Globe Telecom joins Ride for Light 2011 in the campaign to provide four million homes across
the country with safe, reliable and sustainable solar energy. The move is part of the company’s social
commitment to uplift the lives of marginalized sectors of the community and to help save the
environment by reducing carbon emissions.
An initiative of the Solar Energy Foundation (SEF), Ride for Light 2011 covers 6,600-
kilometers across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in just 19 days. It focuses on social and ecological
campaigns in approximately 40 remote communities all over the Philippines, with a strong emphasis
on various indigenous groups. Portable solar home systems will be donated to trusted social partners
in each village, who will connect the communities to the SEF network to give them access to electricity
on a sustainable basis.
As the official telecom partner, Globe is helping raise awareness and support for the advocacy
by providing mobile phones, Globe Prepaid Tattoo sticks, Globe prepaid SIM cards, and netbooks
which will enable the participants to give daily updates of their mission to the public through blogs and
Likewise, the company has set up a GCASH account for Ride for Light 2011 that will allow SEF
to receive donations via mobile phone with just a text message.
“We are very excited about this new donation option. Through GCASH, SEF will now be able
to reach out to and encourage more people to help alleviate poverty by making valuable donations
which will be used to provide solar energy to off-grid people throughout the Philippines. Every
hundred pesos they donate through GCASH can light one night for a family living without electricity,”
said Rock-Li Kim of Hybrid Social Solutions, the distribution of SEF in the Philippines.
At present, 26.4 percent of the country's population lives in rural, mountainous and farming
areas that lack access to electricity. Because of this, productive activity decreases or is brought to a
standstill when the sun goes down. Most households use kerosene, wood, and disposable batteries
to meet their basic energy needs, incurring high financial, health, and environmental costs in the
process. The use of solar energy and solar-powered products can change the lives of these off-grid
Filipinos by harnessing the sun's energy and empowering them to take control of their economic and
social development in the long run.
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For more information, pls. contact:
Yoly C. Crisanto
Head, Corporate Communications
Globe Telecom
Tel. No. 7302627
Fax No. 7393075
Email Address: globe.corpcomm@gmail.com
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