a school and a grain mill.
$420kGoal for the grids
$268.4kRaised towards it
Technician Training
A nine month apprenticeship in panels, batteries and stoves, then paid work keeping it going.
$90kTraining goal
$74.9kRaised by donors
How Giving Works
Your Money Buys A Thing, And Someone To Maintain It
The Kit Arrives
A local technician fits the lantern, the panel or the stove, and warranties it.
The Repair Matters
Two years on, the same person comes back for the part that wore out.
Your gift
Choose What Your Gift Pays For
The average cost of lighting one household is $47, and each tier below buys named kit plus the local technician who fits and keeps it.
Give monthly
Light
One lantern, one evening back.
A rechargeable lantern, fitted and warrantied by a technician who lives nearby.
- 01. One rechargeable lantern
- 02. Two years of warranty
- 03. Local fitting
- 04. Two years of parts
- 05. A note on where it went
Most chosen
Household
A four-point system and the fitting.
A roof panel and four light points, plus a phone charging point, covered for five years by a local fitter.
- 01. Roof panel, four lights
- 02. Charging point
- 03. Fitted by a technician
- 04. Five-year cover
- 05. A photo of the fitting
Cluster
A share of a village array and its battery.
A metered share of a village array, with the clinic and school connected and the partner backed to handover.
- 01. A metered array share
- 02. Clinic and school power
- 03. Commissioning and metering
- 04. Two years of support
- 05. A report on the build
Light
One lantern, one evening back.
A rechargeable lantern, fitted and warrantied by a technician who lives nearby.
- 01. One rechargeable lantern
- 02. Two years of warranty
- 03. Local fitting
- 04. Two years of parts
- 05. A note on where it went
Most chosen
Household
A four-point system and the fitting.
A roof panel and four light points, plus a phone charging point, covered for five years by a local fitter.
- 01. Roof panel, four lights
- 02. Charging point
- 03. Fitted by a technician
- 04. Five-year cover
- 05. A photo of the fitting
Cluster
A share of a village array and its battery.
A metered share of a village array, with the clinic and school connected and the partner backed to handover.
- 01. A metered array share
- 02. Clinic and school power
- 03. Commissioning and metering
- 04. Two years of support
- 05. A report on the build
From The Field
Four Voices
Grace Mwale
Head of Training
The install is the easy part. I train people for the visit two years later, when a battery has gone soft and a part has to be ordered.
Thandiwe Banda
Executive Director
We do not run field teams. The woman who fits your system lives twenty minutes away, and she will still be there in five years.
A manager
Clinic, Malawi
Our vaccine fridge used to stop whenever the generator ran dry. Since the array went in, the cold chain has held, and nobody drives for fuel.
Joseph Phiri
Lead Installer
Four roofs in a day is a good day. At the fourth house the light was still on past nine in the evening, which they had not had before.
Households reached
Homes with a lantern or a roof panel fitted, across nine programme countries.
Technicians trained
People paid to install and repair solar, batteries and stoves after a nine-month course.
Funding to programmes
The share of every pound that reaches the field, not the Bristol office.
Plain Answers
Six things donors ask before they give.
Where does my money go?
Of every pound you give, 91p reaches the programmes. The rest runs the Bristol office and the 38 staff who plan the work, buy the kit and check it.
Why energy and not water?
Energy unlocks the rest. A $40 lantern buys two more trading hours after dusk, and a vented stove cuts household fuel use by 52%.
Who installs the systems?
A trained local technician from one of our 214 partners. Most live twenty minutes from the roof they fit.
What if it breaks?
The technician who fitted it comes back. Every system carries two years of parts and cover, and 1,860 trained people do repairs.
Do you use partners?
Through partners, always. We fund and train 214 community organisations across 9 countries, and 29 of 38 staff live there.
Can I give monthly?
Yes. Switch the toggle above and give $5, $12 or $40 a month. Regular gifts let a partner plan a year of fitting, not one roof.
Out in the Field
Short pieces from the people doing the work, on what the money buys and what it does not. Read them in any order.
Fund A Lantern, A Stove Or A Whole Grid
Gifts are costed: $47 lights a household, and 91% reaches programmes.
