How are you doing? Our center is still open but in Danang schools and universities62 1are closed and students are required to follow online classes. Restaurants, hotels, resorts are more and more closed. Also flights are restricted and traveling is banned, which is a set back for the tourist industry...

 

More than two months ago our new name Green Impact was officially approved by the government. The old name gave the impression that everything we did had to do with solar energy. Now we are also making products that will use biomass...

 

As you can see our name has not been changed. The new name is officially approved but we are still waiting for the papers. It should be better to share our new name in our next letter. Please know that it will not change ...

 

Thousands of cooking stoves were piled up in our center. What a relief when we received the news that the people in the north got permission to hand out the stoves in rural areas. Immediately we were able to ship several containers ...

 

If you have visited our Solar Serve center recently, maybe ‘full house’ came to your mind. It is not that we are fully occupied with staff or workers, but our place is filled with thousands of cooking stoves. We are recently not able...

 

First of all, greetings from Danang. We wish you a wonderful year where impossible things will be possible. We as Solar Serve have seen a breakthrough in the last few months, and we’d love to see that happen with you too...

 

Our staff needs to be in good shape. Physical exercises will help them to keep going. Now they are playing football after work in front of our center and some of them are going to a gym. We and other neighbors have been asking for years...

 

There has been a demand for more clean stoves in Vietnam and across the borders. In our last letter we told you that we were not able to make the covers of our stoves anymore. After being mistreated by a dishonest company...

 

Yes you are right, we skipped one newsletter. One of our staff, who is in charge of putting this letter together, was absent for three months. But here we are again and would like to share with you the latest developments and....

 

There was an exciting atmosphere during the traditional boat race on the Han River. The 200 competitors had to use more energy than previous years because of the heat. The competition was fierce but after 7.5 km for men and 5 km for ...

 

It has been very hot in Danang with daily temperatures between 35 - 38°C (95°F-101°F. Our new building has a flat roof so temperatures are rising during the day inside the building, but not too bad with a fan....

 

The last two months we have been building our new research center. We’ll give you a photo update but first some other news: Myanmar - Vietnam. During a social enterprise conference in Singapore one man from Myanmar became....

 

When you receive this newsletter it is already 2017, but we are still preparing ourselves for the Vietnamese New Year at the end of January. You can compare this preparation with the excitement and expectations of Christmas....

 

We all want to be recognized as a person, company or country. For example Hoang Xuan Vinh, a Vietnamese athlete, won for the first time in the history of Vietnam, a gold medal at the Olympic games in Rio....

 

“Give a man a fish, and he will be hungry again tomorrow; teach him to catch a fish, and he will be richer all his life.” Although the origin of this proverb is not clear, it helps us to explain what we are doing as Solar Serve....

 

What could be better than a visit by a beautiful white dove during the New Year? We have never seen a dove around our building, but suddenly it appeared at our doorstep and for the whole day it was sitting on our roof. Everyone noticed it....

 

The year 2016 is already several days old. Our wish for you is that everything will turn out for good. Don’t give up! Although the world is shaking, we have decided not to hold back. There are still many things to do.....

 

The first storms have been hitting the city, announcing a new season of typhoons. Our center is near the beach so we always face the full strength of a typhoon. Our windows do not always fit in their frames.....

 

For 15 years we have been doing charity work and since 2006 we are also running a social enterprise. It was not always easy to work with products depending on the environment. It was sometimes very hard to.....

 

Here we are again. Sorry that we skipped our last letter, but one of our staff was absent for several months. In Solar Serve we all have our responsibility and it is good that we can use our talents. Creativity is needed.....

 

Let’s start a little bit different. A middle-aged man came to visit us. In the Vietnamese war he lost his arm during a bomb explosion. It was hard for him to grow up especially when he was young and full of energy....

 

Maybe you did not know but Vietnam is a soccer country. We had very good teams in the past and could be on the same level as Korea or Japan if we were more united. During this year’s World Cup, many people....

 

Danang welcomed the lunar New Year with fireworks, celebrations and many displays. It was a wonderful time for families and friends to meet each other. Most people work very hard during the year and often 7 days a week....

 

First of all Happy New Year. We hope it will be a great year. Don’t give up doing good and expecting hard situations to change into wonderful opportunities. Enjoy and love your work so that you never have ‘to work’ again...

 

We just finished the Mid-Autumn Festival, with gifts, lanterns, drums, lion dances and special dishes to eat. A very special dish is the moon cake. Companies buy expensive moon cakes for their workers or customers...

 

The international fireworks competition in Danang is regarded by many as the biggest and best fireworks competition in the world. This year it drew more than 400,000 visitors. Again it became a spectacular display...

 

Climate change effected Vietnam a few weeks ago when over 10,000 houses were damaged and at least 26 people were injured during a hail storm in the northern Lao Cai province. Hail may fall during the transitional...

 

Thousands of visitors and local people gathered in Da Nang on December 31st for a New Year's Eve countdown celebration. They were treated to a spectacular fireworks display and a wonderful show of many artists...

 

How are you? Summer (or winter in certain parts of the world) has gone and we are waiting for a new season. Till now it has been a good year for us and we are excited for the new things to come. This letter is mainly about a new...

 

Last month many people in Vietnam were captivated by Euro 2012, but our workers had other things on their mind. Thuy Vy, our accountant, made preparations for her wedding and Vu, our worker, was waiting for the birth...

 

How are you? Maybe you have noticed but every three years we skipped one of our newsletters because of staff absence. Now we are ready for a new season and encourage you to watch our latest YouTube Solar Serve video....

