The Barefoot Approach

The Barefoot College believesand has demonstratedthat people living in rural

and impoverished areas do not need educational qualifications in order to acquire
skills that can be of service to their community. As a result, villages that are
inaccessible, remote and non-electrified and those lit up by grandmothers are
considered for solar electrification.

How it Works
Every year, the Barefoot College team will identify a few villages in India and in other
developing countriesplaces where it would seem impossible to have a solar
electrification system, especially one implemented by illiterate grandmothers. Next,
the Barefoot team works with local and national organizations to establish a
commitment with the village elders. The elders agree to select two grandmothers to
be trained as solar engineers, to choose a village committee composed of men and
women to help operate the solar program, collect funds from each participating
household and provide a workshop building where the grandmothers can run their
operations. The solar engineers are specifically middle-aged women. These women
have strong roots in the village; they influence daily life and play a major role in its
development rather than migrating to neighboring cities soon after training, as
younger community members might.
Most of the villagers are hesitant to trust the idea of harnessing the suns energy
and they are in complete shock when they hear that the solar engineers must be
grandmothers!

Barefoot College collaborates with local elders and other interested community
members in order to help them understand that the solar lighting system is a
community ownership model and that each family, irrespective of how poor they are,
must contribute money and time to maintaining the system.
Barefoot College holds two training classes per year with an enrollment of 100 solar
engineers from India and 80 from other areas of the world. During their six months of
school at the campus in Tilonia, the grandmothers experience an amazing personal
transformation as they prepare to install, repair and maintain solar lighting units for a
period of five years. The grandmothers realize their ability to learn complex
concepts, which builds their self-confidence and fuels their potential to be valuable
sources of positive change in their villages.
Upon returning to their villages, the grandmothers start solar electrifying each house
and bring renewed hope and inspiration to the village. In return for their installation,
maintenance and repair services, the women engineers receive a monthly salary
from the village solar committee.

Results
Since 2008, the grandmothers have managed to provide electricity to more than
40,000 households, bringing light to more than 450,000 individuals in 1,015 villages.
In addition, communities have seized the opportunity to provide electricity to
numerous public facilities, including schools, hospitals, local administration offices,
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religious buildings and community centers. Most importantly, the projects have
managed to reduce CO2 emissions, slow the negative impacts of deforestation and
decrease air pollution from burning firewood and kerosene.

Long Term Impact

Environmental

Benefits

The solar electrified villages experienced considerable reduction in air pollution, fire
and health hazards. Communities that had previously relied on using firewood saw
significant reductions in deforestation and land degradation. For example, with the
help of solar energy, annual kerosene consumption in villages across Mozambique
fell by 27,375 liters and annual firewood consumption fell by 91,250 metric tons in
the same region. CO2 emissions were reduced by 82,125 kg each year. Thanks to
solar electrification, communities across Africa and Asia have managed to replace
50-95% of kerosene lamps with solar powered lighting, and some villages have
succeeded in eliminating kerosene lamps completely.
Socio-Economic

Impact

Participating communities are remote, rural towns who have no prospect of being
included in the traditional power grid. Therefore, the socioeconomic impacts are
considerable. Communities registered significant cost savings over expenditures for
kerosene and batteries. Beneficiaries in Ghana have been able to register savings of
76% in solar energy expenditures over kerosene. Similarly, solar energy resulted in
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considerable time savings, freeing women from spending many hours hauling wood
and kerosene from distant locations. Instead, they can devote their time to more
productive activities.
However, the most profound impact of solar electrification has been on communitywide economic activity. Solar lighting has enabled the extension and improvement
on the continuity of economic activities after dark. This has had particularly positive
implications for women who are now able to expand income-generating activities
into the night. In the case of Ghana, solar energy has been providing lighting for two
food processing plants where women produce shea butter at night. In Niger, women
engaged in increased honey production; in Rwanda, women increased craft-making;
and in Ethiopia women increased production of handcrafts and tela, a locally
brewed beverage.
Education and Employment
These communities are experiencing additional long term benefits of solar
electrification. The programme will reduce unemployment and increase information
and communication technologies, since participating households received at least
one electric plug through the project. All communities noted a substantial increase in
mobile phone usage as solar energy users were able to charge their cell phones on
a regular basis. In addition, radio, television, and other electronic media facilitated
more efficient information gathering and educational activities.
Solar energy will have a long term impact on childrens education in particular, since
students now have the opportunity to study after dark. Extended daylight hours allow
for more flexible schedules for completing domestic tasks, work and studying.
Several communities, including those in Bhutan and Ghana, installed solar energy
kits in school buildings. Several communities have also implemented adult literacy
programs, along with community television and radios airing audiovisual education
programs.

Gender
All participating communities experienced the powerful effect of the solar
grandmothers on the social status of the illiterate women trainees. Women trainees
felt empowered to acquire complex technical skills and returned as qualified solar
engineers to serve their communities. Pursuing the training in India in a multicultural
setting also broadened their horizons and introduced them to new opportunities for
learning and cultural exchange. Most of the women managed to translate their new
livelihood activity into better living standards. Overall, participating communities
noted that the perception of women and girls vastly improved. In Chad, for example,
women and girls are very excited and attracted by the solar energy program. It
has given women a valued place in the community and allowed them to take on
community leadership roles.

Some of the Photos displayed in the website