Earth Focus

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Using an activity-based learning method, we have created “Anand Ghars” that supplement government schooling to build foundational literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking skills. Our unique curriculum is grounded in the local biodiversity of the region, to build the next generation of stewards for the landscape.

We partner with experts so our team members’ work and students’ learning experience are informed by research-backed methodologies. Our team undergoes regular capacity building workshops, reviews and exposure visits to enhance their knowledge and skills. This includes building their capability to integrate learning objectives across varied domains and create a holistic education experience for our students. We use data-driven decision making during project design, implementation and review, and have built in-house apps in Hindi that our team uses for monitoring, evaluation and learning.

Drawn from community knowledge and scientific practice, we are currently implementing our biodiversity curriculum in 20 primary schools. By deepening environmental awareness through craft, games, and song, the curriculum fosters curiosity, compassion and understanding of the forest landscape and all creatures living in it, empowering students as passionate and informed stakeholders in its future.

The curriculum also includes biodiversity sensitisation content for youth and adult community members. This helps tribal families restore clear connections between economic activities and a healthy ecosystem, as well as address challenges arising from human-wildlife conflict. The curriculum will ultimately constitute an open-sourced teaching manual that can be implemented in similar contexts with communities in Central India.

In addition to planning for our work to expand into middle and high school, we are also already working with community youth. As our work expands into secondary school, we will explicitly focus on developing 21st century skills — collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking — and locally relevant STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) interventions. In 2022, we have set up a computer literacy lab with support from Dell and NIIT Foundation where 100 high school/college children, every year, will graduate with certification. This helps local youth build skills that will help build pathways towards meaningful careers, and also builds better digital access to a range of government schemes.

Other Programmes

Nature-based Livelihoods

Our livelihoods programme intends to diversify and enhance community members’ revenue streams while rejuvenating the local ecosystem.

Strengthening Communities

Local Baiga and Gond community members drive our education and livelihoods programmes in all the villages.