suppor a he tho to clean upur mess. we whome. you hyl sale time and ain theessage ula at theottom of e x weend. uutleanpne word clea. concor ss sendco. toend it. to sevenine sevenine sevegive you informaon allhe

formatio. we thankou for yr pport

narrarator: on ththis episodedef "eaarth focus"... the e race to transition to sustainable solar powower is underway. in zanzibar, rural women are learning solar skills, bucking a tradition of entrenched gender roles, empowering their communities in the process, while i in southernrn californi, it's genererating the e growth f grgreen jobs s and winning over skeptics. [filmlm advance clicking]

announcer: "earth focus" is made possible in part by the orange county community foundation and the farvue foundation. [indistinct shouting] [woman shouting in native language] [speaking native language] [people speaking native language] [woman speaking native language]

[indistinct chatter] man: in zanzibabar, we e have ag way to go until all our customers to have electricity. 53% of the houses, they have

connected to our grid, and the 47, they hahave no power till n. also, zanzibar is 100% dependent power from tanzanian maininland. in 2009, the electricity for the submarine cable was damaged. in 2010, they stay for 3 months without the power. so...we studied how we can move from depending from tanzanian mainland. so, the shortest solution is to have renewablee energy. [woman speaking native langngua]

[indistinct chatter] woman: babarefoot is a college which aims to empower women. we are in 92 countries, but in east africa, we e have only barefoot college, zanzibar. [woman speaking native language] favdi: here we are receiving traininees from different countries. tanzania mainlnland, kenya, uganda, and malawi. they come here. they stay here for 5 months without going home to learn about solar engineering. woman: this is battery and that one is panel. this is system of h home light system.

favdi: the village needs to meet our criteria before our selecting them. it has to be far from the main road and then also the village has to have more than 100 hohouseholds. each memberer of the households has to pay $3.00 per month. by using this money, they can pay their salary or they can help the village. for now, we have 8 villages who have solar, so, we have a lot of villages ahead of us. [woman speaking native language]

have you s seen this wire? good or no good? some of student, they understand swahili, and some of students, they understand in english. so, when i teach my student, i like to speak two language-- swahili and english. [speaking native language] [hajq speaking native language]

[woman speaking native language]

[women singing in native language] [woman speaking native language] woman: training a woman, you are training the whole family. the husband will benefit...

the extended families, the neighbors, they will all benefit. [speaking native language] the government o of tanzania, we pay everything for ourselves. it's a supplement of where we have not managed to reach with electricity. i know it is expensive but if we think only about the expense, we are not going to save our people. and we are lucky that tanzania, we have good sun full-time. 12 hours we are in sun.

[hi i speaking native languageg] [woman speaking native language] [woman speaking native language]

[man and woman speaking native language]

[woman laughs] [shamata speaking native language] [woman spepeaking native langua] [woman speaking native language]

favdi: it's very empowering, as youu can see, because you are picking the women who doesn't even go out of the village, but they are coming all the way here. after 5 months, they become solar engineering. they go to the village they electrify. it's very powerful. very, very powerful. castico: the dirty business of staying bebehind and waiting for my husband to bring something home is no longer there. even the husbands, they are confessing that. when my wife wanted to start going to the college, i refused. but when she came back, oh, there was a lot of love. [hajq speaking native language]

[woman speaking native l langua] narrator: while the training students are receiving at barefoot college in tanzania serves asas a model f for other, southern c california continueso be a pioneer in solar technology. man: pollution causes harm to all of us. it's not just an abstract thing. and communities of color, low-income communities, even women versus men disproroportionatete have to carry the effects of that pollution. paramount is a community that has a lot going for it and a strong cultural life, but paramount is also a city where

a significant chunk of the land is zoned for industry. so, paramount is a community where environmental justice is a key priority. it's important that we bring things to people here. as we transition away from fossil fuels, as we move away from coal and just say good-bye to that whole era, we move into an era where we're dependent on renewables, the question is, like, who is gonna get the training to go into these indusustries? [sirenen wailing i in distancec] man: : me making g my decisioioo cchange my w whole life e arouns the last time when i was slanging and they raided my house and they took my kids. me sittining there thinkiking, like, man i'm already 30-someththing years old. i got nothingng to show f for it. no's here.e. where arere all my frfrs at? no family. no--nobody, nothing is when it hit me. it just like, man, i gotta change everything up. me and everything around me. i started educating myself

