Around 1965, Bunker Roy traveled to the village of Bihar, in eastern India. Roy said he made this journey, “Out of curiosity, to get to know another bit of India.” This trip enormously affected him and what he planned to do with his life. After seeing the poverty and suffering in Bihar, Roy devoted himself to helping out the poor villages of India. 6 years later, he founded Barefoot College in Tilonia, India.

Currently, many men and women with little previous education train at the Barefoot College to become doctors, dentists, health workers, architects, artisans, designers, phone operators, and accountants.

One of the most extraordinary things about the Barefoot College is that they help grandmothers become solar engineers.  As reported by CNN, at Barefoot College grandmothers are learning how to use solar power to bring electricity to their rural villages. Bunker Roy says, “If you ask any solar engineer in the world, ‘Can anyone make these [solar power panels] in a village?’ They say it’s technically impossible. And if I say a grandmother is making it who is illiterate, they can’t believe it, it’s beyond his comprehension.”