Sep 16, 2008 7:30 pm US/Eastern
Women's Lives Light Up In Most Remote Of Places
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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These women in India have learned how to make and service solar panels and other solar energy equipment.
CBS
In a remote corner of the world, a rare and unique college literally is bringing light to some of the darkest corners of the globe--transforming the planet and the life one South Florida professor.
"It's not just bringing light in the village. It's bringing light to dreams," said Dr. Leilani Baumanis.
"And it sparked a new dream in you?" asked
CBS4 Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen.
"It did. It did," replied Baumanis.
Armed with three Doctorates in business studies, this Weston mom found herself on a long distance journey
"You've got a fabulous life here, and you found yourself on a plane to where?" asked Gillen.
"To India," replied a smiling Baumanis.
There she found the unimaginable.
"In six months time, you become a solar panel engineer," she said.
The students are impoverished women from around the world who can't read or write.
"They choose the poorest of the poor. They choose the most unfortunate of the unfortunate women, and they bring them there and they teach them the skill," said Baumanis.
They learn skills such as creating and manipulating solar panel systems that can spark fire to cook food.
"And they set it up in their village, and then they solar-electrify their villages, and you're talking villages like Timbuktu."
It's revolutionary technology they bring back to villages that never before had power.
The Barefoot College, as it is called, is funded by a consortium of foundations, and the campus has run on solar power since 1987. Many of the women who participate have never been out of their villages before, much less been on an airplane. For more info click on
Barefootcollege.org
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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