"even a single Deepest lamp dispels the darkness " - MK Gandhi
(even a single lamp can illuminate the darkness deeper)
Another very interesting and particularly relevant to the travel-related reportage Tilonia to document the various aspects of the Barefoot College is the development of electrification by solar energy.
In fact, the College began many years ago to take an interest to solar energy as a viable alternative to the chronic lack of electricity in Indian villages. In 1984 a Danish development agency installs Tilonia in the early solar panels, refer servicing to an engineer who had to return shortly after, leaving the College to wonder how we could do to ensure its effective functioning. Thus was born the solar laboratory, which soon turned into a school whose purpose was and is to train barefoot solar engineers able to independently manage the assembly and maintenance of solar energy equipment.
This decision is well within the policy of the College which aims to demystify the technology and decentralize the power and ability to manage independently. It is then a position rather close to that of Gandhi, who certainly did not look favorably technological progress takes away jobs for people and the delivery into the hands of pochi che lo possono controllare. Lo stesso Bunker sostiene che la tecnologia può essere introdotta nel villaggio solo se lo stesso è in grado poi di gestirne ogni aspetto senza dover dipendere da esperti venuti dalla città.
Fin dagli anni '80 quindi il Barefoot College iniziò a formare persone analfabete o semianalfabete, soprattutto donne, alla costruzione e alla manutenzione di lampade, batterie, pannelli solari e fornelli solari. La scelta ricadde all'inizio sulle ragazze del villaggio perchè si mostrarono molto interessate e motivate ad imparare e, grazie alle nuove competenze acquisite, poterono poi lentamente guadagnarsi una posizione migliore nell'ambito della società (e persino uno stipendio!).
Una delle scommesse most important of the College was then to export the system barefoot solar engineers in backward rural areas of India and the world.
In the early '90s a number of solar panels were installed in some villages of Ladakh, where the remoteness and difficult access to some areas made it almost completely excluded from procurement of electricity and where the long cold winters caused many difficulties for the villagers.
The Barefoot College and also arrived in Afghanistan, improving the de facto system of life of many villages. And then, Africa and Latin America.
E 'Bunker personally visiting the areas most backward in the world, talking to village leaders to convince because they send a few people, preferably female, to learn this craft. So
90s over a thousand people have gone to college and remaining 6 months of training before being able to return home bringing with them new technologies and new perspectives.
Women are very proud to contribute to the development of their villages, not counting the economic benefits of the use of solar energy. It is estimated a huge savings in kerosene, coal, wood (which are normally used for cooking and lighting homes) in addition to environmental benefits.
As Gandhi suggested to spin cotton in India daily to ensure its independence from the systems 'official' market which required imported products and to exploit and exhaust the resources of the Indians, the Barefoot College is proposing the system of learning by doing where also the implementation of technological tools such as those at solar energy, there is the opportunity to regain independence and freedom.
But the usefulness of this system is also to be able to build trust the most vulnerable and seemingly without prospects: women in particular have the opportunity to improve their lives and those of the village community despite without licenses or without education. Also in this area, therefore the most important job is the most difficult is to change the mentality of individuals to open to possibilities never seen before.
Saturday, October 2 you are invited to see my documentary on the Barefoot College in the International Festival Ferrara 2010. At room
Boldini, via G. Previati, 18 in Ferrara (in the center, just steps from the Teatro Comunale). At 18.00
the photo of the monks carrying the solar panels is Mr. Bhurji photographer died prematurely in service at the Barefoot College for many years. It 's a picture-symbol of the College.
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