Our time here is short. The impact doesn’t have to be.

I co-founded Little Sunshine Pledge to put free solar on the roofs of orphanages and children’s centres in Vietnam and Cambodia. The power bill they no longer pay becomes money for food, school, medicine and the small things that make a childhood.

One orphanage used its savings to bring in a dentist to check every child’s teeth. A solar system keeps doing that for 25 to 40 years.

These are full orphanages, some with 50 rooms or more, and many have been running for decades. Our systems look small next to Australian ones. Getting one onto a roof there is a commercial-sized job. On one roof we built a steel frame first, then carried every panel up four floors by hand. What counts is what each system saves an orphanage, year after year.

It is a registered Australian charity, and donations are tax deductible. GoodWe, Clenergy and Yingli Solar donate the equipment, and a share of every power purchase agreement Solar Connected installs helps fund the work.

Donate or sponsor a system at littlesunshinepledge.org.

Where this goes next is a full charity machine: a solar retail business across South East Asia and then the rest of Asia, owned by the mission. Every dollar of profit goes to two things, employing local people and installing more orphanages.

To fund that for the next 15 years, I’m looking for the right partner to install power purchase agreements with us, so the work is paid for year after year.

The target is 25 to 50 orphanages a year. Over 15 years that is 375 to 750 more, close to the 800 to 900 systems it takes to reach one bowl of rice every two seconds.

Our time is short. A machine built like this keeps going long after we have stopped.

I’m keen to work with new partners. If you own a business and want to be part of this, come to Vietnam with us, see an install for yourself, and donate a solar system with your plaque on it. We would be thrilled to welcome you.

Every system we add keeps saving an orphanage money for 25 to 40 years. A partner who joins today is part of that for the whole time.

Already have a business and want to talk about how it could fit? Message me and we will work out the right way for you to be involved, whether that is a system, a partnership or a visit.