This Alibaba International Station merchant wants to "extinguish candles" in Africa

When talking about the "Candle Extinguisher", Li Xia, a merchant on Alibaba International Station and founder of Shenzhen Chengxinnuo, had eyes that lit up. This is a solar lighting lamp specially designed for rural areas in Africa that do not yet have electricity. It charges in the sun during the day and turns on at night.

The price is $5 and it can be used for 5 years. Li Xia did some calculations: "It only costs $1 a year to use this lamp for lighting, which is more cost-effective than using candles or kerosene lamps." So Li Xia gave it an appropriate name "Candle Extinguisher."

Photo: African children are using the "Candle Extinguisher" solar lighting produced by Li Xia

The idea of ​​"eliminating candles" in Africa originated from the fact that nearly 20 years ago, when Li Xia was doing foreign trade business in Africa, she discovered that there were still a large number of rural areas without electricity. At night, people could only use candles and kerosene lamps for lighting, which made the simple houses black and easily caused fires. The cost was $1 per month.

Providing electricity to Africa might be "too ambitious", but Li Xia felt that there were other ways to "light up Africa", such as solar energy, which was already popular in China at the time.

So she gradually shifted her foreign trade business from the European and American markets to Africa. In order to reduce the price of solar lighting to a level that African rural families could afford, Li Xia worked hard to reduce the thickness of the lighting bracket from 13.5 cm to 6.5 cm . Now a box can hold 96 instead of 40 , doubling the number and reducing the shipping cost by half.

Photo: African children use the "candle extinguisher" produced by Li Xia when doing homework at night

At the same time, Li Xia also applied her previous foreign trade experience in the European and American markets at Alibaba International Station to Africa, developing the lighting demand in Africa both online and offline. Now, most of the online demands received by Chengxinnuo come from Alibaba International Station. Li Xia introduced: "Nearly 2 million ' candle extinguishers ' have come to poor families in Africa and replaced kerosene lamps . "

She laughed and said that the foreign trade business she had done before was all for the purpose of accumulating experience for eliminating candles in Africa.

At the same time, Li Xia's product line has expanded from lighting to all aspects of rural life in Africa, such as their recently launched solar-powered DC refrigerators and TVs. This is also a new discovery made by Li Xia while she was researching the market in Africa in recent years: in addition to the most basic lighting, rural Africans have a greater demand for more home appliances. Li Xia said with a smile: "This can be regarded as a witness to their 'consumption upgrade'."

However, these new products also focus on the reality of "difficulty in accessing electricity" in rural Africa. Not only are they powered by solar energy, but they are also specially made to be driven by direct current, which is more energy-efficient than the common alternating current in China.

Photo: Poor people in Africa use solar-powered media players to read popular science knowledge

In addition, Li Xia has also designed a solar-powered media player specifically for children in rural Africa. Powered by solar energy, this media player, which is a bit like an affordable tablet, can play various educational videos and high-quality children's films. This allows children in rural Africa to have access to the most cutting-edge and vivid teaching materials and see a bigger world. She not only wants to light up Africa, but also the hearts of African children.

Photo: Li Xia delivers solar-powered media machines to poor people in Africa

Li Xia's efforts in Africa are being recognized and seen by more and more people. At the 2024 Davos World Economic Forum, Li Xia won the "Social Entrepreneur of the Year" award . Now, as the China-Africa Cooperation Forum opens, we are still neighbors despite the distance. Stories like Li Xia's are a vivid manifestation of China-Africa friendship.

Alibaba International Station

Africa

Solar lighting