Thursday, Aug. 12, marks International Youth Day. To honor the day and to fight against areas facing extreme energy poverty, Capella Hotels and Resorts will donate solar lights to provinces in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. This is the first initiative in a long-term partnership with SolarBuddy, a global community dedicated to alleviating energy poverty for children. With the gift of clean, sustainable light, Capella pledges to help youth study after dusk and improve educational outcomes.

Around the world, 789 million people live in darkness and have minimal access to light once the sun sets. Energy-poverty communities depend on rural forms of energy, like using fuel-based kerosene lamps. These forms can emit high carbon dioxide, and harm the health and wellbeing of people using them.

“At Capella Hotels and Resorts, we believe that each and every child have the right to develop to their full potential,” said Nicholas Clayton, CEO, Capella Hotel Group. “Our collaboration with SolarBuddy was an opportunity that enabled us to amplify our Capella Youth initiative, ensuring every child receives proper education. This is strongly aligned with our philosophy of empowering youth to build a sustainable future for themselves.”

SolarBuddy’s renewable solar-powered light will allow children to productively study after dusk, and they eliminate families’ kerosene expenditure per annum, leading to sustainability, overall economic development and improvement in the quality of life.

A few other benefits of just one SolarBuddy Light include:

• The financial equivalent of 16 weeks of work
• Families have an 80 percent reduction in kerosene expenditure per annum
• Impacts the life of five people living in energy poverty
• Offsets 1.28 tonnes of CO2 emissions
• Equivalent of planting 21.3 trees
• Creates more than 7,300 additional study hours

Capella Hotels and Resorts are dedicated to the enrichment of their surroundings and the lives of their community. Guests and colleagues at Capella Ubud, Capella Bangkok and Capella Hanoi will be invited to help assemble the physical solar lights before they are distributed. One set of beneficiaries includes students from Mbinudita, Indonesia, where education remains a challenge as more than 50 percent of the children have no access to electricity back home. If interested, travelers can donate to the initiative here.

Is energy poverty something you were aware of? Are you more likely to support hotels and brands with initiatives like this? Tell us. Email us at letters@globaltravelerusa.com. Please include your full name and location.