Geetanjali Krishna: Barefoot, but going places
Business Standard, August 28, 2010
The other day I got thinking about the nature of our school curricula. Ask a seventh or eighth grader about solar technology or rain water harvesting, and you’ll get a pat textbook answer. But have they even seen any of it actually at work? How many students have actually thought of making solar lamps? With more theory and so little practical stuff being taught in classrooms, it’s no wonder that we’re churning out tens of thousands of educated but often unemployable youths every year.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=406124

Barefoot College
July 26, 2010
Voice 1: Aminata and Haja are two Tuareg women from the small village of Tinjambane in Mali, West Africa. Both women are widows - women whose husbands have died. And both of them have children.
Voice 2: Aminata and Haja's village is on the Niger river, about twenty kilometers from Timbuktu It is a small community with only ninety-two [92] homes. Most of the homes are traditional buildings made of mud. The village has one school and one mosque. Until a year ago, it had no electricity.
http://www.spotlightradio.net/listen/barefoot-college/

Grandmother’s new job: photovoltaic engineer
The Jordan Times, June 27, 2010
AMMAN - Caregivers, cooks, cleaners and storytellers, activists believe that the Kingdom’s grandmothers are ready to add a new role to their list of traditional duties: solar engineers.
An initiative by local environmentalists and Indian activist Bunker Roy seeks to train grandmothers from the badia and northern Jordan in solar power technology in order to make their communities “totally and technologically self-sufficient”.
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=27804

Meet the man behind solar-powered villages
IBNLive, June 1, 2010
Tiloniya, (Rajasthan): Semi-literate women installing a solar panel in a village with no electricity - they learnt how to do this at Tiloniya's Barefoot college - solar electrifying village after village in rural Rajasthan. The man behind this quiet revolution is Sanjit Bunker Roy and his conviction that solutions to most problems lie within the community.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-solarpowered-villages/116777-11.html

Session 4 (2): Solar-Engineer-Grandmothers & Barefoot College
May 1, 2010
4th and last speaker of the day: Sanjit Bunker Roy, from a village in India:
“I got one of these snobbish and expensive educations as you have them in India and in many other parts of the world. I was all set, as it is with Indian families sometimes: my future was all laid out for me. Had a degree and the jobs were ready for me just after I finished my studies.
http://zen-venture.com/2010/05/01/session-4-2-solar-engineer-grandmothers-barefoot-college/

Bringing light to lives
April 14, 2010
At India's Barefoot College, rural women are being empowered as solar engineers who literally bring light to their villages.
IT'S hard to believe, but illiterate and poor grandmothers are morphed miraculously into "solar engineers'' at this unique college.
At the Barefoot College in Tilonia, 100km from Jaipur, capital of India's western desert state of Rajasthan, Citu, Mirabelle and Bianca – three middle-aged, semi-literate African women – are engrossed in assembling solar lamps.
http://clovetwo.com/articles/story.asp?file=/2010/4/14/reallives/20100407190431&sec=reallives

India – Barefoot College trains solar engineers
April 9, 2010
At India’s Barefoot College, rural women are being empowered as solar engineers who literally bring light to their villages.
At the Barefoot College in Tilonia, 100km from Jaipur, capital of India’s western desert state of Rajasthan, Citu, Mirabelle and Bianca – three middle-aged, semi-literate African women – are engrossed in assembling solar lamps.
http://iapnews.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/india-barefoot-college-trains-solar-engineers/

Barefoot’s unique approach
April 8, 2010
FOR 37 years, the Barefoot College in Tilonia has been chipping away at inequities and prejudices in the belief that “solutions to rural problems lie within communities”. Leading this movement is 64-year-old Sanjit “Bunker” Roy.
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/4/8/lifefocus/6001481&sec=lifefocus

Women “solar engineers” in Malawi villages
February 26, 2010
In Malawi, many people heavily rely on home-made koloboyi paraffin lamps for lighting. But paraffin is far more expensive than electric lighting. The cost of useful light energy ($/lumen hour of light) for paraffin is 325 times higher than the inefficient incandescent bulb, is 1625 times higher than compact fluorescent light bulbs. Paraffin requires requires 10% to 25% of a villager’s annual income.
http://nthambazale.com/2010/02/women-solar-engineers-in-malawi-villages/

