Students at Nyangwayo School in Muhuru Bay, Western Kenya celebrate their solar installation.
Photo Credit - SolarAid

January is notoriously the gloomiest month of the year. The seasonal festivities are well and truly over leaving in their wake a few pounds of extra body weight, piles of wrapping paper and a fridge full of leftovers. And that’s not to mention the New Year’s resolutions that are already starting to look optimistic. But it doesn’t have to be this way, thanks to the charity SolarAid.

Set up by Dr. Jeremy Leggett, founder of Good Energy partner Solarcentury, SolarAid is on the hunt for 100 people to raise £1000 each, in any way they want (the more creative the better), over the next 12 months. So why not combine your New Year’s resolutions with helping to tackle both climate change and global poverty? Working in rural areas across East and Southern Africa, SolarAid installs solar panels on schools, community centres and clinics, so that some of the poorest people in the world can harness their own renewable energy and transform their lives.

Perhaps you have designated 2011 as the year to really get fit? Why not do a sponsored run or cycle ride? Or perhaps you just want to do something a sociable? Try organising a wine a series of wine tastings for your friends, a car boot sale or an entertainment event.

Becoming one of SolarAid’s ‘Hot 100’ fundraisers is totally free and the charity promises you a lot of fun along the way, with the chance to win an inspirational trip to Africa to see for yourself how they are spending the money you raise, as well as invitations to pub nights to meet fellow challengers, and an end of year dinner to celebrate your achievements.

For any enquiries, please email hot100@solar-aid.org. And remember, it's hot for a reason. There are only 100 spaces and it's first come, first served.

Like so many of the best innovations, SolarAid is a simple idea but one that has made a huge impact, reaching around 100,000 people with solar power since it began. What started as a group of volunteers meeting a couple of evenings a month, has now grown to more than 30 employed staff and over a hundred volunteers today - making it one of the fastest growing NGOs.

See the story of Bob Kokonya, a farmer in Kenya who was spending the majority of his meagre income on lighting his family home with dirty, inefficient and dangerous kerosene powered lamps. Thanks to help from SolarAid, Bob can now invest his income in his farm, in other basic needs, or in more solar power.