787
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$48,399
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on January 7.
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We are happy with all support. Your dollar helps to make WAKAWAKA work. Because of your donation you are one step closer to being able to order your WAKAWAKA online soon. You are now officially one of the founders of WAKAWAKA and we hope you will spread the word.
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* FRIEND . . . . . . . Thanks so much for expressing your support. You will receive a surprise THANK YOU CARD from the WAKAWAKA founders. Your name will show up on our WAKAWAKAWALL of Friends
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+++ WAKAWAKA DONATION ..... thank you for your generosity! You have just donated a WAKAWAKA to a primary school in Kenya! Before the Kickstarter term ends, we will upload pictures of the school. Lights will be used primarily by teachers to check homework, but if we get enough, we can start donating them to students as well! We will send you pictures of this when this will take place. Let's Light Up Kenya together! (+ we´ll add your name on the Wall of Friends under ‘WAKAWAKA DONATION)
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** WAKAWAKA FRIEND . . . . . . . Congratulations! You just pre-ordered your first WAKAWAKA solar LED lamp! Equipped with 4 set modes : super bright torch light – bright ambient light – excellent reading light and night safety light mode. 1 day sunlight will give you over 16 hours of reading light, making it the most efficient solar lamp available. WAKAWAKA will retail online for $ 40.00 but pre-order now at $ 35.00 and we’ll throw in a free WAKAWAKA lanyard as well! For shipments outside of US, please add $ 15.00 (+ we´ll add your name on the Wall of Friends as ‘WAKAWAKA FRIEND)
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*** WAKAWAKA FRIEND with BENEFITS . . . . . . On top of your WAKAWAKA you will receive the plug-in mobile phone battery charger as well! No matter where you are, with WAKAWAKA by your side you'll always have power during the day. Yes, you'll get your lanyard also. For this combi package you need to be a bit more patient though, so thanks in advance! For shipments outside of US, please add $ 15.00 (+ we´ll add your name on the Wall of Friends as ‘WAKAWAKA FRIEND with BENEFITS)
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+++++ WAKAWAKA ONE FOR ME ONE FOR ...? yes, that's the question, who will get the other WAKAWAKA? For sure it will be either a teacher or a student from a school in rural Kenya. Before the Kickstarter term ends, we will upload pictures of the school. We will send you pictures from the moment we hand out the WAKAWAKA's. (+ we´ll add your name on the Wall of Friends as +++++ WAKAWAKA ONE FOR ME ONE FOR ? )
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**** WAKAWAKA TWIN FRIEND . . . . . . . Yes, you guessed it right, now you have 2 WAKAWAKA´s! of course with 2 lanyards and delivered to your doorstep. For shipments outside of US, please add $ 25.00 (+ we´ll add your name on the Wall of Friends as ‘WAKAWAKA TWIN FRIEND' but we´ll only add it once ;-) )
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***** WAKAWAKA (un)LIMITED FRIEND . . . . . . . For Kickstarters only! We need to know your name so we can personlize your WAKAWAKA! and add a number ranging from 50 to 500 (LIMITED EDITION). We´ll make you an official certificate showing you that these are the first WAKAWAKA's production models. Of course it comes with a WAKAWAKA 'ltd' lanyard. For shipments outside of US, please add $ 15.00 (+ we´ll add your name on the Wall of Friends as ‘WAKAWAKA (un)LIMITED FRIEND' )
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****** WAKAWAKA CHRISTMAS FRIEND ..... Not only will you receive a WAKAWAKA & lanyard but ... you also DONATE 3 WAKAWAKA's to a primary school in Tanzania. Before the Kickstarter term ends, we will upload pictures of the school. Lights will be used primarily by teachers to check homework, but if we get enough, we can start donating them to students as well! We will send you pictures of this when this will take place. Let's Light Up Tanzania like a Christmas tree! For shipments outside of US, please add $ 15.00 (+ we´ll add your name on the Wall of Friends as ‘WAKAWAKA CHRISTMAS FRIEND)
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****** WAKAWAKA EXCLUSIVE FRIEND . . . . . . You are a true friend and you understand why we do this. Thanks for your support! Your personalized WAKAWAKA will be numbered from 11 to 49, you get a certificate (and 'excl' lanyard, 'cause we know you want to show it off) and a soft pouch to keep your WAKAWAKA safe. Apart from that we will send you a personal video message from one of the founders! We will send you the mobile phone battery charger once it´s ready seperately Worldwide shipment included (+ we´ll add your name on the Wall of Friends as ‘WAKAWAKA EXCLUSIVE FRIEND' )
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
***** WAKAWAKA 5 STAR FRIEND FOR LIFE . . . . . . WOW! What can we say... of course you get 2 WAKAWAKA´s, 1 with a limited edition ranging from 1 to 10 and both of them with your name on it, sent you in an exclusive, luxurious case. We´ll throw in a few extra lanyards, so you can tease your friends and we would love to get in touch with you. Be ready to hear from us ... expressing our personal gratitude! We will send you the mobile phone battery charger once it´s ready seperately Worldwide shipment included (+ we´ll add your name in CAPITALS on the Wall of Friends as ‘***** WAKAWAKA 5 STAR FRIEND FOR LIFE' )
Project By
Connected as Wakawaka Solar Light (180 friends)
Camille van Gestel is one of the founders of Off-Grid Solutions, a company who creates workable, cool, feasible and affordable solutions for families who do not have electricity access.
