Barefoot solar engineers

Everyone has a gift.

Bunker Roy says you don’t have to be able to read or write to be able to contribute to the success of your community with your gift. Find the right person for the job, train her (yes, her, because in his words, “men are untrainable”!), and the whole community benefits.

His philosophy has had a tremendous impact on rural villages around the world. By plucking handfuls of illiterate grandmothers out of their communities for six months at a time and training them to be self-sufficient solar engineers, they return to their villages with a new-found confidence and ability to put their hard-earned skills into practice.

“Brenda,” asked Bunker, “Can you help us find grandmothers? In Myanmar?”

With the initial connections made, he and Meagan from Barefoot College set out to meet with potential candidates. We travelled by bull cart for almost three hours before arriving at one of the rural communities, this one in Myanmar’s Mon State, where we were treated to a traditional lunch lovingly prepared by the ladies in the village.

Each of the six women ultimately chosen for the study scholarship is highly respected in her home village. Leaders at heart, these women know how to manage the affairs of their community. They care deeply about their children, their grandchildren, and the future of their villages.

They will leave their homes and travel further than they ever envisaged. They will get on a plane for the first time in their lives. They will travel to Tilonia,  Rajasthan, in India, where they will learn a new trade.  Tearfully, yet courageously, they accepted the offer to leave their families behind for half a year.

A couple of years ago I first had the pleasure of meeting this particular dynamic duo, when they travelled by foot nearly all day to take part in a discussion about the future of their village, many miles north of Yangon. At the time we were only scratching the surface of what solar electrification might look like for that community. Now, as we gazed out together over the expanse between our vantage point and their villages in the distance, we were each thinking of how those plans had evolved. The group had spent the day planning their study trip to India and all that this would entail – there was so much to take in! We stood there dreaming of what it would mean for them to return mid September as fully-fledged solar engineers with the ability to install self-sustaining electricity generators in their villages.

It’s an adventure, a challenge and a gift – for everyone involved.