BBC WORLD NEWS South Asia

Why Poverty?: Solar Mamas

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Why Poverty? Solar Mamas

22/12/2012 GMT

Solar Mamas

Why Poverty?

BBC World News - Why Poverty?, Solar Mamas

One woman's successful struggle to pull herself and her family out of poverty.

Solar Mamas follows three women as they take a life-changing journey to India from their home villages in Africa and the Middle East to learn new skills.

Acclaimed director, Jehane Noujaim chronicles the way in which women from across the world are chosen and taught to become solar engineers by Roy Bunker's Barefoot College in India. Most of them are in their forties and fifties. Only one criterion is applied for entry � candidates must not have had access to formal schooling. After being trained, the grandmothers return to their villages. Their lives are transformed � so are those of the villagers whom they can now help. Roy, named in Time magazine's annual list of 100 most influential people in the world, is outspoken about the Millennium Development Goals calling them and any aid delivered from above - misguided. He says his Barefoot College is the only college built by the poor, for the poor, and for the last 35 years, it has been managed, controlled, and owned by the poor. This film will follow three women as they take a life-changing journey to India from their home villages in Africa and the Middle East. The film will show the incredible personal transformation that the women go through in the process of leaving home for the first time and of acquiring the skills to earn an income and achieving for their communities what others have not.

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A series of films which ask what it means to live in poverty in the 21st Century.

BBC World News will be showing eight unique films made by independent producers from around the world. Each film will highlight different issues and prompt a debate about Why Pover

Why Poverty? is a groundbreaking cross-media event reaching more than 500 million people around the world via television, radio, internet and live events in November 2012. As part of this event, BBC World News will be showing eight unique films made by independent producers from around the world. Each film will highlight different issues and prompt a debate about Why Poverty?

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