Barefoot College
Website: http://barefootcollege.org
Description: Training that addresses problems of drinking water, girl's education, health and sanitation, rural unemployment, as well as social awareness and the conservation of the organizations that already exist in the villages whose wisdom, knowledge and skills are neither identified, mobilized nor applied just because they do not have an educational qualification.The Barefoot College is a place of learning and unlearning. It's a place where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher. Founded in 1972.
Why: The belief of the Barefoot College is that development programmes do NOT need urban-based professionals because para-professionals already exist in the villages whose wisdom, knowledge and skills are neither identified, mobilized nor applied just because they do not have an educational qualification. This belief was put into practice 33 years ago in all the development programme dealing with improving the quality of life. How? First, by having faith in the capacity and competence of any poor rural community anywhere in the world that the community has members who have the knowledge, the skills, the wisdom and the faith to identify and solve their own problems. Second, by creating an environment and a situation where these skills and knowledge can be applied for the community's own development. Third, by informal, non-structured, on-the-job practical training until such time as the person has acquired the confidence, the competence and the capacity to provide the service without any help from outside.
Fourth, by choosing an area which is remote, inaccessible and very difficult physically to reach so that there is peace, mental space and non-interference from so-called experts who are dying to make sure that you fail.
Availability Limits: Program works best in impoverished, rural, illiterate communities
Implementation Effort: Advanced
Audience: Individuals, Communities, Education, Industry
