The barefoot approach to climate change
Mohandas Gandhi once said: ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’. With that simple piece of wisdom, one man brought down the largest empire the world has ever seen. Global warming, on many levels, can appear an insurmountable problem, too big for any one person to even attempt to tackle. But like all issues that appear too vast to comprehend, more often than not, it is the thought that it is insurmountable that prevents change from taking place. Like the fall of an empire, the collective actions of ordinary people are all that is required to change the course of history.
It is through such a philosophy, that the community-based organization Barefoot College, based in Rajasthan, India, has succeeded where common sense says that it should fail. Established in 1971, the college believes that community development lies in the hands of the people themselves and has pioneered an approach – known as the Barefoot approach – to solar electrification in 16 states of India and 20 other developing countries worldwide.
Rebecca Banda, 45, of Kaphuka village in Uganda, is a mother of five, and completely illiterate. Yet not only can she fabricate and assemble circuit boards for solar lanterns and charge-controllers, she can also test, maintain and install these systems in households throughout her village.
Rebecca is just one of 34 illiterate and semi-literate women from seven different countries in Africa who have recently completed their training at Barefoot College. She has now returned to her village, and will in turn help to solar-electrify more than 200 households and set up a rural electronic workshop for the maintenance of the systems and the further instruction of other villagers. The village has already agreed in writing how much she will be paid per month after she has installed fixed solar units with a solar lantern in each house. In this way, her skills will be passed on to a new generation of villagers, giving them much-needed confidence and self-esteem and helping them to break out of the poverty trap.
Solar power was first implemented on a large scale by Barefoot College in 1986, to energize completely the 80,000-square foot campus at Tilonia. It was then a natural step towards extending this philosophy of helping the poor help themselves, by including solar power within its remit. Since 1989, the college has trained more than 300 Barefoot solar engineers in India, who have in turn electrified over 12,000 houses covering 628 remote and inaccessible villages in 16 states of India, saving approximately 1.9 million tonnes of carbon emissions from polluting the environment through the use of diesel, kerosene, candles, torch batteries and wood. In 2005, with the help of several partners, the college started training women from developing countries abroad, predominantly countries in Africa, but also Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bolivia. So far, the college has trained more than 150 foreign Barefoot solar engineers, 119 of them women. In 2009, 34 women from seven countries in Africa are receiving training at the college.
The Barefoot College has demonstrated that any remote non-electrified village can be solar-electrified and maintained by illiterate and semi-literate men and women. This is achieved, moreover, through community-managed and community-controlled initiatives that give power back to the people, in turn demystifying technology, reducing external dependency and increasing socio-economic sustainability. This unique approach to development turns the recipients of aid into active users, helping them to make major decisions and eventually providing them with the skills to take full responsibility.
With $10 million, the college could train 1,000 more Barefoot solar engineers, plus cover the cost of 12,500 home solar units. The experience of the college has shown that through these projects – sometimes implemented under some of the toughest conditions, such as the war-torn regions of Afghanistan and Sierra Leone – that once the government of the host country becomes aware of the effectiveness of them, more often than not they will extend them into other areas of the country, saving further harmful CO2 emissions and becoming beacons to what is possible in other countries. The college believes that it is through action, not words, that change occurs. We are tired of talking. Experience has taught us that people only sit up and take note when the results are plain for all to see. The college has demonstrated what is possible when a leap of faith is taken, and the impossible becomes possible.
With regards to obstacles to the success of this plan, the only barriers to extending it are the current mindsets that predominate in development today. Those in positions of power still cannot comprehend that an illiterate grandmother of five can do a better job of lifting her community out of poverty than an accredited expert can. Why can she do a better job than the expert? Because she has a stake in making it work, for herself, her family and her community.
Stewart Allen is a postgraduate student at Barefoot College. Email stewart.allen4@gmail.com
