It’s one of the first questions we’re asked about Hunar Ghar; “How did you choose where to build it!?”

With countless places around the world with an obvious need, it’s a pertinent and valid question.

Rajasthan

The motivation to build a school began for both Ed and Ash whilst travelling independently in India. They happened to meet at University, where this mutual desire to build a school at some point was discovered.

Having chosen India, as the country in which both of us envisioned building a school; a place we were both familiar with, we had a quick look at India’s census data, and how this correlated to contacts we knew and trusted in India. From this we realised that there was great need in Southern Rajasthan, around Udaipur and Jodhpur.

So, having decided on a region and raised a little cash, it was time to find the particular village in which to work. We were looking for somewhere in need, with poor educational facilities and where the community was motivated to work for change.

Immersion

We started by making contact with local NGOs and education authorities, to establish precise villages that were worth visiting. Then we visited these villages to cement our links with the most reliable NGOs. This period was massively labour intensive, sometimes travelling 400miles a day on terrible roads in order to totally immerse ourselves in the poorest communities and come to understand their needs.

Probing

At each village we found out the population statistics, number of kids, where the nearest schools were and whether the schools actually run. We walked around the villages to understand their layout and visited houses and local schools to see the situation of the people first hand. We asked about the positives and negatives of their lives and ask them what they thought the most useful single intervention in their community would be. Some said schools, others health care, many had no idea. We asked how they thought these interventions might help and how they felt they could contribute to the success of such projects.

Decision

Having visited 10′s of potential villages, all in desperate need, over a few weeks we had an idea of the most appropriate and motivated communities. We revisit these to do more research, get a better feel for the place, holding a village meeting and talking about the potential to build a school. We also visited land they may be able to contribute to this end.

Over these visits we concluded that bakhel was the most appropriate village- the community was motivated, they explicitly talked about the need for schools, women were actively engaged in conversation, they had land upon which the school could be built; there was great poverty, but also the potential for significant change.

So having finally come to a decision we began informing the villagers of our plans, acquiring the land and preparing for the build.