Video: Watch BHLF Board Member Soma Somasundaram share his personal journey from energy poverty to empowerment.
Growing up in a small village, Bettering Human Lives Foundation board member Soma Somasundaram experienced firsthand the daily hardships caused by energy poverty.
In his childhood home, meals were cooked over open fires fueled by wood or cow dung — methods that filled the house with thick smoke, caused constant coughing, and consumed precious hours each day gathering fuel.
Everything changed when his family gained access to clean cooking fuel through liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
“It was life-changing, no more time spent securing firewood or cow dung. No more teary eyes or household pollution.”
Today, Soma serves on the board of the Bettering Human Lives Foundation to help extend that same transformation to others. As he notes, “One third of humanity still lacks access to clean cooking fuel. Energy access is human empowerment—and I have seen it, and lived it, firsthand.”
The Foundation’s mission to expand access to clean cooking continues to drive change across Africa and beyond. We’re on a mission to fuel more personal stories just like Soma’s.