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Sep 7, 2007

"Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and then we'll need no other light." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A Village Transformed By Light

In Gudda, a village with very little, residents are literally beaming. Just two years ago, villagers had never seen light after dark, unless it came from the moon. Then, solar light arrived and changed everything. There are no real roads that lead to this tiny village in Rajasthan that houses about 100 families. There is no electricity -- power lines don't extend out here. Water is scarce, too. That's why light transformed Gudda. Villagers could play music at night. Children could study well past sundown. Hanuman Ram, the man credited with the transformation, doesn't have a high school degree. But he did attend an institution about an hour away called Barefoot College, established 35 years ago with an emphasis on helping India's rural population find solutions for their problems among themselves.