Rafea, a Solar Mama

This video is a sequel to Barefoot College’s film about African and other illiterate women who are trained to become solar-energy engineers. Yes, it’s possible! This story about a Jordanian “Solar Mama” is truly extraordinary and uplifting. 

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Fourteen Years of Helping People in India

The Good Times has already reported on the sustained efforts of Friends of India, but more good news has ensued from the non-profit charity. Despite hard times, an anonymous donation of 100,000 Swiss francs is helping the organization achieve its goals. What are Friends of India’s achievements? Through the Richard Walsh Music Project, for example, Friends […]

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New Light

Urmi Basu is a woman from India who is making a difference. She founded New Light, a non-profit organization in Kolkata, whose mission is to “promote gender equality through education and life-skill training, thereby reduce harm caused by violence and abuse to women and young children.” New Light describes itself on its website as a “community development […]

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Solar Mamas

Bunker Roy is truly a visionary. He’s the now well-known founder of Barefoot College in Tilonia, India. Recently The Good Times had the privilege to meet Bunker and hear about one of his new ideas: Solar Mamas. The initiative provides grandmothers from Africa with training in solar engineering. The women who are sent to Barefoot College for six months to […]

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Putting People First

India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) guarantees 100 days of local infrastructure-related work every year to rural households whose adult members volunteer to perform unskilled manual labor. Reflecting both its success and neediness among rural populations, MGNREGS was accessed by 55.7 million households across India in 2010–11. If the local government institution […]

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Summer Peace in Kashmir

It’s summertime in Kashmir Valley, and tourists are returning to savor a rare season of peace after years of insurgency and domestic unrest. Gulmarg in the Valley is emerging as one of India’s favorite ski spots, attracting overseas tourists too with its rock-bottom prices and the creation of much-needed jobs. Let’s hope this summer’s peace will […]

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Keeping Sanskrit Alive

A Sanskrit newspaper in a small south Indian town is trying to keep the classical Indian language alive. Like Latin, Sanskrit is now primarily a liturgical language, but boasts a wealth of ancient Hindu and Buddhist texts originally written in Sanskrit. Sudharma, “good faith” in Sanskrit, is the only Sanskrit-language daily that reports global news. It sells […]

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India Will Shine Again

By Pankaj Adhikari With the Indian rupee over the past few months continuing its losing streak against the dollar, and foreign investors leaving Indian shores, sentiments about the Indian economy are gloomy and bleak. A world renowned economist, our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has taken over the finance portfolio. There is no reason whatsoever to […]

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Waging a War against Educational Inequality

By Pankaj Adhikari, Amarkantak (Madhya Pradesh) – This story is about a doctor in central India. He is fighting a lone war against government apathy and bureaucratic bungling to raise funds for a school for tribal girls in a remote village called Pondki in Madhya Pradesh. He is badly in need of funds for the […]

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Building Bridges between Asian Cultures through Painting

By Pankaj Adhikari  BEIJING (June 4, 2012) – This is the story of a Bengali in Beijing, of the searingly intense personality of a creative artist whose enthusiasm for Potunghua (Mandarin) borders on passion. His extraordinary tale is filled with scholarly eccentricities, wit, humor and a deep love for everything Chinese. Meet Amitava Bhattacharyya. Armed […]

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