Solar-powered deep freezers bring new business to refugees and host community shops
Even when Eunice is working in her garden, customers call to ask for cold water or soft drinks. She returns to her shop to serve them. For the shopkeeper in Siripi, in Uganda’s West Nile region, those calls reflect a change in what her business can offer.
Before receiving a solar-powered deep freezer, she sold the same water, soft drinks and groceries she sells today. But the drinks became hot, and customers complained. She placed bottles in a basin of water, sometimes putting soil around it to help keep them cool.
“I have not added new products, but sales have improved highly,” Eunice says. “Both refugees and members of the host community buy from my shop,” she explains.
She received the freezer in February 2026 through the SUSTAINED project’s demonstration approach. Now she says she sells three or four cartons of soda a day, each containing 12 bottles. She reports weekly earnings of around UGX 200,000, compared with roughly UGX 50,000 or less before.
For Eunice, who also farms, the shop’s earnings help support her household and farming activities. When her children are ill, she can buy medicine. She hopes to expand the business, continue to pay school fees for her four children and eventually buy land for them. At the moment, she stays at her parents’ home.
In Kerwa, another shopkeeper, Justin Luate, describes a similar change. He has run businesses for decades and operated at his current location since 2016. His shelves carry water, soda, sugar, salt, soap and other household goods. Until the project introduced a freezer, he had never owned a refrigerator.
Justin Luate at his shop in Kerwa. His shop is a demostration site for the solar-powered deep freezer
Like Eunice, he relied on water-filled basins to cool drinks. He says customers’ preference for cold drinks has since helped increase his sales. He now reports selling ten to fifteen crates a day, compared with two or three previously.
POPO, the supplier, delivered his solar-powered freezer in April 2026. It cools drinks and produces ice, giving him a service that basins of water could not provide. Nearby traders have noticed and come to ask where he obtained it and how they might acquire one themselves.
“The idea was for people to see the benefits for themselves,” he says.
That learning is part of the purpose of both freezers. Eunice and Justin were selected to host demonstration sites, operating businesses where community members could see the technology, ask questions and consider whether it suited their own needs. They are serving customers while helping others understand what solar refrigeration can do.
“SUSTAINED, the Supporting Stronger Access to Innovative Energy Solutions in Displacement Settings project, is funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kampala. A consortium led by Mercy Corps, with CARE and Oxfam, works with local partners, energy companies and financial service providers to improve access to quality, reliable and affordable clean energy.”
The project targets refugees and surrounding host communities in West Nile, particularly women and young people. It began in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement and neighbouring communities in Yumbe District and expanded to Rhino Camp and surrounding communities in Terego and Madi-Okollo districts. Technologies include solar irrigation, refrigeration and clean cooking solutions, linking energy access to household needs and income-generating opportunities.
Its Market Systems Development approach connects people who need these technologies with businesses that supply them, lenders that can help finance purchases and public institutions that influence affordability. The aim is to strengthen a market that can continue serving communities beyond project support. Subsidies and financing help address the gap between recognising a product’s value and being able to pay for it.
Oxfam’s main focus was demand activation by helping communities understand the technologies and make informed investment decisions. Working with ICAN South Sudan and other partners, it supported community awareness, financial literacy, trained local sales agents, held demonstrations and linked communities to suppliers and lenders. Mercy Corps led supply-side support to energy companies, while CARE led work on the enabling policy and coordination environment, with contributions from consortium partners.
Isaiah Thomas of ICAN South Sudan explains why the demonstrations were placed where people already gather.
“Many were established within market centres where people meet daily,” he says. “This allowed community members to interact with the technologies, observe how they function, and ask questions.”
Thomas reports that the second phase established five deep-freezer demonstration sites in Ocea, Siripi, Omugo, Kulikulinga and Kerwa. Together, these sites brought practical learning closer to businesses and customers.
Thomas says he had directly recorded 23 people expressing interest in deep freezers by June. Further enquiries continued through sales agents. However, the growth in interest exposed a weakness, stock was not keeping pace. “If you encourage people to buy and then fail to deliver, the community feels let down,” Thomas says.
The lesson is that awareness needs a dependable response. Suppliers must be able to provide stock, communicate delivery times and explain transport and installation arrangements. Otherwise, the trust built by local agents and demonstration hosts can be undermined when interested customers cannot obtain the equipment.
Price remains another barrier. Eunice says many people want a freezer but cannot raise the full cost at once. Thomas also describes limited capital and difficulties meeting loan requirements among refugees and vulnerable host communities. Extending access therefore calls for targeted subsidies and affordable financing, including low-interest options and repayment arrangements suited to small businesses.
Oxfam and its consortium partners have also used a tax policy brief to advocate for targeted tax waivers on renewable-energy components, including solar fridges and freezers. This work addresses affordability beyond individual purchases.
For Eunice and Justin, the change begins with a familiar product sold in a more useful way. Cold water and soft drinks bring customers to their shops and help support their livelihoods. For neighbouring traders, those same shops offer a chance to see the equipment working before deciding to invest.
Both Eunice and Justin hope that the opportunity is accessible to more businesses, which will grow their community. This is reliant on reliable supply, subsidised prices and affordable finance.