The use of traditional knowledge has an ethical dimension. It encourages transparency and accountability. This is not the case with urban-based skills, which encourage secrecy and dependency, and which offer no guarantee that the service is either competent or reliable. The use of traditional knowledge demystifies the local technologies that will be the basis for sustainable solutions in the future. The more people who understand and try out a technology, the greater the chance of the technology being accepted.
Nothing is free.
Environmental sustainability is served by using solar energy instead of fossil fuels, and by collecting rainwater instead of drawing on groundwater for drinking. The main stakeholders and beneficiaries are rural communities that are socially and economically poor but culturally rich. More specifically, the College trains members of these communities who are otherwise not eligible for work in public service because they are semi-literate and from vulnerable, socially deprived groups. They are trained to provide valuable service to their communities as barefoot engineers, doctors, teachers and traditional communicators. The staff of the Barefoot College and the members of the communities they serve number some 50,000 to 70,000 people.