After we have all been sizzling in boiling temperatures this week, it got me thinking back to a visit I made to an amazing place called The Barefoot College at Tilona in Rajasthan. My friend Carole and I were lucky enough to visit this extraordinary place that has created roles for many disadvantaged and displaced people, especially women.
One of the projects we were shown was a ladies cooperative that created solar cookers using mirrors, a satellite-dish shaped metal frame and a concrete weight. Constructed in such a way that you could adjust the mirrors or the weights to focus the suns rays to create a fire in a metal box to cook their meals or daily rice. This saves the need to gather wood or spend money on gas. The ladies fabricate everything themselves from forming the metalwork, casting the concrete weights to mirror construction and mounting. Empowered by the college community, they now have they own small company and are financially independent as women.
So whilst the sun can cause hugely destructive wild fires, sometimes the same power harnessed in a different way is a useful source of real empowerment!
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