BAREFOOT COLLEGE !!!

 

In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men -- many of them illiterate -- to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. It's called the Barefoot College, and its founder, Bunker Roy, explains how it works. 

[ted id=1248]
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang///id/1248

Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy (born 2 August 1945) is an Indian social activist and educator. In 1972 he founded the Barefoot college in Tilonia, Rajasthan. The Indian non-governmental organization was registered as the Social Work and Research Centre. He was selected as one of Time 100, the 100 most influential personalities in the world by TIME Magazine in 2010. In 2002 he was selected for Geneva-based Schwab Foundation's award. Bunker Roy was born in Burnpur Bengal, present-day West Bengal. His father was a mechanical engineer and his mother retired as India's trade commissioner to Russia. He went to the Doon School from 1956 to 1962 and attended St. Stephen's College, Delhi from 1962 to 1967. He earned his master's degree in English. He then decided to devote himself to social service, to the shock of his parents. Bunker Roy, after his education, decided to work in the villages much to the chagrin of his parents. His dream of using traditional expertise rather than "bookish knowledge" for the uplift of neglected communities. He has worked all his life with the Barefoot College, an NGO that he founded. Barefoot College has trained more than 3 million people for jobs in the modern world, in buildings so rudimentary they have dirt floors and no chairs. The rural youth selected by the community have to be impoverished, subsisting on barely one meal a day to receive training at Barefoot college. Roy was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi belief essential for the development of India and his thoughts have been adapted to the work-style of his college. The philosophy of Mao Zedong, and modeled his organization after Mao's Barefoot Doctors. http://www.barefootcollege.org/ http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=Bunker_Roy_06