“You don’t know where your passions and skills are going to take you.”

Melinda is from Australia but has been volunteering at Barefoot College since last September. She works with the people who come to Barefoot to teach them about some of the amazing projects the college is working on. Through Melinda we were introduced to a few of the incredible people at the college. She loves her time at Barefoot but acknowledges the patience and time it takes to make progress with her efforts. “You can’t come and just tell people how to do something.” You have to work with the people and develop a solution to a problem that is mutually beneficial to everyone as well as feasible for an impoverished area. Everyone is coming to Barefoot to get something out of the experience and the question is what they are going to do with these skills. Melinda believes that when you step foot on the campus “you have to let yourself come out of the routine and open your eyes.”

“We want to work with them, alongside them, and for them to make something that the community will love, embrace, and maintain.”

While visiting Barefoot College, our group heard from two graduated engineering students, Surya and Shashank, who are now working in the surrounding community within Rajasthan on various projects. Surya is working with the construction of modernized toilets and Shashank is working with the construction of a large catchment area for water that will replenish many wells and be primarily used to sustain cattle. They told us about their experiences with the volunteering, the fulfillment they felt, but also some of the frustrations they encountered while trying to get their projects completed.

Barefoot Fellow #1 – Surya

Degree in Mechanical engineering, graduated in 2012, resigned from her job in 2014

Because I was a mechanical engineer, it’s not easy to convince your parents that now I’m constructing toilets. So they say, “Why did you go study so much?” and ”Why did you have to put in effort if you wanted to construct toilets?” So I did not have any idea because at that point in time it was no use trying to explain that you want to go for a cause that makes you happy. Right now there are small moments in my life I feel very grateful that if I wouldn’t be in this situation, I wouldn’t have met so many people. Everybody is concerned about you. Even if you have to go somewhere people ask you if you have money if you need money. There is much love and care.

What advice do you have?

What I followed personally, I would say that you should always follow your heart because if you wouldn’t follow your heart and you would say, “Okay this is what society thinks and I need to do what everyone thinks or what your peers think you should do, if you just follow blindly what they are saying, then inside you will always be unhappy.

You should just follow your heart because you will be happier than if you did not. People who follow their heart are always happier.

I have not used much from my degree because this construction work is quite different than mechanical engineering though I did apply some type of mechanics and you know, science, physics. But apart from that, I would say that more kind of practical things I learned are looking at the ways in which to work and the field knowledge which I got from Barefoot people was very different. You start working thinking “everyone is just standing out in the heat and they’re working,” but I have seen that it gets very hot even to lift a rock and there were times that I was sweating so that at that point in time I would cry myself out. Like, how do these people live, like they work continuously for 10, 15 days at the construction site. It’s not very easy.

Barefoot Fellow #2 – Shashank

I am a mechanical engineer, and in 2013 I quit my job and after that I joined this cycle, volunteer cycle [at Barefoot] for 10 months I worked. And after that I applied for this fellowship.

Why did you decide to leave your job as an engineer?

I was bored. I was working 9 to 9. I did not have any time to read a newspaper. I can’t do anything else. So that’s why I like this fellowship work. The best part is you can go on a vacation and you can choose your project. That is the best part, you go there and you find where they are facing problems. You go to them.

Things never turn out the way you expect them to.

Shashank had to have patience as he got through the language barrier as well as working with the community.

People cannot try to impose their own ideas without considering the limitations.

You can read more about Shashank’s project here.

Walking into the room which housed some of the solar mamas and the Enriche program head Lucie (Anu in Hindi) was a crescendo of laughter and excitement. The women were so happy to see us and instantly livened up the atmosphere with their contagious smiles and personalities. We had the pleasure of hearing from Lucie, the head of the Enriche program at Barefoot which strives to empower women through self defense class as well as facilitating powerful discussions about stereotypes, social norms, and gender roles.

Below is a large portion of the talk Lucie gave to us, but we feel it encapsulates all that this project and the college is striving to do. The dialogue also gives a better picture as to how the solar mamas spend their six months and also how they are chosen to go through the program, as it is not easy to be selected.

