Innovation: Africa is an NGO with a mission to bring Israeli solar and water technologies to rural African villages.
Founded in 2008 by Sivan Ya’ari, the organization provides solar energy to schools and medical centers and pumps clean water throughout villages across Africa.
Since founding Innovation: Africa, Ya’ari and her team have installed solar energy, water and agricultural technology in more than 250 rural African villages across 10 African countries. 42 projects in Malawi, 119 in Uganda, 34 in Tanzania, 26 in South Africa, 3 in DRC, 6 in Senegal, and 11 projects in Cameroon. This year they expanded to Eswatini and Zambia.
Innovation: Africa engineers have recently developed their latest product, which is called the “Energy Box.” Inside, this small rectangular device has all the components needed to provide solar power to an entire school or a medical center with lithium-ion batteries, an inverter, control charger, and LED bulbs, which are all produced in Israel. This new long-lasting and durable solar system will provide energy to any facility for more than 10 years with no maintenance required.
With the support of the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation, Innovation: Africa is in the process of selecting 10 engineers from Tel Aviv University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to help their engineering department with the development of the new Energy Box.
Innovation: Africa has developed a UN award-winning remote monitoring technology which enables them to efficiently monitor all the solar systems and pumps throughout the villages, making sure it is all working. If anything breaks, they get an alert and the local team fixes it.
Innovation: Africa , in just a little over a decade, has impacted more than 1.5 million lives across Africa, providing them with access to vaccines, light and water. One and a half million people. That is the equivalent of 20% of the entire Israeli population.
This is Israeli Innovation at its very best!
By Hillel Fuld - Jerusalem Post