Stories
Success story: Women leading the energy transition in a remote Roma community
Community energy is key to action on the climate crisis. It can empower people, boost local economies, and reinvigorate communities. Community-led initiatives play an important role in the transition towards a 100% renewable and just energy future. Success stories of community energy projects can be found all over the world. At REScoop.eu we want to highlight these stories to further accelerate the movement towards a cleaner and democratic system. Each March, we celebrate International Women’s Day by highlighting the contributions of energy communities to a gender-just energy transition. This year, we explore how a citizen-led initiative led by a Roma woman in Hungary aims to alleviate energy poverty while empowering women.
Hardships unfamiliar to most Europeans
For some Hungarians, electricity is still a privilege. In the segregated community of Baks, in southern Hungary, some families live without electricity, as they either can’t afford to pay the bills or don’t have energy services reaching their home. That was the trigger for Aranka Rostás and Károly Búza, directly affected by energy poverty themselves, to conceive the idea of the Lightbringers Foundation in 2017.
As a local Roma woman living in the settlement, Aranka Rostás had personally experienced all forms of energy poverty, so she was motivated to take the initiative not only by her professional background on programmes related to energy poverty elimination of the settlement, but also by her own life experience. Károly Búza was a social worker in Baks, regularly confronted with structural problems affecting families daily.
Tackling energy poverty and social exclusion
A year after brainstorming their idea, they established the Lightbringers Foundation with a vision to develop sustainable and innovative solutions to alleviate energy poverty and potentially eliminate it. Today, this citizen-led initiative provides multiple renewable energy solutions, including the installation of solar panels for vulnerable households with no electricity access. Their mission is to achieve a clean energy transition, leaving no one behind. By tackling energy poverty, they eliminate other inequalities as well.
Their first project involved Romani students from the Romaversitas community, an institution that helps young Roma to acquire more skills and empower them to build resilient communities. Together with the former head of the Romaversitas Foundation, and the physicist Mihály Orsós, they created a solar panel system that uses LED bulbs. This simple but effective setup provided lighting in homes without electricity, and with the use of an inverter, residents could charge mobile phones and electric wheelchairs.
“In recent years, we have installed solar panel systems for 14 families, which saved them between 3,000 and 4,000 forints (HUF) per month [Equivalent to €7–10 - a considerable amount for the average net monthly income per person, which is around €250]. Our first installation was for an elderly couple who had been living without electricity for nearly 20 years. The husband was severely diabetic and used to charge his electric wheelchair at his neighbours' house for money. They also spent a significant amount of money each month on kerosene lamps and candles. When they turned on the first light in their own home, their joy was indescribable. They cried — and so did we. This moment confirmed to us that our work has real, human significance,” Károly shared.
The Lightbringers Foundation has involved many families and young people in their activities. In addition to the energy related programme, they also provide mental health support for preschool and school children, drug prevention classes, awareness programmes and assistance for pregnant women and new mothers.
Women at the forefront
Acknowledging the value of gender equality, Aranka ensured that women are well represented in the foundation’s initiatives, while promoting collaboration between genders. A decade after, Aranka has stepped back from the foundation’s leadership, but her ideas remain alive and continue to inspire Baks’s female community.
“Women are in the majority at our foundation. They often take on a more active role in community and social initiatives, and the female perspective and creativity are also decisive at our foundation,” Károly said.
The conditions for women living in Baks has changed a lot the recent years. Nowadays, they increasingly embrace an active role in decision making, advocating for their own interests, and representing leadership roles in even more sectors.
He continues, “An important goal is to expand opportunities for women, especially in education and self-determination. We place a special emphasis on supporting the empowerment of Roma women, who often face a double disadvantage — ethnic and gender discrimination”.
A lighthouse example
The benefits of the Lightbringers Foundation expand beyond Baks and Hungary. Combining low-cost solar technology, skills training and community ownership, the initiative provides a replicable model for energy access in marginalised communities.
Avoiding large infrastructure investments and with an average cost of €5,000–€10,000 per household, the modular systems can be adapted to multiple energy needs and housing conditions. The solar systems can be installed and managed by the locals, which ensures ownership and long-term sustainability. These can additionally be replicated to alike excluded settlements.
Unsurprisingly, the innovation and success of the Lightbringers Foundation haven’t remained unnoticed. The initiative has attracted media attention, and organisations that aspire to implement inclusive, grassroots energy solutions use it as a case study. Moreover, they participated in the civil planning processes related to the European Commission's 2020-2027 energy strategy, and regularly speak up at climate protection conferences on behalf of people living in extreme poverty.
Considering Hungary’s low ranking on gender equality, EU climate action, and systemic exclusion of Roma population, Lightbringers’s achievements on gender equality and energy democracy are revolutionary and an inspiration beyond borders.