11. WAKAWAKA

WAKAWAKA is a company that I approve of. It excites me that such a company exists. It is a shining example to light up the path of any idealist.

WAKAWAKA makes the best little solar powered light in theworld. It asks a relatively high price for its product, but that’s because every light that is sold donates a light to the poorest regions of the world. It is a brilliant model:

by using the energy from the sun, it has a small ecological footprint;

it teaches and convinces people everywhere about the power of the sun – so important if we are to bring down our CO2 emissions;

its marketing and sales raise awareness about thedifferentials in wealth in the world, and in their own small way, make a big difference

I decided that WAKAWAKA lights are indispensable for our Boat Budaya voyage. 

We will need electricity on board for our mobile phones, and especially the ones who will sleep on board will need the light at night. So I approached WAKAWAKA. I wondered if it would be possible to buy their product so that the donations could be given to the less well-off youth on our voyage rather than to the poor in Haïti and perhaps be given away in the villages. Lake Toba suffers from a multi-layered environmental crisis. The presence of the WAKAWAKA would light up a new road to the future.

My contacts with the company were very pleasant -- a lot of mutual admiration for our respective projects. But the contact did not yield a donation of WAKAWAKA lights for our voyage in any form whatsoever. My project does not fit their established criteria of eligibility. For even this facet of the journey, I will have to look for sponsorship. This does not dim my respect for WAKAWAKA; for me their light shines as brightly as it ever did.  I still consider these lights indispensable for the voyage. 

Perhaps there is donor out there who believes in WAKAWAKA’s product and also in my Pulang Kampung project and will want to marry the two. I continue to dream of a Lake Toba gone solar.