Lucie :

“When they come, they’re not sure whether or not they can become a solar engineer. So give them a week, or ten days and it’s okay. That’s the reality of life. But when they leave, they’re also crying and they’re hugging us and we’re like, “why are you crying now? You’re going back to your family. Go back, be very happy and feel proud of yourself. Everybody will say ‘wow, they’re solar engineers!’” But the reality is that when they’ve been here in the positive environment they say, that when they go back, I spoke with the last group, a number of Indian solar trainees and they would say “But when I go back, I don’t know if my husband is going to take the money that I earned from me, or is he going to let me spend it? I don’t know if he’ll use it to drink. And over here we notice that you can stand in a group of people and you can look them in the eye and you can speak with them. But that’s not going to be the same in my village. I’ll be expected to stay inside in the house most of the time.”

So therefore we realized that what we’re doing is an incomplete job. There’s a lot more that needs to be done. And we developed- we’re in the process of developing- what’s called Enriche curriculum, this is a pilot over here. And there are 8 areas we’ve selected that go from something like digital literacy, environmental stewardship to women’s health and hygiene focusing on reproductive health, to talking to them about self-awareness, self-confidence and how do we build that, to human rights. What are your rights? Is there a right to equality? Is there a right to education? So the other needs of livelihood, not just being a solar engineer. And what we want them to do is when they go back home eventually, if they’re going to a woman’s house where there is a girl who might be starting her period soon, go talk to them. Tell them this is the right way to dispose of a sanitary napkin, this is the proper way to do it. This is how you keep clean, this is how you stay healthy. So we’re hoping that in doing all of that, they not only will change come in them, but gradually the change will also come in the villages in which they live in. And therefore the positive environment that you find here is the positive environment in the community. We also realize that the work we are doing here is just scratching the surface. We have very limited time with them because the solar engineering program takes most of the time. So, we are also planning on them talking to the partner organizations on the ground over there and to see how can they make this program a regular feature. Maybe it’s a self-help group that’s needed in their locality and maybe have a meeting once a month, once a week. Whatever seems to make the best use of time. We’ll talk about savings over here, we’ll talk about budget, we’ll talk about how to open a bank account, and they need to continue that work. But this is our step so that we don’t feel that just by making them solar engineers we’re done with our job. We’re not, we have a long way to go. So this is actually the first digital literacy class for this session and we’re learning how to take pictures, videos. And now we’re just taking pictures and videos of each other, singing songs, making videos. But the goal, as we just had a conversation is that we hope to find the money where we can have at least one iPad at each partner organization’s place. So when they go out into the field, if they have trouble with a circuit, we hope to teach them: take a picture, email that to us so someone will better get back to you instead of trying to explain it on the phone that this doesn’t work so the resistor needs adjusting or the capacitor needs to move. Although it seems to be all fun right now, there is a goal. We talked about what else they would like to learn and it seems like a lot of them would like for us to download apps to learn how to speak Hindi.”

Question – Where is everyone from?

Zimbabwe, Micronesia, Liberia, Fiji

Question – How do you select women?

Lucie – “There’s a team that would be made up of our partner organizations and somebody from this organization because the local organization on the ground is the best organization to help us go into the village and talk to the people over there. Because we need everyone’s buy in. A village is not going to just, you know, you can’t randomly knock on a door and say, ‘hey, can we take you for 6 months?’ The village elders, the entire community needs to have a buy in and say, ‘we feel that these women are the best women.’ And then you talk to them, and you say okay, of these women, let’s select these.”

Maria is from Columbia and is one of 40 international solar mamas visiting Barefoot. They arrived March 15^th, 2016 and will complete their training on September 14^th, 2016. She is in the 16^th class of the solar workshop.

Maria spends her free time learning English and misses meat and chicken. She is still trying to get accustomed to the spicy food.

The women are flown in from all over the world to train at Barefoot to become solar engineers in a mere 6 months with the hope of returning to their village and solar electrifying it with lamps that the college provides.

