From Latin America to India: Travelling to Discover the Sun

“Where does the sun rise?”, Paula asks the group of onlookers watching her. She has climbed on top of a small house and Jenny has just passed her an object like a mirror, with some wires attached to it. Paula and Jenny, two semi-illiterate women, travel to isolated locations in southern Peru, installing mini photovoltaic plants. They call them “solar engineers” because they bring electricity and light to people that have never had it. Thanks to the collaboration between Enel Green Power and the Indian NGO Barefoot College, dozens of women like them, from remote areas in 9 Latin American countries, have learned to build, install and manage mini solar plants, changing the lives of thousands of people in their countries of origin. A successful method The secret to Barefoot College’s success is in the method. Women from all over the world come to the NGO’s headquarters in Tilonia, in the Indian state of Rajasthan: they’re often semi-illiterate and come from poor, rural contexts. But they’re eager to learn and recognise the chance to take charge of their future. At Barefoot College, they meet experts in renewable technologies and discover modern equipment and techniques to install and manage mini solar plants for domestic use. When the women then head back to their home villages from India, they’ve acquired technical skills, trained for a new job and are ready to transform their lives and the lives of their fellow citizens and neighbours. "Meeting the communities around me, I found absolutely ordinary people with incredible skills and knowledge that remained hidden, invisible and not respected." Bunker Roy, Founder of Barefoot College Bring the sun home Thanks to this collaboration with Barefoot College, we are bringing light, skills and jobs to isolated communities in Peru, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, Ecuador and Panama. “It’s really nice to see the reaction of people that have never had light at home; to see their smiles, the happiness of the children... it’s like a dream come true. I’m very happy to have learned at the Barefoot College”, says Paula today. "Since 2012, EGP’s partnership with Barefoot College has involved 41 communities in 9 Latin American countries, bringing benefits to over 19,000 people." An Oscar-worthy story The Latin American women’s journey to India, their days at Barefoot College and their return to the community as “solar engineers” are recounted in the documentary video “Bring the sun home”, a recipient of awards at numerous film festivals and competitions, directed by Chiara Andrich and Giovanni Pellegrini. "Electricity powers refrigerators to preserve food and medicine, gives light to children and young people to read and study, makes water purification systems operate... electricity changes lives." Around the world, over 1 billion people don’t have stable access to electricity. This condition keeps them from possibilities that most developed countries take for granted. Our collaboration with Barefoot College is a simple but revolutionary example of how to make the impossible possible: contributing to the common good of people inhabiting regions of the earth often considered hopelessly excluded from development.

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From Latin America to India: Travelling to Discover the Sun

From Latin America to India: Travelling to Discover the Sun