He is an enthusiastic entrepreneurial networker with a degree in business administration. Last year he successfully initiated a project to offset the entire national emission of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer in South Africa by introducing energy saving LED lighting.
He is joined by Kim van der Leeuw (carbon expert), Maurits Groen (environmental expert and 'guru') and Paul Naastepad (seasoned clean tech executive) as well as partners who have been putting in a lot of their spare time in design and engineering of WAKAWAKA.
twitter : @wakawakalight
FB : www.facebook.com/100003153211756
3 months of charge would be great. I could charge it at the beginning of severe storm season and have it charged, but off till I need it some time in the 3-4 months of high probability severe weather. Cool.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your comment. We currently use NiMh batteries. These have a self discharge time which increases as the capacity increases. We have just started testing this, but it will take several months to find out. We expect that it will take at least 3 months before it's empty. An hour in full sunlight will generate 4 hrs of reading light right away.
We're looking into LiFePO4 batteries as well, which have much longer self discharge times, but this technology is still in infant stage.
We'll keep you posted!
warm wishes,
Camille
I vote for Yellow as well. Easier to find in a dark backpack. I would ask that you do some testing (or set a protocol for testing by end users) regarding the length of time a fully charged unit can retain it's charge. This would be helpful for emergency volunteers who would keep such a light in their "go bag" for emergency activation. If the thing couldn't maintain a charge for very long, you would know to expect to charge before use. If it could, then you might count on a charge so you could use it at night when you finally got a chance to stay in one place.
Hi Matthew, thanks for your question
We have been working on the software for quite some time together with our High Tech partner Intivation. The reason we wanted to have an external charge in the first place was since a 5V USB charger would be inefficient and would require larger battery capacity. This problem has now been solved by Intivation! so ... we can efficiently charge 5V directly through an USB connection.
So in summary, we will not be making the external charger unit, instead we are preparing a new version of WakaWaka: "WakaWaka Mobile" (working title). This version will have a USB port which can charge virtually any cell phone. It will be iPhone 5 compatible!
Only downside is that it takes a bit longer to arrive. We may need another 2 / 3 months before it´s ready.
Major upside will be that we will offer this WakaWaka under the same Reward conditions ! So eventhough it´s basically a 2nd WakaWaka, we won´t charge anything extra for this!
We very much hope you are happy with this development and only ask for slightly more patience.
I´ll keep you posted!
Warm wishes,
Camille
How is the research going for the Waka Waka with the mobile charger unit?
i much prefer the bright yellow wakawaka! please register my vote.
3 questions:
will it fit on all standard bottle necks? (is the size of the bottle critical to make it work?)
how many recharges will the internal battery accept?
can the wakawaka be easily repaired and refurbished when it breaks down? (will there be spare parts?)
i'm so pleased with your efforts!
cheers,
ginger
Yellow! Yellow is daybreak, grey is twilight... And also a yellow WAKAWAKA looks more like cool tool, I'd say. Thank you for the update, rock on!
light to the "third" (for me it is) world!!!
Michael
Hi Jon, you're so right. update in your mailbox. apologies for the delay!
