Audi Environmental Foundation and Litro de Luz bring solar lighting to remote villages in Brazil
Litro de Luz Brasil is a branch of the global “Liter of Light” movement, an international organization present in over 15 countries. It wants to make life easier providing sustainable lighting solutions for needy people. With its simple but sustainable solar technology made from materials such as PET bottles and PVC pipes, supplemented by solar panels, rechargeable batteries and LED lamps, it has already helped over 23,000 residents in remote regions to improve their standard of living.
The Audi Environmental Foundation and Audi do Brasil are supporting Litro de Luz Brasil with its project in the Amazon region, which is supplying solar lighting to three villages without access to electricity. “The collaboration between Litro de Luz and Audi ideally contributes to realizing our dream – to bring light to the Amazon regions, where most Brazilians live without access to electricity,” says Laís Higashi, President of Litro de Luz Brasil. And Rüdiger Recknagel, Managing Director of the Audi Environmental Foundation, adds: “Electricity is indispensable in everyday life, but in many regions of the world it is still not fully available. Especially for remote villages, a reliable power supply is difficult to access. However, electricity is necessary for people to have access to society and education – because without light, reading is difficult. With this in mind, the Audi Environmental Foundation and Audi do Brasil are supporting the Litro de Luz Brasil initiative.”
The project started in April 2022. Members of Litro de Luz Brasil and Audi do Brasil travelled to three villages, Nova Canaã, Nova Jerusalém and Lindo Amanhecer, to install solar-powered lamp posts in the common areas that illuminate the pathways at night for more safety. In addition, more than 100 families received solar lamps that they can use at home and outside.
This also improves access to education, as it is now possible to read and complete homework in the evening. Litro de Luz Brasil will take care of the maintenance of the solar lamps, the return of the used lithium batteries and train the people how to use the solar lamps. Therefore, ambassadors were trained in the region to represent the organization. The assembly and installation of the lamps was done together with the residents, so that they were directly involved in the project. To evaluate the success of the project, a survey of the population was carried out at the end.
“This is one of the projects that shows best the essence of the project partners, companies that seek clean solutions for everyone," says Antonio Calcagnotto, responsible for institutional affairs and Sustainability at Audi do Brasil and one of the volunteers during the installations in the riverside communities. "It was a joy and satisfaction to be one of the volunteers bringing improved quality of life and safety to the residents. We could make a little difference for these people.”
The Audi Environmental Foundation has been in contact with Laís Higashi since she was selected for a One Young World scholarship. In 2021 she attended the One Young World Summit as Audi Environmental Foundation Scholar and since then she is an Audi Environmental Foundation Ambassador as well as a One Young World Ambassador.
