Describe the critical need your solution addresses.

A rural family in Africa burns around 60 liters of kerosene a year to light their home. The average kerosene lamp in Africa spews out a ton of CO2 in less than 10 years. Solar lighting can replace kerosene and wood, which will improve the health of the people and the environment.

Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development.

The College believes the very poor have every right to have access to, control, manage and own the most sophisticated of technologies to improve their own lives. Just because they cannot read and write there is no reason why the very poor women cannot be water and solar engineers, designers, communicators, midwives, architects and rural social entrepreneurs. They have shown the impossible is possible.

It is now a policy of the Barefoot College ONLY to train illiterate/semi-literate middle aged mothers and grandmothers from villages all over the world.

Illiterate grandmothers have shown they are capable of fabricating, installing and maintaining solar lighting systems after undergoing six months of hands-on training without written materials, tutored by unschooled Indian women who have been able to transmit the same skills.

Nearly 110 rural grandmothers have solar electrified 5,500 remote rural houses in 15 African countries. An extraordinary story because grandmothers are considered useless in rural African society and after their return they have become role models for other women.

As a result they have managed to save 30,000 litres of kerosene per month from polluting the atmosphere all over Africa.

How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

Rural poor families living on less than $ 1/day are the beneficiaries of the Barefoot approach. Women who spend hours fetching kerosene, wood, candles and torch batteries for lighting at very high costs no longer have this drudgery or expense.

Women who have rarely left their village, show undeniable courage and patience to leave their families for 6 months to travel to India to become Barefoot Solar Engineers.

The presence of so many nationalities creates a positive environment of cultural diversity, but initially raised concerns over language and communication. The need for expression gave birth to a combination of gestures, signs and broken English cutting across all language barriers. This unique ‘language’ remains the means of training and conversation.

“Learning by doing” is the philosophy of the Barefoot College. Practical demonstrations, ‘hands-on’ experience and regular repetition help trainees get familiar with terms, tools, equipment and components used in solar technology. With each passing week, their level of hesitancy decreased, and confidence and ‘technical dexterity’ increased.

The training program proves that it does not require ‘paper qualified’ persons to become Solar Engineers.

PBS featured the Women Solar Engineers of Africa
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1203/cover.html