Grannies Light Up Lives
Times of India, February 16, 2010
In India only Barefoot College in Tilonia imparts training in solar energy under the programme Tilonia (Ajmer): Mint Siddi Mohamed can barely utter a word of English. But she finds everything 'achcha.' "Khana achha, rehna achcha, sab achcha," she rattles away without pausing for any more questions.
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South-South Case Study Colombia
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The Buckminster Fuller Challenge 2010 Finalist: Barefoot College
Barefoot Women Solar Engineers of Africa, Asia and Latin America
The Barefoot approach has reached remote rural inaccessible villages in 15 of the least developed countries in Africa. Illiterate rural mothers and grandmothers who have never left their villages in their lives within 6 months of training (without using the written word) in India have solar electrified their own villages.
http://challenge.bfi.org/2010Finalist_BarefootCollege

When Grannies Become Solar Engineers
Bunker Roy operates his Barefoot College in India on the same principle, taking illiterate grandmothers and turning them into solar engineers. He won’t train men, and he won’t give certificates.
http://www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2010/03/23/when-grannies-become-solar-engineers/comment-page-1/

India’s Barefoot Solar Engineers Are Building a Brighter Future
Throughout India there are many rural villages that are completely removed from the grid. With no source of power for cooking, light, and heating they currently must rely on firewood, kerosene or diesel for fuel. Now green jobs are blossoming throughout these remote areas as the Orissa Tribal Empowerment & Livelihoods Programme trains women and youth to become barefoot solar engineers. This brilliant initiative provides a bright future for the semi-literate and illiterate rural poor by teaching them to harness the sun through the construction of photovoltaic systems and solar powered lanterns.
http://inhabitat.com/2009/11/09/indias-barefoot-solar-engineers-are-building-a-brighter-future/

Museum Pick: The Barefoot Approach
Filmmaker Sumithra Prasanna visits a unique institution in India that relies on community members, rather than experts, to help solve local problems. She found when the community was given the authority to solve their own problems, confidence rose, gender relations improved and a ripple effect of positive changes occurred.
http://www.imow.org/economica/stories/viewStory?storyid=4525

Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia's photo stream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barefootcollege/

India sun helps light Africa
The Telegraph, October 27, 2009
Tilonia (Ajmer), Oct. 26: Bella and Francisca find the Indian sun a bit too hot and the chapatti and dal too repetitive, but not enough to dampen their zeal to become solar engineers who would carry back light and hope to their remote villages in Africa.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091027/jsp/frontpage/story_11663324.jsp

Another Barefoot Revolution in Tilonia
The Hindu, 2009
Tilonia: The transformation is bound to be from darkness to light in their lives as well as in their respective countries as scores of African women learn the skills of solar lighting at the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC) in Tilonia’s Barefoot College.
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/26/stories/2009072654400500.htm

India's Barefoot College Lights the Way to Decent Work
United Nations Radio, 05/06/2009
Climate change is a global concern. But experts say women are more vulnerable than men as they represent the majority of the world’s poor and are proportionally more dependent on threatened natural resources. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) believes ‘green jobs’ could play a role in sustainable development while providing decent work for the world’s poor. Mandy Cunningham’s report on how poor women from India and Africa are being trained as “barefoot solar engineers”.
www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/76040.html

Barefoot College, Teaching Grandmothers to be Solar Engineers
WIPO Magazine, June 2009
The first and the hardest hit by climate change are the rural poor around the world. Millions of dollars have been spent on awareness raising, training in alternative technologies and preparing vulnerable rural communities to face the challenge. One of the striking success stories is that of India’s Barefoot College. Its approach has already made a difference for many.
http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2009/03/article_0002.html

India's Women bring Solar Light to Villages
Current, 2009
In India, teams of “barefoot solar engineers” are bringing electricity to rural villages. The project- part of a larger campaign to help Indian villagers be self-sufficient – trains women to build and maintain solar energy units.
http://current.com/items/90141918_indias-women-bring-solar-light-to-villages.htm

Landsbykvinner Gir Solenergi Til Verdens Fattigste
Folkevett, 2009, Soldronningen Side 12-20
De fleste av planetens halvannen milliard fattige uten elektrisitet kan se langt etter å bli koblet til strømnettet. Landsbykvinner som forvandles til solingeniører kan nå gi dem håp om lys i kveldsmørket og tilgang til ren energi. Kvinnene elektrifiserer først sin egen landsby, deretter fortsetter de til nabolandsbyene. Hus etter hus. Kilowatt etter kilowatt.
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Barefoot College in India
September 19, 2008
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: 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.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1203/cover.html

