Caritas Ethiopia / EneRSU
Through documentary storytelling, digital experiences and communication design, Resolution Studio brought the EneRSU initiative and the people behind it into focus.
The Story
In parts of rural Ethiopia, reliable electricity is still hard to come by. For small businesses, schools, health facilities and households, that limits everyday work and opportunity.
The Energy for Rural Start-Ups initiative, developed by Caritas Switzerland and Power-Blox AG, introduces modular Powerblox technology as one approach to rural electrification. Explaining how it works, why it matters and what it makes possible takes more than technical information.
Resolution Studio built a connected communication experience: a digital platform, documentary films, individual stories and outreach materials, each shaped for a different audience.
Information Design
Website Design and Development
caritasempower.com brings the initiative, the technology and the people into one place, in the initiative's own colours and illustration.
The home page
Application Development
The Businesses section is an application built by Resolution Studio and embedded in the site. Instead of a list, visitors meet the participating businesses where they are: schools, medical centres, shops and charging businesses, placed in an illustrated Borana landscape.
Nine places on the map: two schools, two medical centres, a barber shop, a shop, and mobile charging businesses offering lighting, entertainment and a café.
We designed each business to be met three ways: through documentary photography, through a written impact story, and through a fact sheet partners can download and share.
The Businesses section runs as a separately hosted application built by Resolution Studio and embedded in the site.
Business Profiles and Fact Sheets
Three of the profiles we produced, rebuilt from their fact sheets and published stories. Every figure comes from those sources.
Profiles3 of 10 on the platform
Documentary Production
We filmed in the communities using Powerblox: the businesses, the schools, the evening gatherings. Three excerpts from the cut made for the web play here without sound.
The full film is published on the EneRSU platform, beside the stories it introduces.
Story Production
We gave individual experiences room instead of folding people into statistics. Each story was documented by the EneRSU initiative, in the words of the people who lived it.
“After struggling to find a job after completing my engineering degree, I returned home to search for remote work.”
Mr. AmanuelMSE member in Borana
With Charika Mini Grid MSE in Teltele woreda, he now sells power for lighting and mobile charging, and runs free street lighting for security.
“We are now able to support all 27 members of our family.”
Mrs. FatumaMSE member in Borana
Her family's income now comes from a restaurant, a mobile charging service and a barbershop, all running on Powerblox.
Kulucha Health Center serves around 31,000 people, with a focus on maternal and child health. Before Powerblox it ran on diesel generators costing more than 70,000 birr a quarter.
“We are now able to serve 150 individuals for laboratory services.”
Mr. KululaDeputy Director, health center in Borana
Documented by the EneRSU initiative. The laboratory photograph is illustrative.
Communication Design
For the brochure, fact sheets and roll-up banners we drew illustrations of what the electricity is used for, then paired them with a direct, condensed type voice and the initiative's red.
Stack on & plug in Accelerating rural businesses through nano-grid electrification
10 kW+ AC power65 kWh+ battery capacity49 jobsA fact sheet figure, set as type: jobs generated by EneRSU in its first phase.
The same system carried onto 0.8 by 2 m roll-up banners for events.
Media Outreach Strategy
The strategy matched each audience with the messages it needed and the formats most likely to reach it. Point to an audience, a message or a format to trace its path.
This shows how the strategy organised messages and channels. It does not report media coverage, placements or audience reach.
The Initiative
June 2023 to January 2024.1 Results reported by the EneRSU initiative.
16 micro-enterprises,2 2 cooperatives and 7 public institutions across the Goba, Medawolabu, Oborso, Arero and Teltele woredas of Oromia Region. The generators replaced were 13 diesel and 6 gasoline.
Closing
Technical information, individual experiences and project resources now sit in one connected experience, so each audience can reach EneRSU through the part of the story that matters to it.
A clearer story of what energy makes possible
Resolution Studio designed and developed the website and its embedded application, produced the documentary films and impact stories, designed the communication materials and developed the media outreach strategy. The installations and their results belong to the EneRSU initiative, led by Caritas Switzerland and Power-Blox AG.
