Litro de Luz: How did it all begin?
- Litro de Luz
- May 7
- 3 min read
[part 1]
Just as important as knowing the work of Litro de Luz and how the volunteers' actions impact communities across Brazil, is understanding how it all began.
Text written by Operations and Technology Volunteer, Ricardo Silva.
The emergence of Litro de Luz was inspired by a creation of Alfredo Moser, a Brazilian mechanic who, in 2002, during the blackouts occurring throughout the country, had the brilliant idea to "create" light in a simple way.
Moser mixed water and bleach inside a PET bottle and hung it on the roof so that, with the incidence of sunlight, the house would be illuminated during the day. The bleach is added to the water to prevent the growth of algae, and the solution is equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent bulb.
This solution made Alfredo Moser's life easier during the periods when the power went out in his house, and it allowed him to continue working in his mechanical workshop. To this day, the invention is known as the Moser Lamp.
In 2011, in the Philippines, a tsunami devastated part of the country and left many families without access to electricity for several days. During this time, Illac Diaz (a Filipino of Italian descent who founded MyShelter Foundation, an international organization that reuses plastic bottles for social projects such as house construction) saw in the Moser Lamp a solution to help families without electricity while also recycling PET bottles, thus founding “Liter of Light,” which became part of MyShelter Foundation.
In Brazil, it all started in December 2012, when two Brazilians from Santa Catarina, Alanna Sousa and Pedro Santos, with the approval of the founder of Liter of Light, Illac Diaz, and the ambassador and founder of Litro de Luz in Colombia, Camilo Herrera, decided to implement the Litro de Luz project in Brazil.
In 2013, Vitor Belota, coincidentally a neighbor of Alanna, had the same drive to bring Litro to Brazil after learning about the project in Kenya. The trio met and embarked on a pilot project, where the first daytime solutions were installed in two communities in Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina, in partnership with ESAG - UDESC (School of Business Administration and Management at the State University of Santa Catarina).
First fixed team of Litro de Luz, with students from the Business Administration course at ESAG-UDESC in Balneário Camboriú. Of the founders, only Pedro is not present in this photo
In 2014, Litro de Luz gained sponsorship from Sika, a multinational company specializing in chemicals for construction and industry, becoming the first commercial partner of Litro, and later the first institutional partner of the organization. This partnership made possible the installation of daytime solutions in the Frei Damião community, located in Greater Florianópolis, also in Santa Catarina.
In the same year, aiming to expand the project's reach and enable Litro to apply for the PAP (Project Support Program) grant promoted by ACIF (Florianópolis Commercial and Industrial Association), Litro de Luz was officially “founded” as an Association with its own CNPJ, with Alanna Sousa, Pedro Santos, and Vitor Belota as co-founders.
Alanna Sousa is now an activist and audiovisual professional with extensive experience in social impact both within and outside the country, having also represented Litro de Luz in the United States between 2016 and 2017. Pedro Santos is pursuing a PhD in Wind Energy and resides in Germany. Vitor Belota is part of the advisory board of Litro de Luz and works in the social impact sector.
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