Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday interacted here with a group of 30 ‘Solar Mamas’, women from Tanzania and a few other African countries trained in harnessing solar energy under the Indian Government programmes.
“Celebrating the Solar Mamas! PM interacts with women trained in vocational skills under India’s development support,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.
When Modi asked one of the women how long she had been working on solar projects, she said she had been doing so for nine years.
With the support of the Indian Government, the Barefoot College at Tilonia in Ajmer, Rajasthan, has been promoting and training rural women solar engineers, called ‘Solar Mamas’, from various developing countries, including African nations.
The college is promoting and training these women in fabrication, installation, use, repair and maintenance of solar lanterns and household solar lighting system under programmes supported by the Indian Government.
Barefoot women’s vocational training colleges have been set up in Zanzibar Island of Tanzania and some other countries in Africa for imparting solar electrification skills and distributing solar kits.
These colleges also support various entrepreneurial skills such as bee-keeping and tailoring.
In Sunday’s interaction, the women demonstrated their honey-extraction and stitching practices and sung civil rights anthem, “We shall overcome”.
The presentation was also attended by Tanazanian Deputy Foreign Minister Susan A Kolimba and Zanzibar Minister of land, Housing, Water and Energy Salama Aboud Talib.