Solar Installations completed in remote Guatemalan villages

82 additional remote rural homes were successfully solar electrified by our 10 newest women solar engineers in January and February of 2023. The selected communities were not likely to have access to grid electricity for over a decade due to their poor infrastructure or inaccessibility. Renewable energy is the best solution to their lack of electricity access and allows them to bypass fossil fuels altogether and achieve greater autonomy. With good, consistent amounts of sunlight, solar home lighting systems allow families to enjoy bright light throughout the evenings, enabling them to cook, study and focus on additional livelihoods when before they would be in near-total darkness.

Operating successfully since May 2022, our first Latin American training centre has allowed us to decentralize our training programs and blend them into locally relevant contexts. Our centre has already trained one cohort of 16 women in our Enriche curriculum and an additional 10 women in our solar engineering curriculum.

Barefoot College International trains opportunity-seeking women from rural villages to become solar engineers. In partnership with local and national organizations, the Barefoot team establishes relationships with village elders, who help identify trainees and implement community support. 

Trainees are often illiterate or semi-literate grandmothers who maintain strong roots in their villages and play a major role in community development, bringing sustainable electricity to remote, inaccessible villages. Solar electrification reduces the risk of indoor fires, slows the negative impacts of deforestation and decreases indoor air pollution from burning firewood and kerosene.

HELPING COMMUNITIES TO ADDRESS AN URGENT NEED FOR CLEAN LIGHT

Globally, at least 1.6 billion people do not have access to electricity. More than 75% of those people are located in rural areas and are often indigenous and tribal groups who are cut off from grid power (due to cost or remote location) and without access to centralized development efforts implemented “top-down” by governments and multilaterals. In every region, women suffer under the harshest conditions of poverty. In such conditions, there is less opportunity for them to realize their full potential within their families and communities or play a substantial role in community decision-making; their ability to be effective environmental stewards is rarely developed. 

Barefoot College LATIN AMERICA

Since 2014, Barefoot College Latin America has been working in multiple partnerships to offer social enterprise and livelihood opportunities to women and provide them with the tools and supplies necessary for them to thrive.

Partnered with local organizations, we identify off-grid unelectrified, preferably indigenous, last-mile communities who are interested in Barefoot College International’s initiatives. We work together with these communities to establish solar committees and select eligible women based on our criteria: between the ages of 19-69, illiterate or semi-literate, with minimal or no formal education, and with a desire to change their communities for the better. These brave women then become our “Women Solar Engineers”, making the long journey from their villages to our campus, to enrol with us and embark on a learning journey that lasts about 3 months. Their room and board are fully included, enabling them to completely immerse themselves in our locally tailored programs.

Despite the complex nature of solar engineering, the Barefoot methodology is uniquely tailored for women without traditional education- some who have never stepped foot inside a classroom. Through a system of colour coding, repetition, hands-on learning, and support from Solar Master Trainers with similar rural backgrounds, every woman is able to champion the skills. There are no shortcuts- the trainees can successfully calculate resistance, fabricate circuits, assemble full systems and lanterns, and install and maintain them themselves. They are fully equipped with the skills to bring sustainable energy to their remote communities, and keep the lights on for years to come. 

With our Barefoot College Vocational Training Center in Guatemala fully operational, women solar engineers are learning the same solar skills without the challenge of travelling to and living in a foreign context. Latin American women will learn in their own language and in a familiar context, accelerating their program and expanding opportunities for further livelihood and skills development.

This gallery features some moments of our Women Solar Engineers in action, solar electrifying rural villages in Guatemala. These women have strong family values and they work within their communities to work out solutions autonomously, helping the ones they love the most.