On kickstarter.com we were able to set a new stretch goal of 250,000. We have calculated that should we be able to reaching such an awesome new funding goal, than that will allow us to start an assembly line in Haiti.
Last September WakaWaka founders Camille van Gestel and Maurits Groen were in New York to promote WakaWaka within the Clinton Global Initiative organization and we spoke with no one other than Donna Karan about WakaWaka. She suggested we do at least part of the WakaWaka assembly in Haiti before importing into the US, thus creating jobs and economic development in Haiti. No matter how small this impact may be.
We had plans for such an assembly plant already, but thanks to the Kickstarter backers we can now speed things up. As many of you have understood, the Light Up Haiti-campaign also allows us to provide safe solar lights (WakaWaka Lights) to Haitians still living in shelters. The day after this campaign ends, it will be precisely 3 years since the earthquake. 370,000 still live without lights. The WakaWaka lights that we can provide them, can also be assembled locally. We are very excited about this opportunity which is made possible thanks to the extra funds we are hopefully raising.