While at Barefoot we also were able to meet and talk with two spirited women from Fiji who shared a little bit about their experience at Barefoot and what they each have gained so far. Below is a short snippet from our interview with them. Our words are italicized. The rest is Sooovata and Sirlio’s responses.

Where are you from?

We’re from Fiji, that’s in the Pacific Ocean. It’s just a small country. It’s a friendly island.

So to make it easy, my husband is Silita’s bigger brother!

So we are so, so lucky that we were chosen from our families to come right to India. It’s a long way. So we are so lucky, so blessed. From many other women, and we are chosen.

First time flying in airplane!

Did you feel your stomach?

Oh yes, yes!

I laughed, I cried. I only dreamed about that, but now my dreams come true!

What has been your favorite experience?

Oh! Day by day. Day by day I experience a lot of things around like relationships with them [other solar mamas]. They’re so friendly. And we’re equal. Teachers and the students, everyone. It’s like putting yourself down to earth.

So we’ve been exposed, like most of them are disabled. Like if you go to rooms and all, you see them there sewing, making handicrafts at this college. But in our countries, disabled people they are kept all at home, or special schools, they are left there. No one cares. But at Barefoot College, it’s something else. It’s amazing! It’s a big experience. I learn more and more, day by day. It’s a source of blessing to me too. So when I go back, I share. It’s the only thing that I can take back from Barefoot College. The love they taught, yeah, I go for love.

On the old campus of Barefoot College, workers including Ramswaroop Ji are hard at work constructing the various educational toys used throughout Barefoot College to teach the students about various scientific aspects which can be difficult to grasp by just reading about them in a textbook. Some of the toys included lessons about vibrations, magnetic fields, and momentum. Also many of the toys are made with recycled parts or various other materials found around Barefoot. The toy makers are a great example of how the disabled are not hidden away, pushed aside like they are throughout most of society. Rather at Barefoot they are part of the community and have worth, knowledge and skills to contribute.

There are 6 total Barefoot puppeteers who travel internationally performing their shows for various audiences. Their shows are able to teach illiterate people about social and political issues, as well as environmental stewardship. Ramniwas Ji in the blue and Sudama Ma Ji in the white are two of the puppeteers who strive to teach people lessons through their shows, but they did not start in this profession. Ramniwas Ji was approached by Bunker Roy to work in communications for Barefoot. Ramniwas Ji didn’t believe that he could because he wasn’t into theater or radio. Bunker Roy asked, what do you do in your village, you’re a communicator, you like to speak, you like to sing! Ramniwas Ji believes Barefoot is “where hobbies become professions”.

Barefoot is also a place where everyone is equal in all senses including caste and gender. Ramniwas Ji, an untouchable, and Sudama Ma Ji who used to a priest, one of the highest people in the caste system, are now friends. They work together, laugh together, and learn from each other. This relationship would not be possible outside of the walls of Barefoot and both men are grateful to know each other and work alongside each other teaching such powerful messages to various communities.

Barefoot College has a radio station on the campus where they broadcast folk songs as well as various podcasts. The station is listened to by the people of Tilonia, the neighboring community. Gheeta is in charge of picking the tracks from the computer and playing them for the community. She was fairly new at the job, but had still learned how to efficiently navigate the computer to find the various tracks. A room was converted to a sound damping station by gluing egg cartons to the walls.

This is just one of the many ways Barefoot implements sustainable practices working with the materials available to them rather than trying to get their hands on scarce metal. The gift shop at the college also uses bags made out of recycled newspapers rather than using the typical plastic shopping bags. Solar cookers are also constructed at Barefoot and can be used to boil water within 20 minutes. The woman who demonstrated the solar cooker for us said, “My love is Barefoot.”

Laxman Ji is the medical pathologist of Barefoot and was also trained while being illiterate. He can perform all of the routine tests such as blood and urine samples, various dermatology tests, and many others to check for diseases or abnormalities in his patients. Unfortunately, we were not able to get much of a story from Laxman Ji but he is serving a critical role for the Barefoot community.

