Responsible for Barefoot College International, Meagan Fallone is currently steering the establishment of a further 6 Barefoot College Vocational Training Centres throughout Sub Saharan Africa, Latin America and SE Asia/Pacific; to triple the size of the Barefoot College by 2018. In addition, she is leading a significant move by the organisation towards digital integration both within the organisation and, in the hands of the thousands of rural poor illiterate and semi-literate women the college trains throughout the developing world. Her Indian based team of ‘Barefoot Innovators’ have developed and deployed a digital M&E platform to track QoL, empowerment, financial and sustainability impact within the program areas of the Barefoot College by leveraging a design centric strategy grounded in the inclusion of grass roots women, throughout its design and implementation. The Barefoot College helped develop innovative public, private and technology partnerships to allow 40 years of grassroots innovation to scale through the support of technology. The ‘Barefoot Approach’ focuses on Water management, Renewable Solar Energy, Livelihood & Enterprise creation and a unique solution to Rural Education for rural children that has today educated more than 75,000 young people. This dedication to creating information sharing across literacy, language, cultural barriers in true South/ South cooperation, is at the heart of the Barefoot College strategic vision. Ms Fallone advocates in all high level global forums for the Barefoot Approach through creation of Governmental and Multilateral partnerships. Since joining Bunker Roy in 2011 to scale the Women’s Barefoot Solar Initiative of community based, self-reliant and sustainable Solar Electrification, she has been a field presence in more than 52 countries since joining Barefoot College and currently guides field implementation and partnerships in 72 Countries. At the heart of curating an international curriculum designed with and for Illiterate and semi-literate poor rural women which empowers them towards enterprise activities and amplifies their agency and aspirations, she and her team have successfully crafted partnerships with UN Women, UNESCO, UNDP and many large Philanthropic Foundations. Since joining the leadership team at Barefoot College she has accomplished a challenging and deep organisational shift from a grass roots, India centred entity to a vibrant globally operating organisation, innovating towards the future.

Sanjit “Bunker” Roy is an Indian social activist and educator who founded the Barefoot College. He was selected as one of Time 100’s most influential personalities in 2010 for his work in educating illiterate and semi-literate rural Indians. Bunker Roy’s “real” education started after being educated in Doon School (1956-1962) and St Stephens College (1962-1967). He dug open wells for drinking water as an unskilled labourer for 5 years (1967-1971) and was Indian National Squash Champion in 1965, 1968 and 1971. Bunker Roy started the Barefoot College in 1972, which follows the life style and work style of Mahatma Gandhi. The demystified and decentralised community based Barefoot Model has been implemented in over 76 of the Least Developed Countries. A total of 40,000 houses in over 1,000 villages have been solar electrified by over 700 illiterate rural grandmothers. They are trained in 6 months as solar engineers using only sign language, the written and spoken word is not used. Bunker Roy gave a TED talk at TED Global in Edinburgh in October 2011, which has been watched by over 3.5 million viewers and translated into 45 languages.