In the media

Driving Home the Point on People's Power
The Hindu Feb 3, 2008

First Women Barefoot Solar Engineers of the World
Barefoot College videos on YouTubbe November, 2007

Night Schools of Tilonia
Barefoot College videos on YouTubbe September, 2007

Solar Power Makes Tiny Village Beam
CNN, July 31, 2007

Ending Poverty But Only on Paper
The American, July 30, 2007

Barefoot Solar Engineers of The Gambia
Barefoot College videos on YouTube, August 2007

Night Schools of Tilonia
Barefoot College videos on YouTube, August 2007

Cameroon: Four Rural Women Become Engineers
Cameroon Tribune, July 5, 2007

The Barefoot Approach Beyond India
World Changing, March 26, 2007

Cameroon: Solar Power Starts Muscling Out Kerosene
Mail & Guardian Online, March 7, 2007

Barefoot College, An Innovative Project Uses Solar Power to Empower the Poor.
Scienceline, November 9, 2006

Sierra Leone:Photos from Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia
Afromix.org,

Towards Sustainable Development, mi2g - London,UK, April 2, 2006

Featured Laureate:The Barefoot College" The Tech Museum Awards profiles the Barefoot College, a 2002 Education Award Laureate. February, 2006.

Barefoot College An interview ith Bunker Roy on WYNC. February, 2006

Clean Tech Empowers Poor Red Herring, December 2005

A podcast of the panel with Bunker Roy from the PopTech conference, IT Converstaions, October 2005

Bunker Roy and the Barefoot College, Archinect - USA, Feb 9, 2006

Cornwall to get taste of Rajasthan, HindustanTimes.com UK edition - India

They excel in making solar lamps, Nov 2005, Hindu on Net

Villagers' Barefoot College, BBC, 2005

 

News


Harvesting Rainwater to Meet Basic Human Needs

The Barefoot Approach: Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting, February 2008

Rainwater harvesting using rooftops and underground tanks is a traditional approach established over hundreds of years. Rainfall on rooftops is collected and channeled into underground tanks or small reservoirs that can store and provide enough safe drinking water to meet daily needs for months.

The success of Barefoot initiatives in rainwater harvesting and well recharging as part of the collective efforts of rural communities in India have demonstrated the need to reintroduce traditional, low-cost technologies that communities can implement themselves.
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Meet the Barefoot Solar Engineers of Bhutan
The Barefoot Approach in Bhutan, October 2007

Thirty women from Bhutan left their villages for the first time in August to travel to India to become solar engineers. These Bhutanese women, between the ages of 20 and 40 years, will be trained at the Barefoot College to become barefoot solar engineers.
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Meet the Women Barefoot Solar Engineers of Africa
The Barefoot Approach in Africa, June 2007

After six months of training at the Barefoot College in India, these African women are now returning to solar electrify their own communities in Cameroon, Mali, The Gambia and Sierra Leone. More than 440 households in 9 communities in these countries will have light at night from solar systems installed and maintained by these Barefoot Women Solar Engineers of Africa.

US$ 1 Million Alcan Prize for Sustainability Awarded to the Barefoot College
Montreal, Canada, November 28, 2006

Alcan and the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) today announced that the winner of the 2006 US$1 million Alcan Prize for Sustainability is India's Barefoot College.

The Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan, was selected from a field of almost 200 entries from 55 countries by an international adjudication panel of distinguished experts on sustainability.

"We are very pleased to congratulate the Barefoot College as the winner of the third annual Alcan Prize for Sustainability," said Daniel Gagnier, Senior Vice President, Corporate and External Affairs, Alcan Inc. "The Barefoot College makes a valuable contribution to India's rural and impoverished citizens by providing them with necessary and practical skills to improve their communities," he added.
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Letter from HRH Prince of Wales


Barefoot College To Train Cameroonian Solar Engineers
The Post News Online, August 17, 2006

Three Cameroonian women, Cylia Ebob, Marie-Louis Kamebe and Alice Yitamben Kameni have been selected to train at the Barefoot Solar Energy College in India. The women who are between 35 and 45 years old were selected after an interview, during which they showed interest to be trained as solar engineers for six months.

Gisèle Yitamben, President of ASAFE (Association de Soutien et d'Appui aux Femmes Entrepreneurs), supported Cameroon's case during the 2006 World Economic Forum that gave birth to the project on solar energy. Thus, Cameroon is among five countries to benefit from the project.
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17 Remote villages electrified by illiterate women in four regions in Ethiopia
July 2006
For the first time in the history of Ethiopia 17 villages in 10 districts in the 4 backward regions of Afar, Somali, Gambella and Benishangul Gumuz have been solar electrified by illiterate village women trained in India.
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 Here Comes the Sun, Outlook, April 24, 2006
Till a few years ago, Chennamma and Yelamma were stone-crushers. Kalavati and Zayda were house maids working on the campus of the National Institute for Rural Development (NIRD) at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Today, they are barefoot solar engineers who not only make and maintain solar lamps but have travelled out to Paderu Mandal of Vishakapatnam to help 124 households in Pusalapalem and Thamingula villages get solar power and establish a one-kilowatt powerhouse for street lighting.
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Barefoot is Better, Fast Company, May, 2006
The Barefoot College's scalable, community-based model of development managed by the poor themselves may be "the best thing going." 
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Semi-literate Afghan Men and Women Solar Electrifying Their Own Villages, UNDP, March 2006
Barefoot solar engineers trained by the Barefoot College have solar electrified 5 villages in Afghanistan.

Exhibition of Barefoot Photographers
The Brunei Gallery of the School for Oriental and Asian Studies in London will be exhibiting the photographic work of the Barefoot Photographers 11 April – 17 June 2005. The exhibition contains some of the results of a photographic documentary of all of the College’s activities during the past 34 years.
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Catalogue | Visit of HRH Prince of Wales to the Photo Exhibition |
The Photo Gallery | Video 1(519 kb,wmv) | Video 2(393kb,wmv) | Video 3(367 kb,wmv) |

Barefoot College win Skoll Award for 2005
The Barefoot College is one of the winners of the 2005 Skoll Awards for social entrepreneurship. Skoll’s three year grant will help Barefoot College bring the “Barefoot Approach” to 30 communities in five countries.
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Tyler Prize conferred upon Barefoot College and Red Latinoamericana de Botánica
The Tyler Prize Executive Committee announces the awarding of the 2004 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement on its thirty-first anniversary to the Barefoot College and Red Latinoamericana de Bot·nica. These two regional grass roots organizations are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the training and empowerment of local villagers and young scientists to become environmental stewards within their respective regions of the world.
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Prince Charles' visit too Aoo in Rajasthan
For the first time in the history of the village two helicopters landed in aoo-a remote village literally in the middle of nowhere. The passenger was none other than His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales.
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Social Work and Research Centre
Tilonia, Rajasthan, India