WakaWaka and the International Rescue Committee in Niger

In the Diffa Re­gion, Ni­ger, the WakaWaka Power Base 10 is part of a pack­age of ma­ter­i­als put at the dis­pos­al of traders part­ner­ing with the In­ter­na­tion­al Res­cue Com­mit­tee for the food com­mod­it­ies ex­changes made through elec­tron­ic cards, or e-vouch­ers. The WakaWaka’s are used to charge the card read­ers and tab­lets us­ing sol­ar en­ergy. Moreover, the torch also al­lows mer­chants to con­tin­ue car­ry­ing out trans­ac­tions after dark when ne­ces­sary.

In the Tillabery re­gion, the IRC dis­trib­uted WakaWaka’s to Vil­lage Sav­ings and Loans As­so­ci­ations groups as a mo­tiv­a­tion as well as kit for de­vel­op­ing an in­come gen­er­at­ing activ­ity. The IRC also dis­trib­uted WakaWaka’s to com­munity fa­cil­it­at­ors in or­der to en­able them to charge tele­phones in the com­munity in re­turn for money, and thus cre­at­ing an­oth­er in­come gen­er­at­ing activ­ity through the use of sol­ar power.