大象传媒

Solar Mamas follows the remarkable story of Rafea, a mother-of-four from Jordan who challenges the status quo of her traditional marriage by travelling to India to train as a solar engineer for six months. Along with 27 other mothers and grandmothers from poor communities around the world - many of whom are illiterate - she will learn the skills needed to bring electricity and light back to her village.

For Rafea, it is a life changing journey. As the second wife of a Bedouin living in a remote part of the Jordanian desert, she has had limited opportunities in life. Now she has been selected to attend the Barefoot College in India run by the inimitable Roy Bunker. Alongside women from Kenya, Burkina Faso and Colombia and across cultural and language divides, Rafea needs to get to grips with electrical components, circuit boards and soldering. Her new knowledge will see her do things she never imagined, but it will also have an unanticipated effect on her relationship with her patriarchal husband.

Addressing themes of education, gender equality, environmental sustainability and development, the documentary takes an inspiring and compelling look at poverty - and the ways women around the world are working to pull themselves out of the poverty trap.

A 大象传媒 Storyville film, produced in partnership with the Open University, it screens as part of Why Poverty? - when the 大象传媒 and the OU, in conjunction with more than 70 broadcasters around the world, hosts a debate about contemporary poverty.