If you want to make a tax deductible donation and provide improved lighting please visit WWW.DLIGHTDESIGN.ORG. 

We will be improving the website over the next week to make the donation process easier but I wanted to blog about d.light.ORG because many of our families and friends want to donate during the holidays.  In fact, on Friday, the donations from a generous foundation will provide several hundred Dalit families in Karataka with improved lighting!  I am looking forward to visiting those families in 2008 to witness the impact lights are having on their lives.

Dlightdesign.org came about after I visited REDS twice during my trips to India.  I wrote about one trip to the Dalit community in an earlier blog.  I visited families their who are living by the light of little whisky bottles they fill with kerosene, and I heard stories about how they would wake up in the morning and wipe black soot off their faces where the carbon would settle from the lanterns they left burning dimly at night.  Their children can't study at night easily, and the kerosene costs a significant fraction of their total income, especially for the families who were living under plastic tarps or grass huts.  We at d.light were determined to help REDS deliver improved lighting to the most needy families they worked with.

Meanwhile, I was familiar with One World's Children Fund (OWCF) and the terrific work they have done championing projects overseas and allowing US donors to provide tax deductible assitance to international projects.  It has truly been a pleasure to work with the inspirational founders and staff at both REDS and OWCF.  

Meanwhile, we are very proud to provide solar lighting to these families in Karnataka.  Erica is just back from 20 days visiting families in UP who were using our lights.  She observed first hand that their children are studying on average 1.5 hours per night with our lights, a huge improvement, and both farmers and tailors told her they are saving up to 25Rs a week (over 50cents/week) using the lights to water their fields, tend to buffalos and other animals, and sow crops.  Finally, women are using the lights both to prepare meals in the morning and at nighttime, and the family usually eats and socializes by the d.light.  All the families she met wanted to buy a 2nd light which is great!

Something that's less important to the families, but very important to d.light and many donors, is that each solar lantern not only provides a huge increase in standard of living, but also dramatically reduces carbon emissions which would otherwise be emitted by the dim but polluting kerosene lanterns.  Therefore, donating solar lanterns also plays a needed role in reducing global warming.

Please do spread the word and donate a light for a family by visiting www.dlightdesign.org!