Rafea: Solar Mama

Year: 2012
Country: USA, DENMARK, UNITED KINGDOM, JORDAN, INDIA
Run Time: 75 minutes

Thirty-two-year-old Rafea raises her daughters in an extremely poor Bedouin community in Jordan. Her unemployed husband isn't much help as he spends most of his time with his first wife. Needless to say, things could be better. As luck would have it, Rafea is given a chance to travel to Barefoot College in India to participate in a program that trains illiterate women to become solar engineers. If successful, she'll be able to provide electricity for her village and earn a living training others. Her conservative husband doesn't share her enthusiasm for attending, often going out of his way to sabotage her efforts. Despite this opposition and the challenges presented by her illiteracy, she completes the program and gains an abundance of hope and confidence along the way. But will that positivity and optimism rub off at home? Can Rafea motivate her neighbors to get involved? RAFEA: SOLAR MAMA shines a spotlight on one woman's incredible determination to change her world. (In English and Arabic with subtitles) – E.F.

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