Profit Share
Profit Share: Supporting the Barefoot College Solar Engineer Program
In 2017, 11% of the annual profits from Ishkara Regenerating Complex sales will be donated to the Barefoot College Solar Engineer Program.
This program trains mature women from 43 of the least-developed countries in the world to take the gift of solar power back to their rural villages.
Barefoot College is based in the village of Tilonia, Rajasthan, India, and is a registered U.S. 501(c)(3), tax-exempt, nonprofit organization.
About Barefoot College
Barefoot College was founded in the 1970s by Bunker (Sanjit) Roy, who was educated at Delhi’s renowned St Stephen’s College and profoundly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings of social justice and nonviolence.
The solar program at Barefoot College began in the 1990s to provide access to electricity in the remote and isolated parts of India.
As the program developed, women from tribal and remote parts of the world were able to go to Tilonia and receive six months of training to become solar engineers for their villages. In the last decade, the Barefoot College solar engineer training has gone global and is being replicated in developing countries around the world.
Over 45,000 homes in 81 countries in the Global South (Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America) have been electrified by Barefoot College solar engineers, bringing domestic lighting to over 350,000 people.
The reality of sustainably derived solar power, where there has been no access to electricity, is in itself a wonder. But the sense of empowerment, self-determination and community-connectedness that women receive through gaining vital technical skills is an even deeper miracle of social change.
Read more about Barefoot College