 

When a grain of sand lodges itself inside an oyster, it causes great discomfort for the oyster. The oyster begins to defend itself from the discomfort. It creates a smooth, hard crystal substance around the grain of sand, layer after layer ...

 

The last three months has been very important for us. It was not only the 11th anniversary of Solar Serve but we also finished some major projects in the mountains, helped to install 32 solar panels on a school in Danang .....

 

The last few months it has been cold in Danang. In February during the Vietnamese new year it was so cold that many people tried to grow their flowers, trees and plants into plastic bags like small green houses. Only a ....

 

We at Solar Serve would like to wish you a happy new year. All our wishes are expressed on our 2011 calendar which we will add at the end of this letter. You can print, fold and put it on your desk or hang it on your wall .....

 

We are excited to be in touch with you again. We have lots of things to tell. We held celebrations of our tenth anniversary and opened a new floor at our center. We were also able to display our project and products at an .....

 

During World Cup 2010 people were gathering at their homes, in the streets, cafes and restaurants, and even in the parks. Sometimes they were yelling 'VAOOOOO!!' - "GOAL!!" which echoes for seconds through the whole .....

 

Spring is in the air! It started already in February at the beginning of the Vietnamese New Year. Endless songs have been written about this new beginning and everyone seems to be energized. At Solar Serve we are also .....

 

The sound of drums during a children's festival faded slowly away but a new sound was heard. It was the sound of an exciting new year. In this letter we would like to tell you some of the new sounds for 2010. But first .....

 

At the end of September typhoon Ketsana hit Danang with severe winds. 163 people died, 14 were missing and 616 were injured. Three ships stranded on the seashore, lots of trees fell and floods destroyed houses and .....

 

"Don't eat that fish," signed Mister Tuan with his hands to our deaf workers. They all worked hard to make this year's envi-ronment day very successful. All of our workers helped and finally the highlight of the day was eating .....

 

It has been awhile since we posted our last newsletter. The only excuse is that some of us have been away. Hans left for three months to his home country and Bich joined a 6 week business course in Thailand. So we had .....

 

Thanks for all of your encouragement. Many of you expressed excitement after the opening of the center. Yes, it was great. A day never to forget. Now it is good to hear the noise of hammers, welding, music and all kinds of .....

 

We would like to start with a funny story. Two young men came to visit our workshop near the airport. The deaf workers moved a few parabolic cookers for display outside the workplace. It was good weather for cooking .....

 

At the beginning of this year the weather has been very cold in parts of Vietnam. During the Lunar New Year celebrations very low temperatures kept many people at home. In the mountain region near the border of China .....

 

If we look back at 2007 we must say that through difficulties something beautiful came out. Nine months ago we were told to close down our factory in Tam Ky. We could never imagine that now, at the beginning of 2008, we .....

 

On the 15th day of the 8th month (Vietnamese lunar calendar), when the moon is full and round, children but also adults are celebrating their mid-autumn festival by banging the drums and performing lion dances .....

 

In our last letter we told you that we could feel the excitement of working again under the Sun. Well the excitement came through several challenges. First of all when we were told to close our factory and also to move .....

 

The mosquitoes, ants and gecko's are back again. Outside the birds are busy to make their nests and suddenly the sun breaks through the clouds. Nature announced the end of the raining season! Immediately we moved the .....

 

If you have visited our web site recently, you received our wishes already, if not: Happy New Year. We have been working hard to change and update our web site. You can find our last newsletters, including this .....

 

How are you? Did you have a good summer break? Sorry, but we want to keep this introduction short because there are lots of things to tell you. Take a cup of coffee or tea and come into the world of Solar Serve Vietnam. Enjoy it! .....

 

If you catch the excitement of using and building solar cookers, your life will be changed. It is a challenge to find creative ways to build new solar cookers. In the past we have made our own designs and now we are trying .....

 

Welcome to the solar family. In the coming dry and hot season we are expecting to increase our 'solar' growth. For us it is important that we keep our focus on 'simple' and 'affordable' devices for helping the poor and needy .....

 

We would like to thank you again for remembering us. It meant so much. We need to stay with both feet on the ground. Sometimes difficult because the media covering is a little bit overwhelming. We have not asked for it .....

 

Thank you for your encouragements. The last few months has been an amazing time and we are all in awe of it. There has been a significant breakthrough since the official start of our solar cooking project, five years ago .....

 

Here we are again. A new Solar Serve newsletter with news from Danang city. For us it is important to inform you, because we need people like you in backing and holding us up in what we are doing. It is not always easy, ....

 

A happy new 'solar' year to all of you! First of all we want to thank you for all your suggestions, ideas and en-couragements. We do not want to pretend that we have all the solar knowledge. Most of our information comes .....

 

Thank you so much for all your encouragements. It is always great to hear from you. Sometimes we need a few simple words to go on. Till now we do not know if there is any other organization or NGO in Vietnam doing the .....

 

It's wonderful to serve people with the Sun. During a conference in Thailand we experienced a lot of interest in solar cooking. Even Thai government officials were excited and asked questions like "why it was not established .....

 

Spring 2004 has been already in Vietnam since the end of January, when the new year started. For us, as Solar Serve, it is a time to serve the nation with the Sun again. This year we are working in several places in .....

 

Chuc Mung Nam Moi or Happy Vietnamese New Year. This will be the year of the monkey and starts on January the 22nd. Thank you very much for your positive reactions and encouragements after our first Solar Serve .....

 

This is our first Solar Serve newsletter. Welcome to our solar family. First of all we would like to tell you in brief what is happening in our solar cooker project, but we also want you to give an understanding of the region we ....