Our first latin american training centre opens doors
After many meticulous years in the making, our Guatemalan training centre became fully operational in May 2022. It has enabled us to decentralize our solar engineering, Enriche and livelihood training curriculums. In June 2022, the centre facilitated its first Enriche training workshops and in October, the first solar trainee cohort of 10 women began. The centre can host up to 20 trainees at a time and 10 staff members and plans to host visitors in on-site eco-homes in the near future.
Nestled deep in the mountainous cloud forests of Batzul, Chajul region, its remote location allows us to offer our programs to women living in less accessible communities across the area. In addition to dormitories, the campus includes multiple classrooms and a fully operational kitchen and cafeteria.
The campus has also begun implementing regenerative farming and permaculture practises on-site, with the goal to achieve a greater level of self-sufficiency, beneficial nutritional meals for trainees and staff and an organic legacy. With ample gardening space, plenty of rain and sunshine and near-pristine soils, the campus is exceptional for growing vegetables, herbs, and fruit trees and raising chickens.
In December 2022, the first cohort of solar engineer trainees graduated, going on to solar electrify 82 houses in some of the most remote villages of the country that had little or no access to grid electricity.
Supporting rural livelihoods of women in GUATEMALA
Rural women in Guatemala represent 25% of the country’s population and the majority are part of one of the 24 indigenous groups of Guatemala, including Maya, Garífuna and Xinca; contributing to an incomparable cultural diversity. Nevertheless, these women suffer scarcity, discrimination, and lack of resources and opportunities. Barefoot College International has always seen rural women as the leaders in the ecological and social transformation of our society.
In Guatemala, we implement different initiatives to support rural women’s livelihoods:
Barefoot College International’s flagship program, our solar engineering training and subsequent solar electrification of isolated communities, from which 42 women were trained as solar engineers and 67 communities have already benefited until today.
The introduction of our Enriche program as an overarching tool for women's empowerment, including 7 different relevant topics.
Our agroecology and fair wages livelihoods curriculum for women farmers, targeting specific food products, like our coffee livelihoods program in the Ixil region of Quiché, turmeric in Zona Reina and coming soon: cacao in the Polochic Valley.
Technology Transfer, Enterprise & Empowerment
Appropriate technology transfer allows women to take initiative, to be empowered in their own communities and to get short and long-term results that will benefit the whole community. We use appropriate technology as defined by E.F. Schumacher and aligned with Gandhi’s values, meaning a technology adapted to the social, cultural, environmental and economic context of rural communities. It’s a hands-on approach that enables illiterate and semi-literate women to install and maintain them in a self-sufficient manner. This not only brings light to communities plunged into darkness but brings value, recognition and livelihoods to the women solar engineers for many decades to come.
This process goes beyond technology transfer- it is an empowerment tool. The students gain knowledge from what others have previously done and foster self-confidence in their ability to achieve great things themselves. They acquire new and enriching experiences, they feel inspired to take initiative, to share their opinion and take part in decision-making. This is a complex and very rewarding process.
It is clear that women's empowerment and gender equality are not only human rights matters but society as a whole matters; the UN sees it as the path to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).
Barefoot’s initiatives in Guatemala address an impressive 10 of 17 SDGs, through the implementation of our different programs.
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