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Hello friends.
My name is Ashita and I am a co-founder of (and one of the volunteers at) The Good Harvest School.
My name is Ashita and I am a co-founder of (and one of the volunteers at) The Good Harvest School.
In 2013, my husband and I decided to leave our jobs in Delhi and move to a small village to invest in the lives of rural farmers. Little did we know that more than seeds or loans they needed basic education. Visiting families and spending more time in the villages I felt the disparity in education levels between city and village schools. To make matters worse it was mostly the boys who went to school in the village. Girls are held back at home to do household chores. Slowly, we reached a point where we couldn't ignore it anymore. So, we decided to open our farm doors to girls and give them the same quality of education as compared to city-based schools. And to create better opportunities for them in the future, and we incorporated agriculture as a core subject in the curriculum.
Today, The Good Harvest School is led by young individuals from diverse fields, providing green education to village-girls, and nurturing in them values and competencies to become responsible food growers in the future.
Our volunteer program via Workaway.info helps us bring international education to a rural village in India. Our vision is to enable rural girls, our students, to stand equal to students across the globe, through high-quality education focused on holistic development. We strive educational equality, supported by the best of learning tools and environment. We do this so that our students go on to become change makers, breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy and early marriage, and thus contributing towards the nation’s transformation.
Today, The Good Harvest School is led by young individuals from diverse fields, providing green education to village-girls, and nurturing in them values and competencies to become responsible food growers in the future.
Our volunteer program via Workaway.info helps us bring international education to a rural village in India. Our vision is to enable rural girls, our students, to stand equal to students across the globe, through high-quality education focused on holistic development. We strive educational equality, supported by the best of learning tools and environment. We do this so that our students go on to become change makers, breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy and early marriage, and thus contributing towards the nation’s transformation.
Need of the hour: An Agricultural Based Education
In 1989, the government released its first report on India’s women workers in the unorganised sector, of which agriculture forms an overwhelming majority. The findings stated that 85 percent of employees in the farm sector were women, be it as cultivators or daily-wage labourers. The report also discovered that women were equal toilers in traditionally men’s activities like transplanting, harvesting and threshing paddy, treading pulses and breaking stones. They did this in addition to performing their socially assigned roles of child-rearing and household chores. But to the Census, they were just ‘housewives’.
Agriculture is not a male dominated field anymore. It is actually women who often outdo men. From selecting, preparing and sowing seeds to transplanting the seedlings, applying manure and then harvesting, winnowing and threshing, women work harder and longer on the field than men. Yet, we fail to recognize their hard work. The Good Harvest School is a small and a long-term effort to support young girls from the farming community to make right choices from the beginning.
The Good Harvest School is the first green school where girls get to learn regular subjects as well as extensive lessons on sustainable agriculture.
Our Journey Is No Less Than A Miracle.
In 2016, the school started with 6 girls and today we have more than 80 students. From being non-school goers to becoming regular to school, our students have come a long way. They have shown tremendous progress in all areas and have emerged confident and expressive. They show readiness to learn and embrace a novel concept with ease. Their lives are a beautiful story of challenges and hope; they show immense enthusiasm and determination to be present at school every day.
All of this happened because many of you supported us. Our journey started with an idea and you believed in it. We are growing gradually and becoming stronger in our mission to bring quality education to young rural girls without any fee.
In 1989, the government released its first report on India’s women workers in the unorganised sector, of which agriculture forms an overwhelming majority. The findings stated that 85 percent of employees in the farm sector were women, be it as cultivators or daily-wage labourers. The report also discovered that women were equal toilers in traditionally men’s activities like transplanting, harvesting and threshing paddy, treading pulses and breaking stones. They did this in addition to performing their socially assigned roles of child-rearing and household chores. But to the Census, they were just ‘housewives’.
Agriculture is not a male dominated field anymore. It is actually women who often outdo men. From selecting, preparing and sowing seeds to transplanting the seedlings, applying manure and then harvesting, winnowing and threshing, women work harder and longer on the field than men. Yet, we fail to recognize their hard work. The Good Harvest School is a small and a long-term effort to support young girls from the farming community to make right choices from the beginning.
The Good Harvest School is the first green school where girls get to learn regular subjects as well as extensive lessons on sustainable agriculture.
Our Journey Is No Less Than A Miracle.
In 2016, the school started with 6 girls and today we have more than 80 students. From being non-school goers to becoming regular to school, our students have come a long way. They have shown tremendous progress in all areas and have emerged confident and expressive. They show readiness to learn and embrace a novel concept with ease. Their lives are a beautiful story of challenges and hope; they show immense enthusiasm and determination to be present at school every day.
All of this happened because many of you supported us. Our journey started with an idea and you believed in it. We are growing gradually and becoming stronger in our mission to bring quality education to young rural girls without any fee.
WHY ARE WE RAISING FUNDS?
With the recent announcements things are opening up in our area and Covid cases are also declining. But there’s still no sign of reopening the schools. We have been taking classes over the phone and visiting our students in the villages. Taking a step forward we are launching a new project. With the school being closed for the second consecutive year, we have seen a sharp contrast between urban children and children in the villages. Urban India has witnessed a boom in online education whereas children in the villages are back to their usual routine of household chores, farm work, or working as daily wage workers.
While we work on the ground, we are in need of partners who can support us financially to implement various initiatives we have envisaged for girls in need. We have a total of 90 girls in our school currently and annually we need Rs 11000/- to support the education of one girl child.
Thank you for your time and reading this.
Regards,
Ashita Nath
www.thegoodharvestschool.com
Last year, we had this wonderful opportunity to present the idea of our green school at two TEDx events. Here’s the link to one of the talks.
Recently, BBC News Hindi did a small story on us.
Regards,
Ashita Nath
www.thegoodharvestschool.com
Last year, we had this wonderful opportunity to present the idea of our green school at two TEDx events. Here’s the link to one of the talks.
Recently, BBC News Hindi did a small story on us.
