African women training to become solar engineers at Barefoot College, Tilonia. Picture by Rakhee Roy Talukdar

Tilonia (Ajmer), Oct. 26: Bella and Francisca find the Indian sun a bit too hot and the chapati and dal too repetitive, but not enough to dampen their zeal to become solar engineers who would carry back light and hope to their remote villages in Africa.

Bella from Kenya and Francisca from Cameroon are two of 20 almost illiterate African women who are learning to assemble solar lamps here.

After six months of hands-on training, they will return home to install solar units in their villages, lighting them up for the first time. Just south of the Sahara, as few as 2 per cent of the villages have access to electricity.

“Most villagers are very poor. Everybody has to buy costly paraffin to light lamps at night,” Bella, 45, from Suba village, said. “But when we go back and install these solar units, lighting up homes, naturally it will be a great achievement for us and our village.”

These women from countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Niger, Cameroon and Mauritania are part of a programme begun four years ago by Barefoot College in Tilonia, about 100km from Jaipur. The NGO, which has taught many rural Indian women to make and install solar lamps, has also trained 116 solar engineers from 15 African countries.

Bella’s batch, which has been here for a month, will be trained for five more months and learn about charge controllers, inverters, core-winding, deciphering of printed circuit boards, testing, wiring, installation and repair and maintenance of solar panels.

Francisca and Bella are the only ones who can speak English a little. The rest cannot even understand English, so the trainers are depending on rudimentary sign language and practical demonstration.

Ganpat, a trainer, said: “Since they know absolutely nothing about electrical fittings or wiring, the first month goes by in making them grasp the basics. But since all of them know they are working for a better future and are willing learners, they go back fully trained after six months.”

The women are usually aged between 35 and 60. They are chosen on the basis of their leadership qualities and willingness to learn, with their whole villages involved in the selection.

“Yes, my family is proud that I was picked out of the lot,” Bella said. “None from my family has ever been out of the village. I’m the first to go out… and that too as far as India. It’s an honour.”

The women have to sign a contract saying they would maintain and repair their village solar units for five years.

Fatimetou, 35, of Mauritania said: “We see that Indian villages have electricity and many other facilities. We like India and its warm people. Only the food like dal, chapati, sabzi everyday is boring and the weather is quite hot but it will not deter us.”

Some like Francisca are learning computers in their free time after the 8.30am-to-5.30pm training. Probably for the first time in their lives, they are leading an independent life.

Bunker Roy, founder of Barefoot College, said: “They come as women but go back as tigers, oozing with confidence.”

These Barefoot women solar engineers from Africa have been selected as finalists in the BBC World Challenge 09, a global competition aimed at finding projects that involve innovation at the grass roots and are making a difference to the lives of people.

Voting started on September 28 and will end on November 13. The winners will be announced on December 5.