and now it just like, nah, man, i gotta step up and man up and just be responsible. woman: so, this is the e treatmt that youou really wawant from m. okok. how is it? rivera: ohoh, it hururts. ahh.. woman:n: it looks like it's havg a good effffect. rivera: why i want my tattoos removed is because it's just a bad d example whwhem out there witmymy kids. outut there, like, i can't go to the beach and they're looking at my tattoos, becacause i don't wantt them to folw suit. i want to be a better role model for them. i came out with nono probation,o parole, nothing, so, i didn't eveven have no helping g ha and everything. the first day i got out, i ended up s staying at unn station, downtotown l.a., and tn from there, i look a at myself.i was like, man, like, really hit rock bottom, but i w was really tempted to s start slalanging ad making quick money how i used toto say. i h had all thehe connections and everything. i went to homeboys, and i remember there was a solar program t they had right there..

youu know whatat, i go, solar'ss gonna be a careeeer for me, so, i''m gonna just stitick with the sosolar. so, i end up doing the solar a and grid alternatives ce over there and they gave us training. so, right here, we're getting all this hands-on training that will give me the skills to go look for a job anywhere else in the industry. hom: what grid alternatives does is install panels for communities in areas that are environmentally disadvantaged. helping low-incncome people get access to cleaner energy and lead better lives where they have access to o more economic resources. californrnia is actutually at the e forefront of solar j just bbecause thettate s s created so many incentiveses to expandnd., that means there are about 90,000 people who are working in the industry right now, and that number is growing yeyear over yr over r year. withth all these nw jobs openining up, we w want toe that the population of solar installers, solar project management professionals

reflects the demographics of the same people e organizations like grid are installing for. man: as a family, we like to have little adventures. take the kidds out. show them as s much f the w world as--as they want toto see. woman: we trtry to teach them to appreciate the e environment and to appreciate the good things in life and that would ensure that they have this s as they're growiwing up and that they y can have thhe same for their kids. i i learned ababout the sosolar system. i it was refeferred to e by one of my brothers. h he got the email from the city and he forward me the email and told me,, "hey, t they're offering fe solar panels. check it out." and i told my husband to do his research on itit, too, and itt

seemed like it was something that would work for us. woman: i want to make sure that you're completely comfortable with the program. so, , are thte aany other concerns that you might havave or questions that u hahave that you want me e to aaddress? sisilvia uriaiarte: so, o once e panels are up,p, does that mean that thehey'rere ours? ursua: the papanels will l be ys on your r roof as lolong as youe there, and you will l enjoy all the s savings. remember, we tald about between 50% to 80% savings on your energy bill. man: when she e said she w was a get solar panels fofor her hous, i was very skeptical about it. at first, i thought it was too gogood to be t true. i thought t was not possible. i thought there e was gonna be somomething elsese to it rather than j justu know, getttting the sosolar pans for free.e. man: one of the scariest things, , it's--nobody wants to get themselves into a long-term contractct if they d't know what they're gonna--if they don't know that--t-that ththe outcome is gonnana be good. silvia uriarte: he was very skeptical.l. he saidid, "no, i's ggonna be some sort of catch

where, you know, t they tell you they're gononna charge you the panels s later on w when you aly signed the e contract." he was t as eaeasy--ha ha!a!--going as i. ursua:a: so, when i come acrcros someone like ed, who o is not completely belilieving, you kno, the progrgram and all the benefits, i--i convince them by ppointing out that we e are a nonprofit organization. we're the only organization that wasas selected bththe state t to this. andnd so, that says a lot. we'rere not out to make a p prot herere. we're here t to connect people to clclean energy. eduardodo uriarte: so, , the coy grgrid alternatives p pays for e systemem. they have it installe. they have it monitored for 20 years and at the end of that 20 years, i have the option of having them removed at no cost or own them and i take care of them at thahat point. silvia uriarte:e: once we f figd out we can actualllly go for itt no cosost, like, at least try, e

