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Barefoot Solar Engineers Brighten Lives

The Barefoot College began in 1972 in the small village of Tilonia in rural Rajasthan, India with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lay within the community. The College works to improve the lives of the rural poor by addressing basic needs for water, electricity, housing, health, education and income. Through a learning-by-doing approach that gives semi-literate, rural farmers and artisans access to practical knowledge, the College demystifies technology and puts it into the hands of the villagers themselves.

Remote rural communities far from the "grid" have no source of power for cooking, lighting or heating other than firewood, or expensive kerosene or diesel. By training rural, semi-literate women and men to become Barefoot Solar Engineers, these communities are given access to affordable and clean electricity from solar power systems maintained and supported by the communities themselves. All solar panels are installed, maintained and repaired by Barefoot Solar Engineers without the assistance of any paper-qualified engineer. Each household in the community pays a monthly fee that provides an income to the engineers. Employed by their villages as Barefoot Solar Engineers, these women are able to support their communities, as well as their families.

In rural India, more than 6,000 children who tend cattle during the day attend the Night Schools established by the Barefoot College and are able to study by the light of solar lanterns. There are now more than 250 night schools, completely powered by solar lamps maintained by engineers in these communities.

The Barefoot Solar Engineers approach has become a global initiative with semi-literate women and men from Africa, Asia and Latin America traveling to Tilonia to be trained. “Before, when one lived in darkness, one could do nothing in the night, but now that I will learn how to put up light, I will have to make sure that my village is up to date. What I used to do in the morning, I will start doing it in the night in order to finalize it the morning. That brings much advantage to us," reports Jeanne d’Arc Poutcha, a Barefoot Solar Engineer from Cameroon.

More than 340 barefoot solar engineers have been trained in 16 States of India and 9 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.  Sixteen women from Afghanistan, Bolivia, Cameroon, Mali, Sierra Leone and The Gambia are currently in training.

Over 126,000 people have access to solar power systems in 575 rural communities in 16 Indian States and 8 other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America which generate more than 646 kilowatts of solar energy through 15,000 household solar systems and lanterns benefiting nearly 14,000 families and 575 schools. Over 1.67 million tons of carbon emissions are saved annually as a result of the solar-electrification of these rural communities.

Friends of Tilonia, Inc, a Fair Trade Federation member since 2006, helps to support the sustainable development programs of the Barefoot College. Working in conjunction with the College, Friends of Tilonia helps rural artisans in these rural communities market their products in North America.  With new markets for their crafts, their livelihood is improved and the production of traditional crafts is continued. Without this opportunity to earn additional income, these rural artisans are among the world’s poorest of the poor who earn less than $1 a day.