Kushboo is the acupuncturist of Barefoot and we were able to talk with her for a brief moment about her experience and time at the college.

I’m from, my village is near here, 60 km. Far away.

I’m doing acupuncture and medical data fitting.

Were you trained here?

Yeah, Dr. Lelani. She came here for 6 months and trained 10 Barefoot acupuncturists: one working here, me, and nine working in field centers.

I’m born here. My mother working in the crafts section.

What’s your favorite part about Barefoot?

Everything!

Do you love it here?

Yes!

Kesai (on the right) and Boodi (on the left) are the two of the doctors at Barefoot College, specifically the two dentists. Our group was able to hear about Kesai and her story about coming to Barefoot and being trained by Italian doctors for 6 months. Kesai is illiterate and cannot speak English or Italian, so they communicated through a created sign language. Eventually she was able to learn some of the English words common in dentistry such as mirror, plaque, gloves, blood, etc. She has been able to treat over 1500 patients at Barefoot since she first started in 2011. While working as a dentist during the day, she is also a wife and mother in the morning and nights. She is a classic example of the empowerment women experience while at Barefoot. She was able to develop a skill and make a name for herself at the college.

Kesai’s Story:

An Australian working for the government of India doing a geological survey landed at Barefoot. He was given a tour. During his stay, he developed a toothache and did not have time to go to a dentist in the city. He was brought to the Barefoot dentist, Kesai and was treated. He was so impressed with the work that he wanted to pay 500 rupees, but she would only accept 50. He tried multiple times to pay her more, but she always refused. A few days later, he came back and brought her to his helicopter, strapped her in and flew her above the village that she grew up in allowing her to see a completely different view of the place she calls home. Kesai loved the ride and could not stop smiling as she was flown around.

Kesai was so gracious when we asked for her picture for this project even going as far as putting Alison in the dentist chair and staging a picture!

Everyone we encountered at Barefoot were incredibly welcoming and nice, allowing us to interview them and take pictures. This project would not have been possible without their cooperation.

Who are the people of Barefoot College? Where do they come from and what do they hope to gain from their experiences here?

Here we will post pictures of the people we talk to at Barefoot along with a quote or short story from them. These quotes or stories can be whatever they wish to share with us from the culture they came from before the college to what they hope to gain from their experience here. Through these stories we hope to provide some insight into the massive impact this college has on the people who learn here.

The conversations will be documented through video and hopefully translated during the time of the interview. However, some of the translations may need to be done after returning to the United States.

Sample Questions:

How did you find out about Barefoot College and where are you from (village or country)?

What do you plan to do with the knowledge gained here? What do you hope to achieve?

Do you have a favorite tradition or part of your culture that you would like to share with us?

What has been your favorite aspect of Barefoot College? What aspect has had the most impact on you and your life?

How do you stay in touch with your village/family while at Barefoot, if at all?

Do you have a saying or quote that you live by?

First and foremost to conduct this project, our group will need permission from Barefoot College to photograph or video tape the students here. Throughout this project we want to respectful and only talk to people who are willing to share their experiences with us. We plan to record these questions being spoken in the three main languages Hindi, Spanish, and English before we go to Barefoot College. This is so that whatever language the people speak, we will be able to document their responses to the questions and translate them after returning home. We hope through this method none of the stories or quotes will be lost in translation. While at the college, we will be working closely with a Barefoot volunteer who works primarily with talking to the students and learning about their cultures. After returning home, we will compile all of the pictures and stories taken at Barefoot College and post them to this site. Each post will consist of a picture of the particular person or people we talked to accompanied with a quote from them about their experience at Barefoot College. We hope these posts give a more personal outlook on the college. Rather than looking the college as a whole, we are exploring the individuals that make the organization what it is today. The people we talk to will range from young to old, student to teacher to volunteer and we want to talk to as many people as possible while we are there. Hopefully through this project, we can learn more about the demographic of the college as well as the scope of the work done here.