500

Villages Illuminated

18,900

Houses Lit

1,09,897

People Impacted

What Aman Shah had to say ….
“On 29th of September, I went to a village called Shisne which was a little over 4 hours away from Mumbai. Project Chirag’s main initiative is to provide solar home lighting systems to rural households such as the ones in Shisne that have no access to electricity whatsoever. Furthermore , after having read that 240 million Indians have no access to electricity and with villagers using expensive, harmful kerosene lamps I realised that something had to be done about this situation. This is when my work with Project Chirag began. A couple of weeks before the actual visit I raised enough money through friends and family that believed in the cause in order to be able to supply light for 45 homes in the village. At the time of arrival, I was astonished by the lack of infrastructure and the difficulty in the lifestyles of the people that lived in the village. What disturbed me even further was the fact that a place that’s within such close proximity to Mumbai was somewhat of a polar opposite to the cosmopolitan city in terms of basic resources. Moreover, their day to day trials consisted of living for most of the time in absolute darkness, being prone to various diseases and having little to no healthcare, searching for potable water and finally being able to sustain their families while paying for expensive kerosene lamps and making sure their kids get an education. Regardless , they came across as one of the most positive people I have ever met and they were thrilled at the sight of the boxes contained the lights; almost like a child waiting to open a Christmas present. During my installations of the lights the only thing I noticed was that even though it was a difficult lifestyle the people were content.Even so , something i will never forget is the fact that the only thing in those houses that was brighter than the lights was the smiles on the people’s faces, and its that level of simplicity that made me realise that I should never take the small things in life for granted again. I want to thank the Chirag Foundation for this memorable opportunity and hope that more people support this noble cause”
Team at Project Chirag and the villagers of Shisne send you our best wishes on your 18th birthday and hoping to see you Spreading more light and transforming many more lives!

Testimonial’s

Aman Shah is a student and he turned 18 recently. He chose to celebrate his big day by reaching out to the rural villages of India. This video contains his reason for celebrating his 18th birthday. with Project Chirag.

  • “About a week ago, we went to a small village located 4 hours out of Mumbai. Project Chirag's aim was to help all the locals there install solar-powered bulbs in their houses for easy and a significantly cheaper access to light. Upon arriving we were shocked to learn about some of their daily struggles. To begin with, their houses would remain dark even during the day due to the absence of electricity, they had no toilets making them prone to scorpion and snake bites, the closest medicinal facility was 30 kms away and they had very limited access to education. However when we arrived, there was no sign of pain or struggle on their faces; in fact they all had a very welcoming smile. The children couldn't be any more excited upon seeing us there as we unloaded the gifts we had brought for them- to them these might have seemed like gifts, but for us they were basic needs like rugs, blankets, umbrellas and food. We proceeded to move towards their houses, some of which were more than 30 minutes of walking through mud, thorns, streams and steep slopes. We realized that all our traveling and contributions to bring them light and electricity had been worth it when we saw how delighted they were to see us install the devices. We returned soon after, but what we realized was that how fortunate we are to have the education and convenience that the ones in need would give anything to have. Thanks to the whole team of Project Chirag for giving us the opportunity to help those in need.

