If you have any feedback on how we can make our new website better please do contact us. We would like to hear from you.  
Pan Himalayan Grassroots Development Foundation (Grassroots)

Grassroots is based in the Himalayan region of Kumaon in Uttarakhand. Grassroots works with rural mountain communities. It focuses on the sustainable development of these communities. Grassroots lays special emphasis on the issues of drinking water, environmental sanitation, renewable energy and natural resource management. It also focuses on enterprise development, and is involved in training local people and providing them with opportunities for employment. Grassroots collaborates with other voluntary organisations in the region, and has been spearheading  ‘holistic’ mountain development among rural communities in the central and western Himalaya for the last twenty years.

Website: http://www.grassrootsindia.com


Possible volunteering opportunities

  • Initially, volunteers will be involved with understanding the basic principles of mountain development. They will then assist the organisation in some relevant documentation work. Usually, this is work that gets neglected by the organisation due to lack of time.

Examples of documentation work

  • Currently at Grassroots, there are over 1000 rural women who have networked to earn supplementary incomes through production and sale of hand-knitted woollens, fruit preserves and other handicrafts. The turnover of the women's cooperative is now Rs 13 million. Grassroots needs help to document the processes of empowering women, through self-help groups which evolve into well knit business groups.

  • There almost fifty ‘barefoot’ engineers’ who have joined together to form the Kumaon Artisans Guild. The Guild is involved with spreading the benefits of appropriate technologies in cross cutting sectors like drinking water, sanitation, renewable energy, rainwater harvesting, etc. The lives and times of these barefoot engineers as well as the impact of their work in fulfilling Millennium Development Goals could be understood and documented (see a recent report on Grassroots and the MDGs here, compiled with the help of Camvol volunteers in 2011).

  • Grassroots in also involved with the restoration of the Hydrological Cycle in the Gagas River Basin. A three tier institutional structure has evolved at the grassroots to tackle various issues towards improving the quality of life for the communities residing in the river basin. This process could be documented.

There are a number of other possible issues which will be discussed with the volunteers when they arrive.


Preferred skills

  • Willingness and eagerness to learn about mountain communities in the Indian Himalayas
  • Be open to living a simple life, but in a beautiful environment

Approximate cost

£1540 for eight weeks, including flights (costed at £500, to be booked by volunteers), visa costs, board and lodging (in a family homestay), local travel, Camvol administrative fee and a Grassroots fee of Euro 200 (approximately £190, depending on exchange rates) to cover the costs of staff time and local costs associated with hosting volunteers.

NOTE: Estimated costs for placements assume that flights to India are £500. However, applicants should note that flight costs can vary greatly depending on airlines and time of bookings, and adjust their budget estimates accordingly. Similarly, vaccination costs have NOT been included in estimated costs, and applicants should take this into account while planning their budgets.
 

Camvol is a UK registered charity, no. 1120190

  Site Map