John Delurey of Winchester, Mass. spent six months in Zanzibar, Tanzania completing his UACS Capstone Project with Barefoot College, an Indian NGO specializing in women’s empowerment and rural solar electrification. John’s efforts were successful in prompting the initiation of the Barefoot College Vocational Training Center (VTC), the first of its kind in East Africa.
The Barefoot College VTC will transform sixteen rural, uneducated women each year into Barefoot Solar Engineers through a six-month experiential curriculum. These women will return to their village after the training and electrify it using solar energy technology, thereby electrifying eight rural villages each year.
John created a project proposal and feasibility study that will be used to bring this project to fruition. The project proposal includes sections about the project’s background, importance, budget, impact, and feasibility. It also includes an implementation road map that will help key stakeholders continue the implementation of this project.
“John’s exemplary work to bring together the interests of Barefoot College, Government, multilateral organizations and indigenous NGO sector players has ensured a smooth implementation by clearly articulating each stakeholder’s responsibilities and commitments” said Meagan Carnahan Fallone, Head of Global Strategy, Implementation, and Development at Barefoot College.
Zanzibar, a small semi-autonomous island off the coast of Tanzania, is the perfect location for a solar energy training center and will greatly benefit from the program. The training program will create benefits for the individual participants and the sustainable solar electrification that follows will bring about innumerable impacts for the beneficiary communities. The Barefoot College model is designed to ensure sustainability of fiscal, human, and technological resources by training solar engineers from the community who will collect small monthly payments from beneficiaries.
To complete this project, John utilized relationships and language skills that he began accumulating during five months in Zanzibar in 2011 studying natural resource management. Additionally, his previous work for Barefoot College in the Kingdom of Tonga helped inform his work in Zanzibar.
“As our first field presence in both the Pacific and East Africa regions, John’s ability to develop a series of implementation protocols and frameworks has been invaluable,” said Fallone. “His deep commitment to integration within the communities has allowed him an unparalleled advantage to make recommendations that will lead to additional sustainability and self-sufficiency.”
The Capstone Project is the third of three major field projects in the Clinton School curriculum. John will graduate May 2014 after defending his Capstone project to Clinton School faculty.
About Barefoot College
Barefoot College is a non-governmental organization that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities for more than 40 years, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. These ‘Barefoot solutions’ can be broadly categorized into the delivery of Solar Electrification, Clean Water, Education, Livelihood Development, and Activism. With a geographic focus on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), we believe strongly in Empowering Women as agents of sustainable change.
More information about Barefoot College is available at http://www.barefootcollege.org/.
Responses