Our Beginnings
Plagued By The Nazi Reign And Terrors In His Austrian Hometown During WWII, Max Kselman Fled to India in 1939.
Joe Kselman, his grandson and founder of Solar Village Project (SVP), grew up listening to Max’s adventures about his refuge in India. Inspired by these stories, Joe traveled to India in 2012.
During his visit, Joe went to the village of Gauterine in the state of Bihar. Gauterine is extremely poor: multi-generational families survived on less than a dollar a day and the village had zero access to electricity.
The contrast between Joe’s reality and that of those in the village inspired him to use his electrical engineering expertise to first power the Gauterine’s school in 2013. As he spent more time with the community and learned about more about their struggles, he saw more possibilities. This led Joe to start a campaign in 2014 to raise money to sustainably power the entire village. Later that year, Joe and his wife, Cristeen, distributed 100 solar home lighting systems to every single home in Gauterine.
The success at Gauterine fueled Joe to continue his mission to empower impoverished communities through reliable access to light. Solar Village Project became an official 501(c)(3) non-profit on June 26, 2014. Since that first success in Gauterine, SVP has brought solar powered lights to over 6,000 homes, 24 villages, and 79 schools and clinics in energy impoverished areas. Today, SVP continues to work on initiatives with communities throughout India, Puerto Rico, and underdeveloped areas to provide sustainable energy accessible to all a reality.