went for it and we'rere about to get it ininstalled now. ededuardo uriararte: i've told family and fririends andnd they- thehey still tell me, "are yo sure? what d did you getet yourf iinto? did--d you just s sign your r house away? did you u sin your life away? what happenened" ok. ursua: ok.k. very good. excelle. tthank you. . thank you. silvia uriarte: : thank you so much. hom: i think a big challenge for us is that because we're intentional about working with communities that don't necessarily see solar every day, there canan be a natutural statf diststrust when n we come i in d say, , "here's a free opppportunity." i think a lot of our customomers are skeptical tt something like thihis isn't toto good t to be true, and i don't blame them, becaususe i thhink therere's a lot of rationales fr being skeptical. silvia uriarte: i i think mosost peoeople are skeptitical beuse they can't afford to makeke a mistake. . yeah, they're great r our environment, yes, you save energy, but at the same time, the cost of installation and the cost in the long--long run. i think thatat makes people

afraraid. hom: many of the populations that we work with are in communities where there were significant presences of predatory lenders. for example, 10 years ago. and a lot of different i institutions or different companies have left people feeling like they were taken advantage of. we're actively involved every day in showing people that their neigighbor hasas gone solar wits or someonene else t their community, or they can just come and watch us do it somewhere else and d that this s is real. boy: dad, [indistinct] solar panels s and i knowow what--andd i know whahat they do now. silvia uriarte: really? what do they do? boy: give clean energy. silvia uriarte: yes, they do. they make clean energy from the sun, righght? boy: mm-hmm. silvia uriarte: yeah. rivera: what i love about my job is everything about it. the people, the a atmosphere. it's s like we''re a family her. and right here, we take time and

we get to know our homeowners, our--our coworkers. anand i just love coming to work every day.y. all right, guys. um, well, i'm emerson. i'm your guys' supervisor for the day, and sal as well. so, we're gonna go over the safety meeting. we're gonna brush up on it pretty quick, you know, so, just to remember, when we're on the roof, remember, if you guys drop something, always s call "headache." men: : headache. rivera: youou know, hdadache, s, you know,w, iust want too make things-- man: yeah, i was incarcerated just like emerson n and, um..... this program helped me out to stay y out of trouble,e, because it's hardrd for us to fd a job in any industry out there. hom: the model at grid is unique because e every project where we're installing solar r is what we call a classrsroom on the ro. people come out with us because we know they know that we're the only organization that provides free trtraining to get jobsbs inin the solarar industry.y. eduardo uriarte: i'm really excited to see ththe--the proces getting goioing. seeing all the

equipment arrive, all the workers here. it's--it's really exciting to see the--the process really moving along. oscuna: i'm believing it more because i'm seeing that it's getting done, so, i see that it's actuaually happening. so, my perspectitive is chanangg a a little bitit to beingg more believable.. rivera: this is my first career ever, and me having my career is like, wow. at times, i'm like, am i still dreaming? you know, it's still like...i could live off my career now. it feels great. i used to b be part of fe problem,m, but nowow i've fixedd the p problem. so, thisis is thy i pay it forward now. so, we are done. we're installing your installation and everything, so, now we're gonna turn on your system. you want to turn it on, eduardo? go ahead. emily?

your system's working. congratulation, guys. person: whoo! eduardo ururiarte: b being one f ththfirst hohomes in the city of paramount to go solar is very exciting. it's not common around here. it's something that when people see that they might wanat to take that--that next step to possibly do it in their home. and we won't just be one house. we might be a whole block or a whole city, hopefully. silvia uriarte: we can teach our kids from a yyoung age, you kno, we gotta take care of where we live, we gotta take care of this planet. it's importantnt for you guys grgrowing up and for yououo pass it on as well. eduduardo uriararte: it allll ho start somomewhere and even thouh it--it's one hohouse, one c cit, one countnty, it could be the start of a a big chainin reacti.

[film advance clicking] announcer: "earth focus" is made possible in part by the orange county community foundation and the farvue f foundation. i'm'm s

usa whehe for some people saving the planet as a matter of life or death. anand i'm s sorry she read on a strategy is great barrier reef with the tide is turning against carl kililling startrt