Sierra Club Announces India Award Winners Sierra Club June 9, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO-Today the Sierra Club announced the organization's first ever "Green Energy & Green Livelihoods Achievement Award" winners for India. The new award recognizes community initiatives to promote green economic development, adaptation of renewable energy alternatives and organizational leadership in a grassroots environmental campaign. The award represents Sierra Club's growing interest in building international partnerships to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. Continue
School in India Teaches Women To Improve Lives, Towns Jim Lehrer News Hour, PBS, October 6, 2008
The Barefoot College in northern India teaches women skills to bring solar power to their villages and to manage the energy system in rural areas. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the philosophy behind the school and its unusual approach to empowering women. Continue
The Barefoot College in India Religion & Ethics, PBS, September 18, 2008
The students are mostly women. Some are grandmothers. Hundreds have come through here from villages across India and a dozen other countries to learn how to install and maintain solar energy in rural areas.
Even though it's sophisticated coursework, the only pre-requisite for admission to the Barefoot College is that there are no pre-requisites, not even to speak the language.
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Skoll Foundation Extends Investments in Leading Social Entrepreneurs Skoll Foundation August 26, 2008
The Skoll Foundation today announced additional investments in the inaugural 2005 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, named two new recipients of the Award, and deepened its commitment to building out a global ecosystem to support social entrepreneurs. These new grants total $19.18 million. The follow-on investment in the 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur class is designed to help these organizations further drive systemic change in the regions in and issues on which they work and achieve sustainability.
The Barefoot College is among 13 organizations receiving follow-on funding from the Skoll Foundation.
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The First Rural Women Heroes of Tombouctou The Barefoot Approach: Mali, February 2008
This film about two illiterate women who are ordinary but did extraordinary work for their villages. Two women came to India (Tilonia-Rajasthan), learned about solar energy, and went back to Tombouctou(Mali-Africa) and solar electrified their whole village.
These women heroes of Tombouctou are the first women Barefoot Solar Engineers in Africa. More than 120 women and men from 13 countries have been trained by the Barefoot College to become Barefoot Solar Engineers.
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.
Continue 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. Continue
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. Continue
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. Continue
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." Continue .
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.
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. Continue
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. Continue,
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. Continue
Social Work and Research
Centre
Tilonia, Rajasthan, India
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.
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.
Semi-literate Afghan Men and Women Solar Electrifying Their Own Villages, UNDP, March 2006
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.