Catching up with SEED Award winners and finalists: Lighting Up Hope and Communities

The Nicaraguan project, 'Lighting Up Hope and Communities', received a SEED Award in 2008 for its production and sale of solar products (such as food cookers and driers) specially designed for local needs. The development of this model community was also seen to be a positive step in rebuilding society after civil war. Now The Solar Women of Totogalpa, the collective behind the project, has been recognised as a legal cooperative by the National Assembly, finally fulfilling a long-held goal.

The Solar Women are now working on the construction of a restaurant, well-situated on the Pan-American highway, where they can serve their own solar food. They continue to promote the benefits of renewable energy whilst empowering rural women. They hope one day to develop an entire solar campus, complete with a research centre and facilities for visitors to their model community.