A month later. Still waiting on that update, Camille.
It would be nice for an update. A month ago you said there would be an update in a week. Can you at least say if things are on schedule?
Hi Ken and All,
We have not sent out the WakaWaka's yet. I will be sending an update very soon! please bare with us.
Warm wishes,
Camille
Has anyone received one of these?
Are you still on track for a July delivery?
Hi Ye'All,
Thanks for your suggestion Jon. We want to find the right balance between updates and spam hehe. I could send updates every week actually... Soon we'll have the newsletter option ready on a new site we're making.
And an update will be sent in about a weeks time!
warm wishes,
Camille
How're things coming along? May we get a status update, please?
You should think about making a tablet and laptop Solar charger as well.. just triple the size of the solar panels?
Great news in the update! Also wanted to mention another project folks might be interested in - The HuMn Wallet. If you decided to pledge for a wallet, please mentioned that 'Experiencing life to the fullest' referred you by leaving a comment on that project. Thx.
Dear Neal,
Thats excellent!! I look forward to any news we may receive from them!
Thanks so much for spreading the WakaWaka word as well!
Hopefully this may lead to a bright future to kids around the world!
Warm wishes
Camille
Camille,
I sent World Vision a note to look into your project and to hopefully connect with you in hope of getting your light added to their gift catalog for their children.
Congratulations!!
sorry! 786 Backers!!!
Kaleemux! you came in at the last second!
THANK YOU ALL !!!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks so much Michael!! we're seeing a lot of last minute pledges and donations! your efforts do have an effect! Thanks for your support and for sharing your thoughts and blesses! Gratitude is what we feel and we're humbled by so much positive energy!
Warm wishes,
Camille
Posted again on Facebook and Twitter hope to see some action in the last 50 minutes... I am just glad to see a project that is not just about gadgets but one that will actually make a difference in others lives, and not just for visual but health. God Bless everyone that has backed this project.
Thanks Bjondc !!! great to see last minute life changers such as you!!!!
Can't help myself -- added another give-one to my pledge; now I can get 2 & stil give 4, which seems only fair.
LAST HOUR OF THE WAKAWAKA CAMPAIGN... MY GOODNESS, WHAT A RIDE WE HAVE HAD!!!
Hi Elizabeth,
THANKS SO MUCH for your last minute action!! 1 more life changed!
I am glad you understand why we're doing this. It's very satisfactory to be working on a project such as this with so much passion and than receive such heart warming response from so many people including you!
Warm wishes,
Camille
I just upped my pledge by a second $30. If that moving company can help 20 kids get lights, then I ought to be able to help two more.
Thanks for the great work you are doing. We need more smart entrepreneurs thinking about how to help the 1.5 billion people who live on $2 a day improve their circumstances, ideally while helping the climate, too, as your project does.
Hi Bee,
I am glad you cannot resist hehe. gives me the opportunity to explain this in the nick of time still.
You are right: giving away free product is not an ideal model at all for all the reasons you mentioned. There are more reasons: suppose in village A we give away free WakaWaka's and in village B (a little further down the road) we try to sell wakaWaka's through distributors... that doesn't work.
Mwamtsefu is an exceptional project which we launched on specific request of quite a lot of backers who really insisted they could donate lights to those who need it most. As part of our kickstarter campaign, we have experienced and incredible boost to the pledges from the moment we announced this possibility. So in this case not only the Mwamtsefu kids benefit, but we also managed to reach our funding goal, ensuring to all backers that we can make their orders.
So in short: to provide lights for free in this way is a one time only project.
I can announce though that in a few months time we will launch the WakaWaka Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to stimulate education, in particular in the field of energy efficiency and the benefits for local families. Part of the educational package should be a free of charge solar light for teachers only which they can use to correct homework in the evening. There is not enough space in this comment box to elaborate on the entire campaign, but if you follow us, you'll be hearing more soon!
Thanks for not taking things for granted and being critical!
Warm wishes,
Camille
now... in return... may I also ask a question?? would you mind sending out 1 more reminder to your Facebook and other friends ?? ;-)
Hi Camille,
Thanks for the reply, of course you heard many ideas and suggestions for the project (probably many even repeatedly), but I cannot resist adding yet another: why just give away the wakawaka's? If people save money, let them use that money to give their fellow students their own lamp? Even if it is voluntary! Additional advantage is that paying people will be much more critical of any weak points in your product speeding up fast improvements in the design (early models will probably break down fast, in many ways...). And if people do not want the lamp, you get an early warning about the danger of failure if you do not find the cause.
