'Barefoot' Grandmothers Electrify Rural Communities (Video & Article From CNN International)

[Turborama]

I'm curious, anything like this broadcast on CNN USA?

January 27, 2011 -- Updated 0300 GMT (1100 HKT) | Filed under: Innovation

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Barefoot College in India trains women to be solar engineers
* Women from across the globe train for six months to then educate their home villages
* Women chosen to be trained as men seen to be "restless", says college founder

(Click on the image below for the video report)

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/international/2011/01/26/ef.grandmothers.lights.bk.b.cnn">

(CNN) -- Turning grandmothers into solar engineers is one of Sanjit "Bunker" Roy's favorite jobs.

Roy is the social entrepreneur and founder of the http://www.barefootcollege.org/">Barefoot College and has been championing a bottom-up approach to education and empowering rural poor since 1972.

It is now a global enterprise with roots in India. Roy recruits women from around the world to install and maintain solar lighting and power in their home villages.

"If you ask any solar engineer in the world, 'Can anyone make this in a village?' they say it's technically impossible. And if I say a grandmother is making it who is illiterate, he can't believe it, it's beyond his comprehension," says Roy.

The United Nations estimates that around 1.5 billion people still live without electricity, and often the best and most immediate way to bring non-polluting electricity to remote regions is with solar energy.

Roy certainly believes so.

Continues: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/01/24/barefoot.college.india/index.html?hpt=C1

Part of complete coverage on: http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/earths.frontiers/">Earth's Frontiers

[FirstLight]

1. that's actually pretty awesome

wish we could implement this kind of stuff in our own backyards and rural communities at home too...

[Turborama]

3. It would be great if initiatives like this could implemented everywhere, wouldn't it. n/t

[heliarc]

5. There's a lot we could learn from innovation in the third world

in Venezuela there are mobile libraries... like ice cream trucks that bring internet access and books to poor neighborhoods.

Solar power is preventing disastrous kerosene fires in boarding houses all across africa. This is a revolution taking place under our noses and because we as a nation have become so fat and stupid we almost can't see it

[StarsInHerHair]

6. we could if millionaires and billionaires were willing ...

nt

[Mojeoux]

2. Thank You for this post Turborama.

Heart warming, and inspiring and all the corny accolades that are so true. This is wonderful to know this is happening. I love that the experts say it's impossible.
Impossible like the flight of the Bumble Bee.

[Turborama]

4. My pleasure, Mojeoux

Hahaha, I like your bumble bee analogy. So true!

[MrsBrady]

7. my better half tells me that it's not that hard to make a solar pannel

he made a couple of them from a "broken" larger solar pannel that he ordered on-line.
he said he could get more power out of it, but was just messing around for fun. he's a geek.

looks kinda like the one in the photo. we use it when camping. charges up the cell phone, etc.

[delightfulstar]

8. That's a perfect win-win...

Places that need it get energy, and they're doing it in an empowering and responsible way.

[OneGrassRoot]

9. K&R. Thank you :) n/t

[Turborama]

11. You're most welcome ;)

Thank you for the K&R :hi:

[Generic Other]

10. The homeless communities across the US need this technology

Amazing. And I suppose no one here will teach it because it empowers the user to generate their own power off the grid.