Thursday, January 28, 2010

The First Rural Women Heroes of Tombouctou

The following story should give us some hints
about how we might help Haiti and ourselves.


The First Rural Women Heroes of Tombouctou

This film about two illiterate women who are ordinary but did extraordinary work for their villages. Two women came to India (Tilonia-Rajasthan), learned about solar energy, and went back to Tombouctou(Mali-Africa) with confidence and solar electrified their whole village thus becoming the women heroes not only in their village but also in Mali country.




Established in 1972, the Barefoot College is a non-government organisation that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. These ‘Barefoot solutions’ can be broadly categorised into solar energy, water, education, health care, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development.

The College believes that for any rural development activity to be successful and sustainable, it must be based in the village as well as managed and owned by those whom it serves. Therefore, all Barefoot initiatives whether social, political or economic, are planned and implemented by a network of rural men and women who are known as ‘Barefoot Professionals’.

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