Giving away things often does not work, it diminishes the perceived value of the item, it may be given to those who do not really need it, the item gets worse care, and you disrupt local providers of comparable items. Also there is the temptation for 'middle men' to resell your lamp for 100% profit (corruption).
hi Neal,
You are absolutely right. Our campaign here on kickstarter is what it is: a KICKSTART to a long term commitment we have to the Bottom of the Pyramid. This commitment is more than just words: in September in New York, we pledged to President Clinton that we would light up the lives of at least 1 million families in the next 5 years. To be honest, this is not nearly enough. We will take a break once we have reached 1.5 BILLION... (if you don't shoot for the stars, you'll never reach the sky...)
I know of World Vision. A wonderful organization. Would you be able to introduce this idea to them???
warm wishes,
Camille
As I find out more about this project, it warms my heart to know that time is coming closer to having it come to fruition. I do also know that once this funds, work is not done as there are still so many in need. I do wonder if by chance, there would be a way to link up with World Vision and possibly have the lights distributed to their children in need via their gift catalog which their sponsors can "give now". I hope you great continued success with getting these out to all who need them.
Hey "Bee - Em"
Thanks for Backing us first of all! and for your enthusiastic reply. Let me explain. Your train of thoughts seems to make a lot of sense, although we have done our homework and reality turns out to be slightly different:
There are basically 2 types of solar lamps on the market. High quality lights with sufficient light output, but way too expensive for he vast majority of people living at the Bottom of the Pyramid and there are the low cost solutions, but they provide very poor light quality and very few hours. On a slightly cloudy day they don't charge enough to provide light in the evening.
conclusion: there is need for a light which is high end, but low cost. This is precisely what we've made: WakaWaka !
We do start production in China, directly with a manufacturer, and we'll continue to make an effort to decrease cost price. Once we start generating carbon credits (tradeable emission rights as a result of carbon emission reduction) we will use this additional income to further reduce the cost price.
Your conclusion on the battery is totally right. It's a rough environment WakaWaka needs to operate in. High temperatures, moisture during cold nights, dust and daily usage and handling (since it's hand held) demand a lot of the design. although the batteries are in fact replaceable, we don't want people to open up the housing and expose the electronics. Capsuling the electronics would require more material, more expensive.
We are however brainstorming about a modular approach for the future with a removeable battery pack. Design will be slightly different, but also a bit more expensive. When people can afford to buy additional rechargeable batteries for other electronic devices, it means that they have a slightly higher income. they will be able to afford a slightly more expensive unit: WakaWaka Two (we haven't found a cool name yet for a series of WakaWaka's...). This 2nd version will also have 5V out and larger battery capacity even to be more effective on charging mobile phone batteries.
Thanks for your thoughts! Eventhough we have thought about WakaWaka for a long time before we went to he drawing board, of course it's impossible to consider everything, so surely we can learn from the suggestions we get from people as yourself, but also from our field test we'll start in february.
Hope you will spread the good word of WakaWaka in the next 24 hrs!!! exciting we're in the final hours now!
Warm wishes,
camille
I like the project, hands on, doing not just talking.
But there are probably many thousands of companies everywhere with lots of experience designing and manufacturing (e.g. in China) cheap electronic gadgets. Why not find such a company as a partner+sponsor?
Also, rechargeable batteries have many uses beyond your LED-lamp. Wouldn't a more modular approach (solar cell frame + chip, lamp, batteries) work better? Instead of overloading the fixed batteries, exchange them when full. Or would that necessarily lead to a less robust design?
Dear Michael and Charles, you set the standard guys!! Thanks for spreading the word Michael! and thanks for your generosity Charles! you are life changers. Doesn't hurt to tell you I guess ;-)
You know, it's so cool to see people increase their pledges and see new backers also supporting the Mwamtsefu students! 32 kids in the past 12 hrs! (a 15% increase in donations!) Let's keep it up for another 36 hours!!!
THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU
GREAT WORK! Supported, Advertised, Tweeted, and hope and pray to make a difference!
God Bless!
Up'd my pledge by $30! I know it's not alot, but in addition to my original $250, I hope it helps. I would hate to be one of the kids who didn't get one . . .
Hi Jim: Thanks for your link! very interesting to look for an extra benefit of using solar UV rays to purify water. We'd need to look into on how to include a flyer with our packaging!! these instructions must be available, so should not be too complicated and it only inceases the impact we can have with WakaWaka! THANKS!
Some people don't know how to increase their pledge. That's ok, thanks for asking! this is what you do:
Click on : 'Manage your pledge' & change the amount
rest will show itself.
THANKS!
Re: Solar UV purification: Here is a wikipedia piece on the technology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection
I was thinking that since your device needs a certain number of hours of sun light to reach full charge, perhaps it's charging cycle could be used as a timer to determine if sufficient UV radiation has penetrated the bottle to kill off the microbes. (set the solar collector next to the bottles and let the sun work on both, at the end of the charging cycle for the light would the water be clean enough to drink?)
I've backed for the $125 Get-one-give-3 + an additional $35 to get a second one for myself; I'm gad that's allowed.
I'm having flashbacks to my childhood of reading under the covers with a flashlight after lights-out (both at home & at boarding school, and I have no memory of how I solved the battery problem) -- sure could have used one of these things then!
Thanks Blake! 13 hrs ago we were so close and now we made it! Thank you and Thanks to all our Backers who made this possible!! many of you posted blogs, wrote about WakaWaka or told editors about WakaWaka. We got a lot of exposure and this has made all the difference! On top of that many people increased their pledge. THANKS! GREAT! WOW! YOU'RE ALL AWSOME!!!
So close, a nail biter.... I will continue to tell everyone I know
Hi Jim,
Very interesting thoughts you're sharing with us here. Where would I find more info on UV water purification? I know a little about water purification and as far as I know it takes a little bit more than just UV light to purify water.
We have been thinking about adding a light frequency to scare off malaria musquitos... still an idea, but I know there are ultra sone solutions for this. WakaWaka is not just a light, but also a power source. So we will be introducing more add-ons later on.
Your UV purifying idea sounds very interesting. Look forward to some further info which we can use.
WakaWaka is stable even on a 330 ml bottle (so a small one). So it could work with basically any type of bottle.
Warm wishes,
Camille
I was looking at the website and thinking about the bottle mount. A 2 liter bottle is too think to use safely for solar-based UV disinfection of drinking water, but a tall 1 liter bottle appears to work (at least in the demos I have seen.) Will this light need a 2 liter bottle, or will it be stable on a 1 liter bottle?
If it was stable on the 1 liter bottle, an additional instruction might be to charge this and purify some drinking water at the same time. If the light doesn't charge, your water hasn't been exposed to enough UV to be safe. Might be a cool experiment to do. If it worked, you would tackle two problems at once, providing lighting and safe drinking water.
Dear Jae, Thanks for your question.
Indeed we intend to retail at $40.00 in order to promote 'Get one - Give one'. Donated lights will either go to pre designated schools in Kenya (currently) and later on also to refugee camps.
Reducing the storage capacity also reduces reliability. On sunny days, 4-5 hours worth of light is just enough, although people tend to spend more time studying, working, socializing when their source of light is free of charge, instead of using expensive kerosene.
The sun doesn't always shine though, in the rain season, many solar lamps don't get enough sunlight during overcast days, or rainy days, to charge the battery enough. Since we have a high efficiency chip + overcapacity on the battery, WakaWaka will work in any weather conditions. No need to fall back to kerosene when the weather conditions aren't optimal.
I trust this answers your question, if not, please let me know.
Warm wishes
Camille
I really like the idea and backed the project so that a teacher can have one in Kenya.
Why would you be retailing this for $40? Do you plan to give one free to a needy school with each purchase?
I would think that you could make the device much cheaper by reducing the amount of storage and operation time down to 8 or even 4 hours of use. Lower the cost, larger the impact.
Thanks travis!! We need your christmas spirit!
Many have preceeded you and I hope many Will follow your example!!
Merry Christmas to you and your family
Camille
So I just announced this project to all of my circles on Google+. With only 13 days let's see if we can help spread the word.