Charity Turns ‘Barefoot’ Grandmothers Into Solar Energy Experts In Six Months

Source: www.themindunleashed.org | Original Post Date: November 26, 2015 –

Some people pay dearly for a degree in solar engineering, but one charity is making ‘barefoot’ grandmothers into life-changing solar energy experts in a matter of months.

A global enterprise, with its start in India, Barefoot College takes elderly women, which many cultures cast aside as useless, relegating them to nursing homes and clinics, and instead, teaches them how to ‘electrify’ entire villages using only solar power.

Some of these women can’t even read, but they can build solar panels, and install solar lighting in some places that have been dark for decades due to the lack of infrastructure.

With the UN estimating that more than 1.5 billion people still live without electricity, the barefoot grandmothers have their work cut out for them.