December 8, 2022 / Year-end Giving
Dear Friend,
Amid hardships and natural disasters affecting those we equip near and far, your light shines brightly in communities often forgotten. Each solar panel you help SonLight Power install blesses...
A child who sees a brighter future now that he can attend school.
A grandmother whose lifesaving medicine can be refrigerated.
A doctor who is able to care for the medical needs of a rural village.
A community that knows the world has not forgotten it.
When you give the gift of reliable, affordable energy through SonLight Power, you don’t just give solar panels ... you give hope, opportunities, and the light of God’s love.
As you read your 2022 Impact Report below this letter, you’ll see how your support this past year continues to multiply. When you bring solar energy to a medical clinic, an orphanage, or a school, you empower these ministries to care for more vulnerable people.
We have plans to strengthen partnerships, continue to help people build resilience in some of the world’s most adverse places, and shine God’s love in neglected local communities. But we can only help these communities with your continued support.
Your support is only growing more critical. Inflation has impacted the cost of equipment and travel — even a small project costs more now.
In addition, renewable energy not only helps missions break free from expensive and unreliable fossil-fuel energy sources, it helps our world as the changing climate causes more, and more severe, natural disasters. Your support increases resilience in the regions most impacted by climate change.
This fall, when Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico and knocked out power to 1.5 million electrical customers, the lights continued to shine in the rural church of Fuente de Vida, where the community comes for refuge and aid. It was the second major power outage the island faced this year alone.
Because of the solar panels you helped install for Fuente de Vida this year, the church was a literal beacon of hope in the darkness.
“We’re just a small church in a very rural area,” says Carolyn, the church’s treasurer. “I really didn’t expect anything like this solar project for us.”
It’s a message we often hear from the people whose lives you touch with your kindness. They didn’t think anyone noticed their struggles. They didn’t expect anyone to care. We hear it even here in our community, as you’ll read in your Impact Report below.
Your gift today will shine the light of God’s love into the communities and lives of people who feel forgotten, who have been too long neglected and left behind with too few opportunities and too little hope for change.
Thank you for remembering and caring for these communities with your gift today.
With gratitude and hope,
Kevin Sasson
Executive Director
P.S. Your Impact Report doesn’t just cover what we achieved together this past year — it also gives you a sense of the plans we have to build on this work in 2023 and beyond. Please, make these plans possible. Send your critical year-end gift today.
2022 DONOR IMPACT REPORT
Your support changes everything for communities in need. Here are just a few examples of the life-changing work you made possible:
CINCINNATI: SHINING GOD'S LOVE ON LINCOLN HEIGHTS
“Our children are empowered by seeing how many other people that they’ve never met care about them.”
– Dawn Bailey, LHES Principal
At Lincoln Heights Elementary School, a solar array is powering an innovative STEM lab.
“I’m excited about the opportunities in the STEM lab and teaching the kids about solar energy,” says Principal Dawn Bailey.
Thanks to caring people like you and our partnership with Vineyard Cincinnati Church, SonLight Power was once again able to contribute to the annual Cincinnati Reds Community Fund’s Community Makeover.
Every year, thanks to your generous support, SonLight Power is able to create brighter futures in historically neglected parts of our community. Lincoln Heights, the first African American self- governing community in Ohio, has experienced challenges and lack of opportunities compared to surrounding neighborhoods. That impacts LHES too.
“I think the solar project is huge for the whole community. People have recognized these patterns, and things have started to change,” says Bailey. “I think that it will be a resurgence of hope that we’re not forgotten.”
MEXICO: CARING FOR ORPHANS, COAST TO COAST
We’re continuing our work with Back2Back Ministries, an international Christian non-profit organization dedicated to being a voice for orphans. In September, we traveled to the eastern coast to equip Back2Back’s Cancun operations with solar power.
Cancun’s high poverty rate, as well as extensive alcohol and drug abuse problems, place children at risk for becoming victims of child trafficking. By using solar energy to replace expensive power from the electric utility, Back2Back can focus more resources on their mission: keeping families together and preventing children from becoming orphans.
Previously, we oversaw the completion of a solar energy system at Back2Back’s Mazatlán site on Mexico’s western coast, where they offer support to children’s homes that serve orphaned and vulnerable children with special needs and high-risk backgrounds. The funds saved on utilities have allowed Back2Back to serve even more children.
Across the Caribbean, soaring diesel prices in Haiti continue to cause worsening unrest. The solar microgrid installed by SonLight Power on Back2Back’s Haiti campus means freedom from reliance on diesel fuel for their energy needs. “It’s been a God-send,” says one Back2Back employee.
With your support, we hope to be back in Mexico partnering again with Back2Back to bring solar power to their site near Monterrey.
HONDURAS: ADDRESSING WIDESPREAD NEED
“I’ll remember you came to visit us.”
– Student at a remote school in Honduras
SonLight Power has made four trips to Honduras this year alone, equipping nine schools and a large mission base with critical solar power. Electricity prices have soared 30% in just two years, and continuous power outages plague the country.
One of these trips was our first with one of our newest partners, Hoekstra Electrical Services. Their team of volunteers laid the foundation for a purpose-driven, team-building trip model for businesses.
SonLight Power’s roots continue to grow deeper in Honduras. With so much need and demand for our assistance, we hope to offer more extensive training to more Hondurans in the future to provide local economic opportunities while delivering solar solutions to many more people than we could reach on our own.
Our next major project in Honduras is already in the works. Happening this week, we are installing large-scale solar arrays to equip El Ayudante’s mission campus with reliable, affordable electricity in their clinic, tutoring center, and other facilities.
For more information: Let Your Light Shine with a gift today.
