Vivobarefoot has launched the limited edition ‘Little Sun Addis’, a special interpretation of the Addis footwear in collaboration with Olafur Eliasson’s solar enterprise, Little Sun – an NGO working to create a thriving world powered by the sun.
The sale of each pair of ‘Little Sun Addis’ will provide a Little Sun LED solar lamp to local communities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Namibia, communities that Vivobarefoot has collaborated with during a decade working on the continent. Little Sun is inspired by the Meskel flower (or Adey Abeba), a sunshine-yellow daisy. This flower is native to the Ethiopian highlands and appears at the end of the rainy season, in time to welcome the new year.
Over 2,000 lamps will go to families and factory workers in Ethiopia and 4 community projects: Brave Hearts, Ethiopia Skate and Girls Gotto Run as well as 2 community arts projects. Lamps will also be sent to Kenya, Uganda and Namibia to the San People.
“Little Sun started as a simple idea,” Eliasson says, “to provide affordable, renewable energy to people living without electricity in the form of a small, portable, solar lamp. Since then, the project has grown enormously, so that it now touches the lives of millions of students, farmers, health workers, and refugees around the world. Together we are a source of power and co-producers of reality.”
Felix Hallwachs, Little Sun MD adds, “We have built Little Sun to deliver solar energy as we believe it has the potential to power a new kind of world system. In the race to net zero, our aim is to bring the power of the sun into the hands of rural communities in Africa but since we are also an art project, stemming from an artists’ studio, we strongly rely on emotion and felt experience to inspire everyone to become agents of change.”
The Little Sun Addis is available now, and is produced in Addis Ababa using all-natural materials.
