One way in which Latter-day Saints from throughout the South Pacific have strived to fulfill this year’s Light the World theme — “Let Your Light Shine” — was to assemble solar lights for remote communities with no electricity.
Teaming up with the SolarBuddy organization, volunteers from 11 different locations helped assemble 11,000 JuniorBuddy solar lights to provide indoor lighting to those experiencing energy poverty.
Paul Reid, the Pacific Area manager of welfare and self-reliance services who helped organize the Christmas initiative, told the Church’s Pacific Newsroom, “Randomly, one morning, I woke up with the idea of having thousands of our Church youth and young adults ‘Light the World’ at Christmas with a gift for thousands of children around the Pacific who often do not have light to read or study after the sun goes down.”
Latter-day Saint groups from all over the Pacific — from Western Australia to French Polynesia — gathered to help assemble the lights.
Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman and Elder Taniela Wakolo, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Pacific Area presidency, attended a For the Strength of Youth Conference in Fiji where they watched hundreds of youth assemble 1,000 lights as a service project during the conference.
“I love that the sign of Jesus Christ is light,” President Freeman noted to participants. “I want to bear testimony of the power of light, of the importance of light in dark places. Not only does light help us to see, but Jesus also helps us to see better. In the darkest times of our lives, He will bring light and goodness.”
Elder Wakolo told Pacific Newsroom: “We are inspired by Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, and His example of bringing light to those who sit in darkness. We hope our small gifts of love and light — made possible by the Australian charity SolarBuddy and by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — will brighten hearts, homes and futures.”
According to the SolarBuddy website, nearly 10% of the world’s population lives in energy poverty, meaning they have little to no access to energy.
Without safe and reliable lighting, children cannot study after dusk, which translates into lower literacy rates. Families without access to electricity often resort to using fuels such as kerosene or diesel — which can cause illnesses and death due to indoor air pollutants. Of the 3.8 million people who die each year from illnesses caused by exposure to toxic sources of light, 32% are children under 5 years old, according to the World Health Organization.
The impact of access to clean, reliable indoor lighting, reports SolarBuddy, can mean:
- The child receiving the light is able to study 78% longer, improving their educational outcomes.
- Reduced exposure to toxic and dangerous fumes which has the potential to increase overall health of women and children by up to 60%.
- Reduction in a family’s average weekly expenditure on kerosene by 80%, improving the family’s financial security and safety.
- The offset of 1.41 tons of CO2 over 10 years, the equivalent to growing 21.3 tree seedlings over the same period.
Included with each light was also a note to the future recipient. For example, Australian volunteer Yvette Barnes wrote: “We hope that every time you use this light, you know this is made with love from me.”
When Jiovilisi Seniceva heard about the SolarBuddy humanitarian project, he thought about the people in the outer islands of his homeland of Fiji. “Many don’t have light in their homes, and I hope this project can help,” he told Pacific Newsroom.
