Indian Ngo Trains Uneducated African & Indian Women To Be Engineers

[JANASENA]

Gender equality is an alien concept in many rural areas of the world; combined with the difficult life of poverty, women in villages face rigorous oppression and discrimination. Girls rarely get a basic education and are married off at a young age to begin the task of bearing children. So, when an NGO decides to empower illiterate women and enables them to take control of a crucial aspect of their lives, it can bring a world of change.

Indian NGO Barefoot College has been turning women in rural India and Africa into engineers - for four decades now, they have been harnessing the power of solar energy and showing people the marvels of this underutilised source.

 

Source: barefootcollege.org

 

Women from Tanzania and other African countries travelled far from their homes to a small village in Rajasthan to study solar engineering, dentistry, mechanics, public health, and radio operations with their Indian counterparts. Most of these women don't know how to read and are already grandmothers. Their stay in Rajasthan for the 6-9 months of their free courses is sponsored by the Indian government. Since there is no common language between the Indian instructors and rural African students, teachers use sign language and colour-coded circuits for lessons.

 

Source: flickr.com

 

Barefoot College is enabling these women to earn a living for themselves and have some semblance of independence from the patriarchal, oppressive, sometimes abusive set-up of their homes.

According to the founder Sanjit Roy, also known as Bunker Roy and who was mentioned by Time magazine as the 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, says, “Training older women rather than focussing on men is the key to improving living conditions in poor areas.”

 

Source: barefootcollege.org

 

The college has educated over 6,000 women over the past 40 years. Not everyone can make it to the location of the college, but that isn't stopping the knowledge from spreading. Several students of the college have started schools in rural areas for adults to impart the knowledge given to them by the Barefoot College.

The women from sub-Saharan Africa returned to their countries to take their villages one step closer to development. Known fondly as 'solar mamas,' these solar engineers in Zanzibar are bringing the rare commodity of electricity to their villages, one house at a time.

 

Source: barefootcollege.org

 

A group of 13 women from Zanzibar, fondly known as “solar mamas,” are going all over the island spreading the joy of electricity. These 13 revolutionaries have electrified around 600 households in Zanzibar. They have installed systems like photovoltaic panels, inverters, LED lamps, and phone chargers in several houses. Some of these women have had the support of their families throughout, but some haven't been as lucky.

 

Source: barefootcollege.org

 

When Mize Juma Othman left for India to train, she had complete support from her husband. When she came back, he divorced her. She says he did this after other men in the village convinced her husband that education would make Mize promiscuous. Mize got married again to a man who does not interfere with her career. Armed with her new knowledge and training, Othman wants to pass new values to her daughter, far away from the traditions that held women back in rural Africa. The “solar mamas” will now be training other women to be engineers at a new local centre for solar training, so that they don't have to go as far as India to better their lives. Barefoot College plans to build centres for training all over Africa with the aid of respective governments.

 

Source: bestclimatepractices.org

 

The scope for empowering women who have been oppressed for their whole lives is tremendous. Barefoot College is determined to close the gap between these women and freedom through the obvious powers of education and gainful employment. They have also tied up with UN Women to spread the word across the world that there is hope for women who have never had an opportunity to break free from the clutches of patriarchy.