Barefoot College women bring solar power to Sierra Leone
Summary of story from The Guardian, August 17, 2011
Sierra Leone’s fragile infrastructure was virtually wiped out in a decade-long civil war that ended in 2002.
About 3.6 million people live in rural areas with virtually no power, and even in urban areas only about 10 per cent have access to electricity. Few can afford generators.
But a small group of 12 local women have recently been taught – in their words – “how to make light from the sun”.
The women used to be subsistence farmers, living day-to-day like millions in Sierra Leone., but they were sponsored to go to the Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India, to a four-month residential course in solar engineering.
Now they are back home in Sierra Leone and busy assembling 1,500 household solar units at a new Barefoot College in Konta Line village, Port Loko district, which is to be formally opened next month.
“The idea of solar was so surprising that I had to be a part of it,” says Mary Dawo, from Romakeneh village.
“Snakes, rodents, reptiles and biting insects crept and crawled into our homes with the dark at 7pm. Children couldn’t study, and we couldn’t relax, socialise or plan our lives after a long day’s work,” says Fatmata Koroma, from Mambioma village.
The government of Sierra Leone has invested about $820,000 in the project, but now the ‘Barefoot women’ are thinking about the future, and the need for an investor to manufacture solar units, to make them affordable for everyone.
Does WVoN know of any microloan sites or organisations or any other that may be able to channel donations towards projects such as these?