Jaan Pakistan

Ambassador: Khizr Tajammul , Pakistan

Jaan Pakistan was founded two years ago to deliver cheap solar-powered energy kits to rural homes in Pakistan. Over 40% of rural Pakistan is not connected to the national electricity grid. Distributors are reluctant to go into rural areas because it is considered uneconomical due to the low usage rates and high distribution costs. Most households in Pakistan use low-cost biomass fuels for cooking. Women spend up to six hours a day collecting firewood for cooking, time which could be spent more productively. Each household spends 1,751.1 PKR ($16.80) a month per household for fuel including bio-mass fuels, kerosene, gas and candles. These fuels emit CO2 and pose serious health risks. Jaan Pakistan’s solar power kits are designed to power homes, sanitise water, provide heating and a cooking station. The founders won the Rwanga Fund £20,000 prize at the 2014 One Young World Summit. Funding for the project was received on 14th July 2015. A solar kit has been commissioned from China and will be reverse engineered to make them even more affordable. Currently the kits cost $20 to manufacture and will be sold for around $23.90 each. In January 2016, they will pilot the kits in 50 households in suburban Lahore and 50 households in a North Punjab village. The average family size in Pakistan is 6.8 people. By June 2016, 400 kits will be sold and 3,400 people will be impacted. To date, Khizr has spent 160 hours (one month) setting up Jaan Pakistan. He left a career in advertising, worth 51,524 PKR ($493) per year to do so.