Nari Gunjan - Aavishkaar

in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh by Nari Gunjan
an Asha Purdue project stewarded by Akshat Singhal Support this project, donate now!
Summary
  • Nari Gunjan in collaboration with Aavishkaar aims to empower women of Musahar community through education, by nurturing a sense of excitement and curiosity in school-age community through hands-on experiences and experiments.
  • Project Type Alternative Education in rural Himachal Pradesh. Supported by Asha since August 2016
  • More details on this project - budget documents and a recent visit summary - can be found on the Asha Website
Background of Nari Gunjan - Aavishkaar
NariGunjan (Women’s Voice) is a registered NGO, established in 1987 by Sudha Varghese. It became registered in 2000-2001. Over the years, NariGunjan has worked with thousands of Musahar children and women in Bihar through formal and non-formal education centers and support groups. Since its inception, NariGunjan has spread its reach to the Musahar communities of 3 districts in Bihar: Patna, Gaya and Saran. http://www.narigunjan.in/ Located in the foothills of Himalayas near Palampur, Himachal, Aavishkaar is working at grassroots level to nurture a sense of excitement and curiosity in school-age community through hands-on experiences and experiments, especially in Science and Math. The goal is to shift the focus from teaching to learning – from teacher focused to student focused classroom. The attempt is to make learning a joyful experience for our school community and to spread the culture of science and scientific inquiry, making it accessible to all. http://www.aavishkaar-palampur.org/ Nari Gunjan works with the musahar community based in Bihar which are considered to the poorest of the poor and socially disadvantaged communities of the region. It partners up with Aavishkaar to conduct 4 workshops each year for around 20 girls in each workshop from Nari Gunjan. In these workshops, Aavishkaar works to nurture students' creativity and critical thinking skills with the help of custom made hands-on modules made from easily accessible materials which deliver simple concepts in science and maths in local languages/easily understandable jargon. They conduct residential workshops at their Palampur based campus for students from many of the northern states of India including HP, J&K, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, etc. The idea of these 30 days workshops is to not only make students from 6-10th classes understand and assimilate scientific concepts in a fun and engaging way but also to inspire them to develop critical skills of scientific inquiry into simple phenomenon around them. They are also then taught how to develop such hands on experiments themselves and then conduct science fairs when they go back to their local community/schools where they demonstrate and explain these experiments to the other students, thus infusing them with confidence and making the whole model of teaching more inclusive and sustainable.
Project Location Map

Nari Gunjan works with the musahar community based in Bihar which are considered to the poorest of the poor and socially disadvantaged communities of the region. It partners up with Aavishkaar to conduct 4 workshops each year for around 20 girls in each workshop from Nari Gunjan. In these workshops, Aavishkaar works to nurture students' creativity and critical thinking skills with the help of custom made hands-on modules made from easily accessible materials which deliver simple concepts in science and maths in local languages/easily understandable jargon. They conduct residential workshops at their Palampur based campus for students from many of the northern states of India including HP, J&K, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, etc. The idea of these 30 days workshops is to not only make students from 6-10th classes understand and assimilate scientific concepts in a fun and engaging way but also to inspire them to develop critical skills of scientific inquiry into simple phenomenon around them. They are also then taught how to develop such hands on experiments themselves and then conduct science fairs when they go back to their local community/schools where they demonstrate and explain these experiments to the other students, thus infusing them with confidence and making the whole model of teaching more inclusive and sustainable.