Published
Sunday Mar 11

Following their recent graduation, our Women Solar Engineers (Class of Winter 2018), originating from 14 countries, were invited by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to open their Founding Ceremony at the president’s house in New Delhi. During the ceremony, their testimonials warranted the attention of the assembly, emerging as paragons of innovative and sustainable practices.

Prime Minister Modi and French President, Emmanuel Macron have been the main figureheads of ISA; a treaty-based international and intergovernmental alliance of solar resource-rich countries. The countries concerned are ideal for abundant acquisition of solar energy, given their extensive and reliable daily exposure to sunlight. 

During the conference, our CEO Meagan Fallone mediated a discussion covering decentralized solar technology, women participation and energy access to last-mile communities. Several energy ministers from pacific island nations regretted that their PMs could not make the conference due to climate-related catastrophes in their nation homes. “Cyclone Gita destroyed our forests, food trees, and a lot of crops, but most importantly it caused intense damage to the electricity systems of the country. Electricity was totally shut down for seven days.” said Hon. Semisi Fakahau, a cabinet minister from Tonga. Semisi went on to explain that the energy systems which prevailed were mainly solar. He concluded that solar panels installed on roofs were either temporarily removed during the storm or installed on reinforced roofing. Such topics were explored during the training of four Tonga mothers, who have installed 300 solar home-lighting systems.

The role of women is very important. We have a sample from one of the islands- they installed panels on almost every household- they trained young men on how to maintain these kits. Unfortunately, those young men are very mobile, when things break down they are not around to fix it. It’s more important to women in the communities, in particular the ones with young children, because they are always around in the village, ready to help and play a role in their communities. – Hon. Semisi Fakahau, Min of Tonga

In Papua New Guinea, the minister of energy Sam Basil (who also apologized for the absence of his PM due to a 6.8 magnitude earthquake tormenting his home land), mentioned the country had always been “parked on petroleum” but that in the last four months since he has started working, they have already begun passing new policies that would “encourage renewables”. A long-awaited response from a country where diesel fuel constitutes 52% of energy and solar a meager 0.1%. “We’re ready to work very closely with ISA to open technical and vocational schools and want to ensure the gender-ratio of these schools be 50-50.” said Sam in response to Meagan’s questioning.

In the last two years, Barefoot College has already graduated 16 Papuan mothers and shipped over $60,000 worth of solar equipment to the Pacific Island nation. In fact, Barefoot College has already implemented solar solutions to  51 of 60 countries who have signed the ISA framework agreement.

Our solar mamas didn’t wait for us. They started to act to deliver concrete results. They didn’t wait and they didn’t stop because some countries decided to leave the floor and the Paris Agreement. Because they decided it is good for them, their children, grandchildren – they decided to act and keep acting. That’s why we are here in order to act very concretely.” – President of France, Emmanuel Macron

It has nearly been 15 years since we started training solar mamas at our campus in Tilonia, Rajasthan. We have never stopped innovating, through the help of CSR funders. Our college improved its 6-month solar training curriculum to include weekly workshops in women’s health, financial literacy, climate change awareness, nutrition and livelihood programs that cater to the developmental needs of our rural women and their communities.

I know how to build solar lamps. I even know how to install solar panels. This training is going to improve my village and teach my sisters to also become Solar Mamas. It’s going to change a lot of things; we can power fridges for selling cold juice and light our homes so our children can study, as right now we only have torches. – Rafa Marina, Ivory Coast Solar Mama

Although there was some talk about the importance of female participation during the conference, it was hard to ignore the fact that every panelist was almost exclusively male. We do share an aligned commitment with ISA to create a space for innovation and evoke a sense of energy around policy, finance and community engagement. It is for this reason that Meagan Fallone, along with her diverse team of Solar Mamas from 92 developing nations agree to support ISA in accelerating solar solutions for the preservation of our environment and the dignity of rural people, contingent on efforts to increase female representation.

For more information on the Barefoot College Solar Training program please contact Sue Stevenson, our global partnership strategist at sue.stevenson@barefootcollege.org

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