We believe that by providing people with a constant access to electricity, we will be able to improve this situation both significantly and sustainably. “Gaza’s unemployment rate amounts to 44 percent. The system is safe to use, even around children. It powers not just lights, but also laptops, phones, internet, and even a fan or a TV. SunBox sells affordable smart solar kits that every family can install by themselves. It is simple, affordable and available to everyone.” “The region has a resource that can be harnessed: an average of 320 days of sunshine a year, making solar energy an ideal source of electricity production. That’s why we introduced SunBox to the market,” Mashharawi adds. Reflecting on these regional issues, she says, “There did not seem to be any solution on the horizon, so we decided to bring the solution ourselves. Mashharawi explains that entire areas in the Middle East suffer from a lack of sufficient electricity, which severely affects both quality of life and opportunity for economic growth. “She is one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs I have ever met,” Kamphausen says. SunBox was founded in June 2017 by Majd Mashharawi, a 24-year-old recent civil engineering graduate from Gaza City. People can’t work, students can’t study, and entrepreneurs can’t run a business.” Hence, most families do not have refrigerators, access to the internet or lights at night. “More than 2 million Gazans live with less than four hours of electricity a day. “This second experience in the region has really enabled me to get a deeper understanding both of how to work with people from very different backgrounds, and how as an MIT student I can make a real impact,” Kamphausen says. Learning about new regions while making a real impactĬurrently, Kamphausen is doing an internship through MISTI at SunBox, a startup that sells affordable and self-installable solar energy systems to families living in the Gaza Strip. “I loved the Middle East so much and just had to come back in order to make an even larger impact for families living in this region,” Kamphausen says. While participating in the Israel Lab, Kamphausen took part in a hackathon organized by MISTI’s PeaceTech Initiative and Our Generation Speaks, a fellowship program and incubator, hosted at MassChallenge in Jerusalem. MISTI provides MIT students with high quality internship, research and teaching experiences in international companies, universities, research institutes, and high schools. Last January, he participated in MIT Sloan’s Israel Lab, organized in collaboration with the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) MIT-Israel program. Lukas Kamphausen MFin '18 recently graduated with a master of finance degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
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