Barefoot Learning

We have really enjoyed our time in Jaipur; it’s a lovely city with some really nice tourist attractions that Oliver, Mik and Zoe have shared. Lucky for us, while staying at the Jaipur Friendly Villa, our hosts Shveta and Kul shared with us a remarkable story about a college that has transformed a nearby village, and parts of the developing world.

Barefoot College was founded in the village of Tilonia by Bunker Roy. The philosophy behind the college is to empower the village people, especially the women, (who are mainly illiterate), to promote positive social development for longer and healthier lives. The reason they focus upon empowering the women is because they discovered women will usually return to their village and pass on what they have learned to their families and friends. This is how they hope sustainable change will happen.

We were amazed at what we saw! The program is an international one and the campus is full of illiterate women from developing countries who come to the Barefoot College to become Solar Engineers! Many of their villages do not have the infrastructure for electricity, so solar energy is an easier way to bring light to their village.

It was incredible to see the ladies gathered around circuit boards and figuring out how make things work. The idea is that for 6 months they learn everything about how solar energy works. Then they return to their villages and set up a solar energy system to bring light to their villages. Since most of the students are illiterate, the books are all picture based and show what to do using colour coded, step by step instructions. The teachers are all former students who have gone through the program and are afterwards, able to pass their learning on to the new students.

Learning with friends

Circuits

Figuring out where it goes

Solar packs for the village

Circuit boards

Working together

Circuit boards

How it all comes together

Here is how they learn!

Winding up cables

In order to be part of the program, an NGO from the women’s country must be willing to support them, so that when they return to their village, the learning can be put to use and bring light to their families and the rest of the village. It was interesting to see women from different countries in Africa, Asia, and Central America chatting away with each other. Since there is quite a language divide, most start communicating using sign language, but eventually learn some basic Hindi and English during their training.

There is a documentary on this program called “Solar Mamas” which highlights a woman from Jordan who comes to the College to be trained as a solar engineer. Halfway through her training, her husband insists she returns to take care of the family or he will divorce her and take away her children. The program focuses on the struggles these women go through as they are empowered with new knowledge and skills and how it impacts their lives in other areas. I won’t tell you what happens – you can watch the documentary yourselves – be prepared with kleenex!

The Indian government funds this program from two different areas. For domestic students, the Ministry of the Environment provides the funds, while the Foreign Affairs department funds the international part of the program.

From solar engineering classrooms we made our way to the solar powered parabolic cooking. In this program, women are learning how to design and use parabolic cookers. They ladies insisted on giving us a live demonstration on how hot their ovens could reach – over 300 degrees! The design is amazing – it’s a clock motor mechanism that moves the solar panels with the rays of the sun so that they can collect the sun’s energy for cooking for at least 10 hours during the winter and 14 hours in the summer. These women were very proud of their learning and are now developing more innovative cookers in different sizes.  In fact, they have actually started their own small business and sell the cookers to interested customers!

Clock motor mechanism

Parabolic cookers

Showing us how it all works while holding the baby!

Back in October, we lived on a hobby farm that was off the grid and used solar energy.  We became quite interested in how solar energy worked, so these classrooms were of great interest to us.

Heath issues are another concern in the villages – especially malaria and feminine hygiene. Due to the extreme poverty of the villages, feminine products are not available to most women and many suffer from disease and infection. The College has now developed a program where women can learn to make sanitary products for pennies with local cotton and a special machine. They are also learning more about malaria and how mosquito nets can help to prevent fatal bites.

Processing the cotton

Sewing mosquito nets

Sanitary napkin presses

Malaria prevention

We also met women who have been trained as village dentists. For six months, they work with a qualified dentist so that they can do the basics for their village people. These ladies go into the schools to educate the children on how to take care of their teeth. They also can drill and fill simple cavities using the equipment at the College. This makes a big difference for the village people as many would not be able to visit a dentist in the city.

Figuring out the fluoride.

Barefoot dentists

The College even has their own radio station run by a sound engineer – an illiterate woman from the village, who runs 6 hours a day of radio to bring information to their village.

Another way they try to bring education to the village is through theatre. They have amazing puppets that they use to teach the village people about social awareness issues concerning the environment, women and children’s rights, and the importance of ending the caste system which is still often in place in the villages.

Puppets to bring the message

Huge puppets to tell stories

The College focuses on the women in the villages, but they also provide schools for the local children. However, we learned there are many children who aren’t able to attend regular day school as they have responsibilities at home, (especially the girls). To solve this problem Barefoot created “night schools” just for these children. These classroom programs do not focus on regular text books and literacy learning, but rather experiential learning activities to help them develop knowledge and skills to help them in the “real world”. The Barefoot teachers and women from the village use carpentry skills to create educational toys that assist the children with learning.

carpenters creating math tosy

educational toys for illiterate kids

Another example that Mik and Zoe both really liked was the “Children’s Parliament”. The kids run a student government where they are the leaders and Ministers of different parts of the school. It is their responsibility to ensure things are working properly so that the school runs. The elected student “Prime Minister” and cabinet even have the power to hire and fire teachers! These programs are to help the students become more knowledgeable about the world they are living in. The girls thought this program was great!

elementary kids at dayschool

dayschool

Our visit to the Barefoot College was incredibly inspirational and shows that everyone can learn and be empowered at any age. I’m so glad we were able to see the College in action and all the good they are doing for the people. This is an amazing organization and one that deserves so much praise for using grassroots solutions to help and empower the local people in a dignified way.

Check out the TedTalk below from Bunker Roy, the founder of Barefoot College – it will really make your day!