Barefoot College International About
Barefoot Solutions that let nature and people prosper
Mission + Vision
We aspire to increase economic mobility by making vocational and educational opportunities accessible to women and girls from the most marginalized communities around the world.
Through this mission, Barefoot College International seeks to ensure that every woman and girl has the skills and knowledge she needs to be a catalyst for change for the benefit of herself, her family and her entire community. Upskilling rural women with lucrative entrepreneurial dexterity provides them with greater autonomy and the opportunity to become leaders in their communities. This in turn uplifts women and enables them to become agents of change at the grassroots level.
Our Work
The Barefoot Story
Since 2015, Barefoot College International has been creating lasting change that fosters resilience and adaptability in remote rural communities that are often hit hardest by Climate Change and inequality. We ensure this through our unique women-centric projects which operate in 93 countries around the world. These include our Solar initiatives, livelihoods training, our Enriche curriculum and digital literacy programs.
We provide opportunities for women and girls who are often overlooked, recognizing that they are integral components to solutions for the health of our planet. After completing our programs, we continue to support our trainees, offering them resources that will help them succeed, or purchasing their products directly from them to connect to relevant supply chains and clients.
Solar
It all begins with the Sun… For people and for climate, Solar-powered energy is a bright solution. As a part of our Barefoot Solar education initiative, we train women both on the benefits of solar and how to assemble, install and maintain solar equipment. By training women to become Barefoot Solar Engineers, even if they are illiterate or have no formal education, rural resilience is forged in each village at a time. Solar Mamas come to us from around the world, taking training at regional centres to gain the confidence and knowledge that helps them to grow roots of change in their communities. Their backgrounds are vast, the landscapes bounding and local challenges unique.
Once our Solar Mamas have completed Barefoot College International’s training they return home with the knowledge anOnce women have returned home fully trained, their ability to operate independently comes from the hands-on practice they experience during training. Solar Mamas participate in workshops that help them to explore skill-building exercises that ensure that they’ll be confident each step of the way. This well-rounded, inspirational program helps them grow into confident, motivated agents of change.
ENRICHE Barefoot Women Empowerment
Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. As a McKinsey study highlights, fully closing gender gaps would add $28 trillion to annual GDP by 2025. The Barefoot Enriche program supports women’s aspiration to transform themselves and their communities. It provides them with the opportunity to embark on an empowerment journey; a journey to gain the confidence, skills and knowledge they need to reach their full potential as agents of sustainable change and to support their entrepreneurial aspirations. Enriche is tailored to the aspirations of women and their communities and takes into consideration local needs, opportunities and challenges.
The Barefoot Enriche and Women Wellness programs are paired with every livelihood curriculum that is offered to trainees. Their main function is to train women on entrepreneurial skills, which ensures practical knowledge tailored to and relevant to each trainee taught. Barefoot Enriche covers the following 8 key areas of impact: self-awareness, women’s health, financial inclusion, digital literacy, environmental stewardship, human rights, micro-enterprise and livelihood skills.
Agricultural Livelihoods
Food is not a commodity. It is a livelihood for the farmer and a necessity for everyone else.
Acknowledging the challenges of climate change, we envision soil-based livelihoods that generate resilience and dignified wages for small landholding farmers using Regenerative Agriculture, Permaculture Principles and Agroecology built systems to sustain life and care for land.
Once we understand the farming communities’ sustainable capacity for output, our team will facilitate market linkages. Through initial handholding workshops, the community elects members with salesmanship to manage and establish income sources. This new community-owned supply chain is how we facilitate sales on a village, regional, national or export level.
Board Members
Tracey Balch
Barefoot College International Board
Tracey Balch
Tracey Margaret Balch, RGN RSCN, is Director of the Barefoot College International UK Board.
She developed a global worldview and fervent support for education from an early age. Tracey volunteered at The Mother House, Destitute and Dying homes and orphanages for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, during holidays from school. During her time there she spent an evening with Mother Teresa discussing various paths and opportunities offered in India. Mother Teresa encouraged Tracey to continue her education and obtain her nursing qualifications. “This would be a skill that is beneficial and needed and life will go full cycle and you will return. Life has a way of working out if it is meant to be,” Balch recalls Mother Teresa saying to her. Tracey followed that advice.
Next Tracey trained at the Hospital for Sick Children in London with a specialization in cardiac surgery, intensive care and heart and lung transplants. Her career path led her to posts as director for several organizations, including Cobham Hall in the UK for 10 years. Before joining the board of Barefoot College International-U.K., Tracey served on Aiglon College Parents Ambassador Council and as a trustee and on the Executive Board of Round Square. She is a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society and the RSA in addition to being a member of the Royal Academy.
Shevaun Haviland
Barefoot College International Board
Shevaun Haviland
Shevaun joined the Government in 2016 as Deputy Director of Business Partnerships for the Cabinet Office. She now also runs the Inclusive Economy Partnership for HMG.
Shevaun started her career in consultancy in London and New York. She then moved to the Walt Disney Company in strategic planning before joining Disneyland Paris, opening the second theme park. Shevaun then joined the agency world running global accounts for Millward Brown, Mindshare and WPP. Following this, she became a partner in a start-up digital innovation agency and venture builder, Independents United, where she also became an Advisor for the Danson Foundation. Most recently, Shevaun was the New Ventures Director for Avado, building new businesses in Edtech and founding the Academy of Digital Business Leaders. Shevaun is a social impact investor and sits on the Ventures Advisory Board of UnLtd, a social enterprise foundation.
Dr Marion Gluck
Barefoot College International Board
Dr Marion Gluck
Dr Marion Gluck is one of the world’s leading practitioners of bio-identical hormone therapy (BHRT), and author of the book ‘It Must Be My Hormones’, with a highly acclaimed medical career spanning more than 30 years. She has long been a champion of women’s rights and supporter of Barefoot College and now sits as a board member for the charity.
Since founding the UK’s first clinic for BHRT, The Marion Gluck Clinic, Dr Gluck has spent her professional career and much of her personal life helping to better the health of women and has received global recognition for her work.
Reproductive and hormonal health are at the centre of Marion’s work and she is therefore ideally placed to help Barefoot College achieve our many goals for women in the developing world.
Tamara Jacobs
Tamara Jacobs
Tamara is a Content Strategist for Reuters Plus – Reuters in-house custom content studio. She joined the Board of Barefoot College in early 2020 and is passionate about female empowerment in the UK and around the world.
Nicola Keane
UK Administration
Nicola Keane
Nicola has been a supporter of the Barefoot cause for many years and has joined the Barefoot College International UK to manage activity. She has a degree from Cambridge University, an early career in the City, and in recent times, an eclectic portfolio of roles in coaching, editing and arts administration. She is a passionate believer in the Barefoot concept of empowering women to bring about change in their own communities