Our Vision

To be a major champion of gender equality for women in Africa and their economic empowerment for African development.

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Our Mission

To provide renewable solar energy technology and support to women in business

and their children and communities in rural Africa.

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Our Motto

Women Matter!

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Our Values

​We strongly believe in Equality, i.e. everyone should get a fair go based on qualification, ability and willingness regardless of gender, race, nationality or religion. Professionalism, i.e. we expect quality input from all our directors, senior managers and managers based on their relevant qualifications and expertise. Integrity, i.e. we say what we do and we do what we say including staying true to our vision and mission. Trust, i.e. having confidence in each other's skills and abilities making micro management unnecessary. Learning, i.e. not be stagnant and satisfied with what we know today but embrace new challenges, change and continuous improvement. Team, i.e. working together, helping each other, supporting each other, caring about each other, losing as a team and winning as a team.

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Our Philosophy

Ethics and empathy are our main drivers in doing what we are doing. We want to be a champion of vulnerable and disadvantaged people who struggle in a world in which tradition, social structures or economic power held by a few prevents them from taking their rightful place in society. While our founding Directors are Christians and believe in the principles of Jesus Christ, we also recognize that all faiths have ethical frameworks and we welcome them all as along as these aid our endeavour to be a positive force in the lives of rural African women.

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What We Do

Our approach is to help rural women achieve economic independence and to provide opportunities to empower women to be able to determine their future on their own terms. We choose to use solar energy as a vehicle to help economically empower rural African women in business by providing solar energy products freely or at significantly reduced charge in areas that have no reliable electricity grid connection. Understanding that African women's lives are integrally intertwined with their children, we also provide educational and training opportunities for their children, and particularly daughters, to ensure sustainability and continuity of economic empowerment.

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Message from the CEO

The year 2021 has been a very difficult year throughout the world mostly induced by COVID-19 and its associated effects. Incredibly, Africa has recorded much less direct contractions of the deadly virus than developing countries in Europe, USA and some countries in Asia. Nevertheless, the impacts have been felt no less significantly due to reduced tourism and industrial development stagnation in countries such as South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Nigeria causing an economic downturn. Smaller economies such as Kenya and Ethiopia have been further affected where much of these countries' commercial activities are underpinned by the "informal" sector in which women play a massive role through their many micro-businesses from their homes. In Ethiopia's case, the country went also through a 1-year-long civil war during that time, devastating the eastern parts of the country.

 

Agains such a background, women’s participation and empowerment are understood as still ailing. Progress has not advanced as expected. Among contributing factors hindering progress, negative cultural attitudes and persistent gender gaps are major hurdles. There is thus an urgent need for changing negative gender social norms on women’s leadership and participation in public and business life.

 

I have been living and working in Ethiopia for the past 14 years of which I lived 6 years in the country side. In that time I have seen much hardship of women in the rural areas struggling to bring up their children, keep the house, taking on extra jobs and run small cottage businesses from their homes to supplement and to build a better life. I could not help but being impressed by their spirit ,resilience and strength. They face many difficulties of which lack of electric power is a serious obstacle to make their business viable. Lack of access to finance is another major hurdle in their efforts. I decided that I should do something to help in some way and in November 2021 together with like-minded friends, Ebony and Abebe, we established SEAW in Melbourne, Australia to not just be talkers but doers. I am therefore reaching out to all of you out there who think like us at SEAW and join us in our endeavour to help rural African women to a fair go and to build something meaningful for themselves and their families. I pray that 2022 will be a successful maiden year for SEAW.

 

Lloyd Milliner, CEO

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"I will shew thee my faith by my works" James ch2v18.

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