Stewart Craine: Dream Job in Progress

SC: I was actually right out in the factory areas, in a tiny little district called Shangzhao. That word brings nightmares to me now. I was out there for about nine months. I was so busy, buried in a several-foot-high mountain of LED lamp samples from 100 factories around the place. And that’s what I was doing. I was getting samples being sent into one area instead of traveling around China looking at all the factories, which was very expensive. I just didn’t have the budget for it.

SU: After several months of working with his suppliers to tweak the lamps to fit his needs, Craine began putting together kits consisting of lamps, batteries, chargers, and some small solar panels.

TAPE: Stewart Craine ambient noise

SU: The idea was to find local entrepreneurs willing to buy several kits and resell them throughout the villages. He spent days ironing Barefoot Power decals onto the kit bags that traveling salesmen would carry. Craine shipped his first container last year and so far has distributed more than 10 000 lamp kits.

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SC: We don’t want to just deliver lamps to people. We want to deliver electricity to people. But the first step is to get those first watts of power in there and mobilize that money that’s being spent on kerosene. A lot of people live near electricity; they’re only a few hundred meters away from it. They have electricity at work, their kids see electricity at school. They just don’t have it in their homes.

SU: Bridging that electricity gap—and leaving the industrial wasteland he now calls home—may take Craine one or two more years. And it may take four or five years before he’s rebuilt his personal life back in Australia and is finally enjoying the fruits of his labors. But in the meantime, thanks to Craine’s lamp kits, some lucky villagers in Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Tanzania, and elsewhere are beginning to see a healthier, brighter future. For Spectrum Radio, I’m Sandra Upson.

TAPE: Harmonious and upbeat music