Special feature! Profiling Solar Sisters - Lydia Chelangat

Kapchorwa is a lovely city, I can not believe it took me this long before visiting this place.
If you have visited the western part of Uganda, and know how hilly and mountainous Kabale town is, that is the closest comparison to Kapchorwa.

The roads that lead up to this amazing town are cut out on beautiful landscaped hills. The village and scenery is just breath taking, all GREEN! You would think they have never had any droughts in Kapchorwa.

And then the winning spot is the Sipi falls - As you head closer to Kapchorwa town, you get to have an amazing view of the Sipi falls, best view ever.

It is in this city that we have a group of Solar Sisters that have gone an extra mile to do a fantastic job in their businesses.

Today, I profile Lydia Chelangat - When you first meet this fiery business woman, you can not imagine that she has got the fire for business because of her reserved nature.
She speaks in a low tone, very welcoming but that has nothing to do with her business.

Lydia Chelangat stays in Kapchorwa town, and is greatly involved with the Church of Uganda activities in Kapchorwa.
She is a member of the Mother's Union and we first got introduced to her through the Church of Uganda - Mother's Union in Kampala.

There is no doubt that this woman has the business acumen and is destined for greater success.
She owns one of the biggest shops in Kapchorwa, what does she stock? Think about all things electronic from mobile phones, electric kettles et el, household things, pretty much everything.

Because she came to us with such a tremendous business background, it was not hard for her to be a star as a Solar Sister, she knows just how to get the customers buy her products, she has a natural network of buyers who come to her shop everyday, she knows how to keep track of records.

What does she do when she gets the Solar Sister Inventory Stock? She stocks it in her shop and one by one as her customers come to the shop to buy different things, she pulls out her Solar lanterns and shows them just how much they can save by using Solar lanterns in their homes! - This has worked tremendously for her in terms of sales.

Lydia (right) shows some of her customers the "Powa Pack Junior 2.5w" from Barefoot power

In addition to stocking her Inventory in the shop, she visits her neighborhood at night and showcases the Solar lanterns! What better time to show the relevance of Solar lanterns, than at night when they speak for themselves!

A stock of Powa Packs from Barefoot power, in Lydia's shop

Her natural networks consist of her customers that flock the shop day in, day out, her church members, and fellow mother's union network, her neighbors back at home!

Another shot that shows Kiran Solar Laterns, which is a d.light product!

She is one of the successful Solar sisters to date, and we are proud to feature her today!

Go Lydia!

Lydia showing off the Kiran solar lantern, from D.light!

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Business in a Bag - The Solar Sister Model

One of the models that Solar Sister uses to reach out to the communities is the Micro- Consignment Model (MCM) which provides the women with 'Business-in-a-bag' as a start up kit that enables women kick start their own micro Solar businesses.

With the Solar Sister's Business-in-a-bag, the women are able to get start up Inventory for their business, which involves different Solar products and then on top of that get a cool Solar Sister t-shirt, a receipt book, a Ledger form where they can keep track of their sales, a beautiful Solar Sister pen, tips on being Successful Solar Sisters, et el.

With this kind of model, what we hope to achieve is not only send out women to sell a bunch of lamps with no help, but to help them be well equipped with the different ways they can record their sales, keep their Inventory in order and also be able to feel a part of the big network of Solar Sisters.

Last week, was a really exciting one in the Solar Sister family, starting off the week with a trip to Mityana, we met with our Entrepreneurs there and we handed them with their Business-in-a-bag items.

It was an exciting experience for both the Entrepreneurs and us.
They got to learn how to keep their own records in order, especially after making sales, how to use their receipt books, ledgers and the bank account and or Mobile Money services that Solar Sister encourages.

Women, taking time to learn the details of their 'business-in-a-bag'

Business-in-a-bag is not only a motivation to the ladies but also a way to say that at Solar Sister we take our entrepreneurs seriously and want to empower them beyond the selling of lamps. We want our entrepreneurs to have an entrepreneurial spirit and be able to use the skills learned from us to build more sustainable businesses for themselves.

They can open up a shop, and use the book keeping skills that we teach them to be successful in future.

Later in the week, the most exciting journey to Western Uganda began, and our destination was Ruhanga. The beautiful ambiance and hills in Ruhanga make the place so lovable.
We found all the women waiting for us anxiously for their items.

Solar Sister Entrepreneurs of Ruhanga posing for a group photo

Each day that goes by, we look for new ways to empower our women to be best at record keeping and also use of technology.
Being able to send us their orders using the mobile phones, and us responding to them in real time is something we also teach and encourage our women to do.

It was a lovely week and we will look for new ways to make our network of Solar Sisters the best out there!

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