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Jun
16
Queen honours Northern Ireland Bahá’í
Filed Under Education, People, Social action | Leave a Comment
A Bahá’í from Northern Ireland who has devoted the last two decades to the empowerment of women in central India – and pioneering the use of solar-powered technology in their communities – has been awarded an OBE in Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
James “Jimmy” McGilligan, pictured right, received his award “for services to social causes and the use of alternative energy in rural communities in India”.
“Getting this honour is quite something,” said 65 year old Mr McGilligan, “It feels good to be recognised but we’re quite taken aback!”
Mr McGilligan, who hails from Garvagh in County Londonderry, manages the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women in Indore, the largest city in the state of Madhya Pradesh, with his wife Janak. The Institute conducts residential training programmes for rural, village and tribal women who have not had the opportunity of schooling. Priority is given to the socially and economically disadvantaged, including orphans, widows, the abused and neglected. Some 4000 women and young girls have returned to their communities as agents of social change since the Institute was established in 1985.
For her services, Mrs McGilligan recently won a prestigious Social Service award from the state of Madhya Pradesh. The award of 100,000 rupees – which was donated to the Institute – was presented at an International Women’s Day event in Bhopal in March this year.
“If you had talked to us about 17 years ago,” said Mr McGilligan, “we would have said that we will never see the fruits of our labours because they would come with the children of the children of the girls we were teaching. But we were totally wrong. The impact of the Institute on the lives of these women is evident.”
Since it was established, the Institute had been experimenting with using solar box cookers. For the past decade, Mr McGilligan has pioneered the largest solar kitchen in the state using ten metre squared parabolic reflective dishes at the Institute, as well as in tribal school hostels in Jhabua, Dattigaon, Dhani and for more than 400 domestic parabolic cookers in use in rural and tribal communities.
In 2004, the Institute started training existing Micro Credit Groups in the use of solar cookers for food processing and income generation. In one example, a group of eight women in the Betul district now cook two hours during the peak sunshine each day using solar cookers. They make and pack local snacks which they sell in the markets and supply to the village council meeting, earning between 75 and 100 rupees each day. Additionally, low cost solar tunnel driers are used for surplus vegetables and spices so that they can be used later when such commodities are in short supply.
Mr McGilligan is the representative for Asia for the Solar Cookers International Association. He has installed solar water heating systems, solar dryers, ovens and water distillers. He also handles logistics and maintenance, IT, gardening and food production at the Institute, managing a team of just five staff including himself.
“It is very important for women to be educated and empowered in any society,” said Mr McGilligan. “Being the first educators of their children, their status should never be seen as secondary to that of men.”
“When I lived in the United Kingdom working in land reclamation, I used to be happy to see cows grazing on reclaimed wasteland. Now when I see a local girl sitting reading a newspaper, it gives me so much satisfaction,” he said.
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