“They don’t even want to leave the house, how do you expect them to be solar engineers?” That’s the question that most people will ask when they first hear the phrase “solar-engineering grandmothers”. Bunker Roy proved us that it is possible.

He established the Barefoot College in 1972. The Barefoot College is the only college in India for the poor: built by the poor and only for the poor. It provides basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, like female education, health and sanitation, rural unemployment, income generation, as well as electricity and power. Starting from 1990, Barefoot College has trained thousands of semi-literate and illiterate rural women – many of them grandmothers – to become professionals in solar engineering. When they go back home, these women are able to install, maintain and repair solar panels and batteries, and change life in their remote villages forever. Bunker Roy found that illiterate grandmothers are the best investments for eduacating solar engineers, as they are committed to their village, enthusiastic to learn, and have no desire tp leave their village. As a social entrepreneur, Bunker Roy successfully innovates a solution: training grandmothers in remote villages as solar enginners, to effectivly solve some basic social problems ( such as gender inequality, shortage of electricity) in many poor countries.  The success stories of India’s Barefoot Colleg has shown us that social entreprenuership is able to make a difference for many.

For more information, please go to http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2009/03/article_0002.html, http://www.barefootcollege.org/