Liberty Energy (NYSE: LBRT), a leading North American energy services company, is proud to announce the establishment of the Bettering Human Lives Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting clean cooking solutions and improving the well-being of communities worldwide. The launch of the Bettering Human Lives Foundation (BHL Foundation) complements the company’s initiatives focused on alleviating poverty.
The mission of the Bettering Human Lives Foundation is rooted in the conviction that clean cooking has the power to transform lives. Currently, one-third of the global population relies on open fires or polluting stoves for meal preparation, contributing to poor health and premature deaths, and hindering human potential. This issue is urgent, and the foundation is committed to increasing access to clean cooking fuels.
The Bettering Human Lives Foundation aims to achieve its mission by directly supporting innovators and entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia, enabling them to establish and expand their businesses in the clean cooking sector. By fostering solutions at the grassroots level, the foundation seeks to empower communities and provide families with a viable pathway out of poverty through access to modern, clean energy.
Under the dynamic leadership of Executive Director Anne Hyre, the Bettering Human Lives Foundation benefits from a wealth of experience. With over 30 years of dedicated service in public health across Africa and Asia, Anne will play a pivotal role in steering the foundation's clean cooking initiatives toward creating a lasting and positive impact on communities.
Liberty Energy has made an initial commitment of $1 million and is confident that the foundation will raise significant funds from others inside and outside our industry given the immense impact on human lives and opportunities provided by access to clean cooking fuels. Chris Wright, Founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, expressed the company's dedication to making a positive impact: "We believe that access to clean cooking fuels is the largest single step in the emergence from dire poverty. Through the Bettering Human Lives Foundation, we are committed to supporting local initiatives that bring about lasting change and contribute to the well-being of individuals and families."
The foundation's initiatives will include financial support, mentorship programs, and partnerships with local organizations to advance clean cooking solutions. Liberty Energy invites collaboration from like-minded entities, philanthropists, and individuals who share the vision of a world where everyone cooks over clean-burning stoves, leading to improved health, economic prosperity, and a brighter future.
For more information on the Bettering Human Lives Foundation and to explore opportunities for collaboration, please visit betteringhumanlives.org.
Letter from Anne Hyre, Executive Director of Bettering Human Lives Foundation
Despite significant cultural and geographical differences amongst countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the scenes outside the window, as I drive from town to town, are remarkably similar, and all include women and girls standing in lines at water pumps, walking in groups in search of firewood and cow dung, and carrying heavy loads of firewood and water-filled buckets. Whether in Malawi, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, or Kenya, I pass clusters of homes and see women cooking amidst harmful smoke from open fires that are fueled by wood or cow dung. We are in the year 2023… how is this acceptable? I feel so disheartened that the daily lives of women and girls in many lower-income countries continue to be filled with tedious, physically demanding, and often dangerous tasks of collecting fuel and water for cooking, cleaning, laundry, and heating homes.
I am a nurse-midwife, and I have spent the past 30 years working to improve poor-quality health services for women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. For 25 years, I worked primarily in Southeast Asia, where access to energy and sustained economic growth contributed to visible progress in improving health and quality of life. For the past 5 years, my work has shifted to Sub-Saharan Africa, and I have encountered a very different reality. Governments and donors have made huge investments in health over decades, and yet most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa remain far from reaching global targets for development in any social sector, including maternal and newborn health. I continually ask myself, “How can a woman possibly enjoy a healthy pregnancy, access health services, and demand better quality services when she spends her time collecting firewood, cooking over polluting stoves, and missing out on education and revenue-generating activities that ultimately translate into her ability to make decisions and take action to improve her family’s well-being?” Better health services are essential, but far from sufficient. There is a great need to tackle more fundamental problems that perpetually constrain women and their families.
A clean-burning cookstove, such as those powered by Liquified Petroleum Gas can be a life-changer for families, particularly women and girls. It liberates them from the drudgery of collecting fuel and cooking in smoke-filled spaces, affording them time for school or other income-generating activities. It immediately improves their health, safety, and quality of life. The Bettering Human Lives Foundation will mobilize financial and human resources to support LPG and cookstove entrepreneurs and innovators in Africa and Asia with one goal in mind: get a clean cookstove into 1 million households. As a midwife and a mother, my heart breaks when I see a postpartum mother and her newborns inside dark, smoke-filled homes. I am eager to get on a more impactful path toward bettering human lives.
Onwards and Upwards,
Anne Hyre
About Liberty
Liberty is a leading North American energy services firm that offers one of the most innovative suites of completion services and technologies to onshore oil and natural gas exploration and production companies. Liberty was founded in 2011 with a relentless focus on developing and delivering next-generation technology for the sustainable development of unconventional energy resources in partnership with our customers. Liberty is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. For more information about Liberty, please visit www.libertyenergy.com. For more information about the Bettering Human Lives Foundation, please visit www.betteringhumanlives.org.
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