The Barefoot College- An innovative project uses solar power to empower the poor.
Scienceline, November 9th, 2006
A group of impoverished but empowered engineers has been harnessing solar power to electrify villages in India, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. And they’ve been giving their own lives a jump-start in the process.
These “barefoot engineers” are men and women from poor rural backgrounds who spend six months training at the Barefoot College, an educational centre in Tilonia, India. The program combines 21st century science with traditional knowledge to teach the construction, installation, and maintenance of everything from solar panels to rainwater collection tanks.
http://scienceline.org/2006/11/09/pol-hsu-barefoot/

Barefoot in Afghanistan: Solar electrification of villages in Afghanistan
Renewable Energy World, May-June, 2006
In the mountains of Afghanistan, villagers must walk long distances and pay high prices to buy fuel to survive. Here Bunker Roy and Gry Synevvag report on an innovative solar electrification scheme which has enabled villagers to be self-reliant.
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Barefoot, female and a solar engineer
14 Jan, 2003
Gulab Devi, 45, comes across as the quintessential rural woman from Rajasthan, in north east India. Completely illiterate, and mother of four, she is now a successful pioneer in the Barefoot Solar Engineering Project which is bringing solar power and women’s liberation to hundreds of villages across India.
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=1842


Visual Media

The Solar Warriors of Bhutan (10 min)
This is a true story about rural women of Bhutan. This is about very simple women in Bhutan who have made an extraordinary difference to their own communities. The rural women have shown tremendous courage and left their husbands, children behind to come to Tilonia, a small remote village in Rajasthan India. They have come to be trained in 6 months to be solar engineers. What makes this approach unique is that after the training no certificates or diplomas are given. The certification should be done by the community themselves. After 6 months training these women will be known as SOLAR ENGINEERS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKx7jvHocHU

The First Solar Powered Reverse osmosis Plant in India (7.30 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7oVmz_yqVI&feature=player_embedded

The Barefoot College in Tilonia, Ajmer
ndtvprofit, April 23, 2010
The Barefoot College (BC) in Tilonia, Ajmer, is an education center that empowers rural community from across the globe. The college is devoted to teach village community to solve problems like electricity and water.
http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=138390

A Visit to Barefoot College in Rajasthan
http://vimeo.com/10984069

Women of the Sun (Part 1)
Hundreds of other poor rural villages in Asia and Africa have been electrified by village women trained as barefoot solar engineers. The women can give fresh hope to the more than one and a half billion rural poor who live without electricity. The women first electrify their home village, then they continue to neighboring villages. House after house. Kilowatt after kilowatt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4FNwfVqDkA&feature=related

Women of the Sun (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ws2rpeB1Fc&feature=related

The Rural Women Solar Engineers of Africa
This is a true story about ordinary heroes who are very simple women in Africa who have made an extraordinary difference to their own communities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A450E1QZTY

The Rural Women Solar Engineers of Africa (French)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ODAUbhpGy0

Barefoot College: From Candles to Panels (Spanish)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kumzMGMHo

The First Rural Women Heroes of Tombouctou
This film is 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 thus becoming the women heroes not only in their village but also in Mali.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhpyS5U1KY

Sierra Leone's First Women Barefoot Solar Engineers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_RT8pngx1A

The First Women Barefoot Solar Engineers of The Gambia
A film about women who have a not basic education but they have dignity, and proved that impossible is possible within their society. They learnt about solar electrification in Tilonia, Rajasthan in India, and went back and solar electrified their village.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWvwtCPnNK8

First Women Barefoot Solar Engineer of Andhra Pradesh
Women from rural area of Hyderabad were working different type of work to run their family, but they were not satisfied with their work as stone cutter, clothes washers, or house servants. They want to do other exciting jobs, and finally they get opportunity to learn about solar technology and become solar engineer of Hyderabad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYvQmi0F9LA

Barefoot women who make light
Empowerment of women by women, a story of four barefoot solar engineers from Andhra Pradesh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCuCuqGvAoc

Kamla: Barefoot Solar Engineer of Rajasthan
Kamla, a woman from rural area of Rajasthan who have a determination to prove that women are also able to do technical work in solar or other technology work...she did it with grace and dignity…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0g5mrU-_AU

Women of Tilonia: Gulab
A woman solar engineer talks about the changing perceptions of women in rural India as a result of Barefoot College training programs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp0PFOr3DUQ

Women of Tilonia: Sita
Sita talks about her 6 month training program at the Barefoot College where she learned to be a solar cooker engineer and how this helped her to overcome the caste system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn3Ae4KISuM

Women of Tilonia:Shehnaz
A women solar cooker engineer at the Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India discussed her new found courage in finding employment at the College to support her children and overcome social restrictions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0DAEb_zcVY