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Can Grandmothers Change The World?

Can Grandmothers Change The World?

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode Disruptive Leadership.

About Bunker Roy's TED Talk

Bunker Roy shares stories from a school in India that equips rural women for leadership by training them to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors.

People find something in themselves that they never thought they had. And then go back to the communities they are from and show what they learned — that's how leaders are born.

About Bunker Roy

In 1972, Sanjit "Bunker" Roy founded the Barefoot College, in Rajasthan, India, with one mission: to provide basic services in rural communities to make them self-sufficient. These "barefoot solutions" include solar energy, water, education, health care, women's empowerment and wasteland development.

The Barefoot College teaches literacy and skills through learning-by-doing. Bunker's organization has also trained grandmothers from Africa and the Himalayan region to be solar engineers so they can bring electricity to their remote villages.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR/TED Staff