Loja de Energias
Women from rural areas in Mozambique apply to receive an initial set of material to manage their own energy shops. Future material has to be bought, but loans are also granted by the enterprise and the women organise in savings groups for cyclical buying.
The shops offer improved cook stoves, photovoltaic systems, lamps, mobile phone chargers, refrigerators and energy saving light bulbs. The women organise meetings with communities to raise awareness and offer the different products.
The enterprise empowers women in rural Mozambique through entrepreneurship, offering new skills and stable income opportunities. The adoption of clean and renewable energy sources reduces dependency on charcoal, kerosene and firewood, diminishing deforestation and carbon emissions. Air pollution is therefore also decreasing, reducing respiratory diseases in the long term.
- Providing women with new skills, safety, and a stable income.
- Offering more lighting hours for households, schoolchildren and businesses.
- Reducing pollution-related diseases with a decreased usage of kerosene and firewood inside houses.
- Substituting kerosene, charcoal and firewood as energy sources and therefore reducing deforestation and carbon emissions.
- Disseminating information on the importance of using renewable and clean energy sources among rural communities.
- Increasing the number of women in the labour market through entrepreneurial opportunities.
- Providing more affordable energy options for rural households than kerosene.
Partners
Loja de Energias supports women to set up renewable energy shops.
Phaesun helps women to purchase material by offering discount and credit and provides marketing support and training.
FOSERA offers low-price products and material by credit to pay after some weeks.
UN Women supports the expansion of the initiative in Mozambique and international exchange of experience.
