Urava means the beginning of a water flow and here we refer it as the starting to our initiative.

Urava is a scholarship  project with children. Our children are small but have a lot of potentials. Through this project, we are initiating to unlock this potential. During the project, they are going to explore their connection with nature through arts, camps, and a lot more activities. They are going to reconnect with nature to learn the importance to conserve it.

          Phase Aruvi(stream)

o   We organize fifteen days camp from April- May with fifteen children.

o   During the introduction phase of the project, we interacted with children on various topics e.g., leadership skill development, effective communication, environmental awareness, and responsibility.

o   This phase will be a mix of indoor and outdoor activities along with an exposure visit.

o   The camp ends with an effective discussion on climate change and its impacts on lives in our planet.

         Phase  Nadhi ( River):

o   During this phase the children are going to engage in a five-day camp where the children from tribal area interact with children from the urban settlement.

o   Here we are focusing to have an exchange of knowledge and skills between the children. As we understood from the first camp that the children from the tribal settlements have a lot of knowledge about forests, plants, animals, etc. which the children from urban areas lack. On the other hand children from tribal region lack the confidence to interact and express their knowledge which the children from urban are good at. These complementary skills help them to thrive.

       Phase Kadal ( Sea)

o   Here we organize a ten-day workshop for children.

o   During the final phase, our children will form task forces and engage in activities in their community and schools to spread awareness about conserving their environment.

o   They also engage in identifying the major and minor environmental issues in their locality.

o   In this phase they will also get the opportunity to organize community events to interact with the community.

o   The children will talk about the climate change impacts, the changes to be adapted in lifestyle to conserve nature etc.

o   At the end of this phase, they will be called cuckoos (the crazy ones for the environment) and will continue with the activities.

          Pre Interaction phases

o   In between each phase there will be an interaction weekend per month. This will be a follow-up activity of the phase.

o   These interaction weekends will be used for exposure visits with children, the interaction between children and other people from different sectors, organizing meetings for children with experts, and also conducting sessions.

          Phase Thiranottam

o   By the end of each batch of children a documentary will be published which include the sessions and changes that the children went through during the whole phases of one year program. This documentary will be a tool for reference for upcoming batches of children.

We started first batch under project Urava with our a pilot activity on 19th February 2022 with three smart children from Erumanathoor village in Wayanad district. This was done in collaboration with Gurukula botanical sanctuary. We went for a small exposure visit to the sanctuary which is situated in the middle of a forest. The sanctuary which started early in 1981 is home to over 2000 plant species many of which are endangered species of the Western Ghats. Our children had an interesting interaction with the people from the sanctuary. They were excited to see a variety of species that they never heard about. Along with enjoying the beauty of nature, they also started realizing the fact that we are supposed to conserve our nature and her wide variety of lives rather than disturbing them.

We are currently at the second stage of Urava. It’s a 15-day camp span over a month (18.04.22 to 18.05.22) with 15 children from the same village. The camp happens in and around the surroundings of Erumanathoor alternate school. The major focus of the camp is to influence the leadership skill, communication skills, and environmental awareness of the children. The activities include a mix of indoor and outdoor activities and games. We are slowly stepping forward to make our little climate leaders. 

Click here to read the report about the first batch of urava.