‘Only 300 solar power engineers live in the whole of Africa – and they’re grandmothers,’ insists Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy with all seriousness. ‘People will say this is nonsense, but there is not one solar engineer in any of the 28 African countries I have been to who comes from a village and stays in that village. They all live in cities abroad. The only ones left are the grandmothers we’ve trained.’
The Indian social activist and founder of the Barefoot College is determined to help poor rural communities gain access to light. He says electricity is the biggest expense for families in remote areas and the only solution is to solar-electrify villages – with the help of grandmothers.