    Manav Shah - Student

Beneficiary testimonial’s

Testimonial
I stay with my small family, I have two small girls child one is six year old and another is just three years old. It was very difficult to go out for any work at night leaving alone such small kids in dark, I was always in worry whenever I had to go to another village for work. But now my wife can take care of them better and she does not scare. We tribal always live on hill and in the jungle there is always a danger of snake and other wild animal but thanks to you people you gave us this light now our life is a bit easy.”
MR. CHANDU MAHU ZATE - Waghatpada, Dahanu, Thane.
First thing it really helps for children study and improvement in education, and secondly we saved huge amount of kerosene, we buy kerosene but very rarely. After getting this light the darkness form our life has been vanished. I have seven girl child and they used to study very rarely because of darkness and limited resources for study. But now all of them regularly studies at home and now I can proudly say my daughters are studying”
SURESH ANDHAR - Koshimshet, Wada, Thane
its rally a great thing to have light, I am really thankful to project Chirag that you gave us this solar light, it’s really very useful for us for all the household and other work, especially for our children’s study, earlier they use to sit in the kerosene lamp for study and both the kids use to fight for the lamp, the light was not sufficient and they don’t wanted to sit together so I had to give them two separate kerosene lamp, but now they sit together for study under one tube light, don’t fight and study well. Like this there is more peace and happiness in the home and the kerosene usage is also gone down. Usually we needed three litter kerosene for one month now I have been using one litter may be for more than six months. Solar light is extremely useful for going out in the night, going to farm when wild animal destroy the crops. Going to shop when we need something urgently, so in many way the light is benefitting us and I don’t have words to explain all these things”
DALAVI KAKI - Wada, Thane
I am very thankful to Pragati Pratishthan and Project Chirag, it’s a really great pleasure to have light in my house, and my daughter is just 5 years old she gets scared in the dark we could leave her alone in dark earlier, because if we use the kerosene lamp and keep near to her once she got a burn in her hand and form then we never left her alone in dark or even with the kerosene lamp. It was very difficult for her mom to keep watch on her and at the same time do house hold work. With this solar light now we can really let her play and roam around, and her mom can do household work.”
MR. KIRAN VARTHA - Mohupada, Dahanu, Thane
I am a daily wage worker, and have small family, whenever I use to go to work I had to return at home before sunset, its means I had to stop the work much earlier because of that my contractor use to cut my wage and I was getting much lessor pay for my hard work, but now I take solar lantern with me and work till sunset and come back after finishing the work, and my contractor trust me now and he gives me more responsibilities”
LAXMAN JAITAI GAWAR - MohuPada, Dahanu, Thane
Beside everything just having light itself is a happiness and great thing for us, right form cooking to cleaning now we know what we are doing, before this we didn’t know what we are cooking and is the home clean or not. And we are not using kerosene at all, it’s now just one litter we are using since many months that too just for lighting up the coal and wood otherwise not, we saved a lot of money on kerosene”
RANJANA BHAVAR - Koshimshet, wada, Thane
When I came in this family as a daughter in law I saw there is no electricity…! This was a bit shocking for me because in my maternal home these electricity it’s not regular but it’s there, initial days was very difficult for me, I couldn’t go out after 7pm, I could cook properly after sun set so I had had to do it earlier or with kerosene lamps which I was not use to. Going for sanitation was the biggest problem for me, thanks a lot to these solar lights, it brought a mile one my small babies face and made my life easy.”
SUMAN VARTHA - JadhavPada, Palghar,Thane
This Solar light is really a god gift for us, before getting this solar light there were a lots of problems and issues with our daily life, but now we are living a better life than earlier. Earlier I had to walk almost every day 1.5 to 2 km for charging my mobile battery and had to wait there if someone else is charging his mobile. I use to feel much dishonoured, now I don’t go anywhere else to charge my mobile, it saves my time and energy. Second thing I have young daughter in law in my family and as we don’t have any toilet facility everyone in our village go out for sanitation. And as a women she and even my wife has to out in night its very difficult and dangerous as well. But thanks to your solar light they can now go out without fear.”
MR. DHARMA DHANI BHAWAR - Waghatpada,Dahanu,Thane
For me the biggest benefit of solar light is my child now can study at home, I have mobility even after sunset I don’t need to be afraid now, I can just take light and go out without fear. Another one is kerosene, I don’t buy kerosene now on regular basis. We use it for other household work but not for studying cooking as a source of light. I can send the children out for play now in evening, they just take light and go out before this they had to just be at home they use to get irritated. People like us live in jungle and on hill we really really need the light because earlier as soon as it get dark the tiger use roar and come out of jungle, we use to live in fear we did not use to send our children out and after you gave this light to us it’s a biggest help for us and for our children.
LAXMI KOMB -  Koshimshet, Wada Thane
Because of this solar light our life is totally changed, very small small things are there, which I can’t explain you only…but are very useful for us. Like my wife had to cook dinner before it gets dark and we had to have that cool off food, and after that, there were no choice to go anywhere or do anything. We just had to go to sleep. But now I can go out at night since other people also can come, now we can socialize at late night our children also can study late night when they have exams” Mr. Mukund S. Vartha, 35/M. - Mohupada, Dahanu, Thane.
MR. MUKUND S. VARTHA