History

Light up the World (LUTW) is the first international humanitarian organization dedicated to illuminating the lives of the world's poor by providing affordable, safe, healthy, efficient, and environmentally responsible lighting.

In 1997, Dr. Dave Irvine-Halliday, a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Calgary, had the vision to use LED lighting to bring practical, economical, and environmentally safe lighting to the developing world. While on sabbatical in Nepal, Dave visited local villages and was struck by the poor conditions of the people. Most of them were relying on kerosene lamps which produced little light and filled the homes with dangerous smoke. As the annual income of the Nepalese villagers averaged $200 USD, Dr. Irvine-Halliday realized that there was a great need for simple, safe, healthy, affordable and rugged lighting.

Dave had been working with LEDs for more than two decades, and spent most of 1997 and 1998 trying to make an acceptable white light from various combinations of colored indicator LEDs. He made white light but it was simply not bright enough to be of any practical use in the developing world. Nichia, a Japanese company, had invented a bright White LED a few years earlier and Dave immediately requested samples. The 'eureka' moment occurred when Dave lit his first White Light Emitting Diode. 

In 1999, Dr. Irvine-Halliday and his wife, Jenny, tested their prototype WLED lamps in a number of Nepali villages and the response from the villagers was so absolutely positive that they knew what they'd be doing with the rest of their lives.  In 2000, they returned to Kathmandu and with the assistance of their Nepali friend, Muni Raj Upadhyaya, lit the first four villages in the world with WLED lighting, thus laying the pioneering origins for the development of LUTW into a global lighting initiative.

Together with Ken Robertson, Roy Moore and Pauline Cummings, Light Up The World was  established as a legal entity in 2002. From a singular idea born among the poor, LUTW has grown into a global humanitarian organization reaching out to even the remotest areas of the world.

Through generous support from interested individuals, corporations, host country organizations, international foundations and industrial partners, LUTW has brought light to more than 25,000 homes in 51 different countries throughout the developing world from Afghanistan to Zambia. Over 300,000 people have been impacted directly by this new and innovative approach to development.