“Solar Mamas”; a Screening and Panel Discussion in Round Rock from PBS’s nationwide Community Cinema Program

The Round Rock Public Library is hosting in conjunction with a screening of
the documentary ‘Solar Mamas,’ from the PBS series Independent Lens. The
film tells the story of Rafea, a 30-year-old Bedouin woman who leaves her small
Jordanian village for the first time to go to the Barefoot College in India to
train to become a solar-energy engineer. The Barefoot College was founded by
Bunker Roy to provide knowledge and training to the rural poor to empower them
to make their communities self-reliant and sustainable. Students at the school
include women from Kenya, Burkina Faso, Columbia, and Guatemala. The film is
about solar energy, economic development and education, as well as the
empowerment of women worldwide who become solar engineers. The film is about
how education of a few women and solar energy can change the lives of entire
villages.

The screening and panel discussion will take place at the library on November 29
at 7:00 PM, as part of the nationwide PBS Community Cinema Program.
There will be a panel of local speakers from community organizations to
address the issues raised in the film, and to talk about the work the are doing.

More about the PBS Community Cinema Program:
As one of the national partners in PBS’s Community Cinema Program, the Round
Rock Library presents free monthly screenings of upcoming documentary films from
PBS’s Independent Lens series. An important goal of these screenings is to
make our audience aware of organizations and resources relating to the important
social issues raised by each film, and to connect people with opportunities to
get involved on the local level.
A preview of ‘Solar Mamas’ is available at the Community Cinema website:
http://www.itvs.org/films/solar-mamas