In August 2006 we set out to India to attempt to find a suitable village for our first school. We were looking for somewhere in real need, where we felt we could make a positive impact and with a motivated community behind the initiative.

We had chosen Udaipur and Jodhpur districts in Rajasthan, NW India as good starting points to find a site for our first school- we knew there was a need and there were people in the area we could trust to help guide us through our first venture.

In both areas, the first step was to get in touch with local charities already working in the area, get a sense of where and how they work, which areas they felt there was real need in and whether we might be of use in the region.

These organisations then kindly took us out to a multitude of different villages from which schools were distant or derelict and the people were in real need of solutions for livelihood and welfare problems. In total we visited over 20 potential villages, finding out about basic demographics, access to education, other needs of the community, and assessing the motivation and readiness of the villagers for a school. We wanted to get a real feel for life in the village, so would take time to walk around and visit houses, while chatting to men, women and kid of the community.

The situations in Jodhpur and Udaipur districts were quite different, despite being in the same state. The Aravelli Hills cut diagonally across the region separating the desert of Jodhpur from relatively verdant Udaipur. The region that seemed to be most appropriate to our work, was in fact between the two, within the hills which are home to the tribal peoples of Southern Rajasthan. Here we found motivated communities with little in the way of help, even from government authorities, and we narrowed our options down to one of two villages, Rawach and Bakhel.

After careful thought and repeat visits we plumped for Bakhel, as the community seemed more motivated and RBKS a local charity that had proved their worth offered to support us in the area.