Our partners are inspiring organisations from across India whose outstanding work with local communities spans decades. They have worked extensively on developing nuanced perspectives and locally appropriate alternatives to ecological and social issues.
The Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) was founded in 1988 by a group of Ladakhi college students who felt that the education system needed great change. For many years, SECMOL worked on reforming the government school system. At the same time, SECMOL Campus grew into a eco-village where students, staff and volunteers live, work and learn together. It’s not a conventional school, but a place to pursue practical, environmental, social and traditional knowledge, values and skills. The Campus is solar powered and solar heated; students learn ancient Ladakhi songs, dance and history alongside modern academic knowledge; and the students mainly manage, run and maintain the campus.
HIAL (Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh)
– An Alternative University for Mountain Development
HIAL will engage youths from multiple Himalayan countries in Research & Development to tackle the issues faced by mountain people, especially in the domains of education, culture, and the environment. Like SECMOL, the university aims to break the rigid boxes of conventional thinking, be relevant to people’s lives, and encourage learning via practical application of knowledge.
Aaranyak is a leading Biodiversity Conservation NGO based in Guwahati. It is a frontline environmental organization of India that believes in applied science for conservation. It works all over the Eastern Himalayan region and parts of Eastern India on nature conservation, natural resources management, climate change, disaster management and livelihood enhancement of marginalized communities through research, education, and advocacy. Its mission is to foster conservation of biodiversity in North East India through research, environmental education, capacity building and advocacy for legal and policy reform to usher in a new era of ecological security.
On our journeys, we also bring in resource people from different organisations whose values resonate with our own. While we don’t yet have full-fledged programmes that we’ve co-developed with them, they conduct learning sessions for our groups in the form of film screenings followed by talks/discussions, or short field treks that help us understand local ecosystems better. In the near future, we aim to deepen our work with these inspiring organisations as well.
Nature Conservation Foundation
The Nature Conservation Foundation’s goal is to contribute to the knowledge and conservation of India’s unique wildlife heritage with innovative research and imaginative solutions. They work in a range of wildlife habitats, from coral reefs and tropical rainforests to the high mountains of the Himalaya.
