Hunarshala Newsletter — July, 2021
Welcome to Hunarshala’s Newsletter — A Tribal Youth Leadership Academy in Rajasthan
“If you believe in living a respectable life, you believe in self-help which is the best help.” -Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Hunarshala is a Tribal Youth Leadership Academy in Rajasthan. It is a space where youth have the freedom to work on their interests and develop skills — without any textbooks or exams. There is no competition, only collaboration! We undertake projects and experiments that are based on practical and experiential learning and are relevant to the local community. To know more about this unique space, please visit our new [website].
We restarted the Hunarshala this month after being closed due to lockdown. In the July issue of the newsletter, we bring to you some exciting stories from our learning space and introduce to you some of our dreamers and leaders — Humans of Hunarshala.
Community Media Lab
“To collect photographs is to collect the world.”
-Susan Sontag, On Photography
Through photographs, you can get as close to reality as possible. Good photography tells a story from the point of view of the storyteller. It’s an art that needs to be understood and interpreted. In the Media Hub, our focus is not only on learning photography as a skill but to use the camera as a tool for seeing ourselves and the world in new and extraordinary ways. Something that compels both the photographer and the reader to feel something and to reflect.
This month we had several new girl students join. They learned about camera angles, how to click better pictures and play with different colours. They also learned photo editing and went on some photo walks. Later, they worked on manual photography, auto modes, and object photography.
Here are some breathtaking photographs that the children of the Media Hub have clicked.
A student at Hunarshala, Mayank has journeyed from a learner to a facilitator for the Community Media Lab. After learning about photography and filmmaking from Hunarshala, he is now ready to facilitate students in the same skill-set. Mayank leads a team of 6 to 8 students in the Media Lab and helps them learn photography and filmmaking. Mayank is now taking initiatives and coming up with new ideas to make learning even more enjoyable and productive for the learners. Apart from that, he is a very punctual and hard working facilitator. His journey from a learner to a facilitator at Hunarshala is worth appreciating.
“We are a family of nine people. We are seven siblings, three of my brothers are working and one of my sisters is studying. Two of my other sisters got married. My father works in railways and my mother is a homemaker. And here I am, a proud student of Hunarshala.”
Bharat has been coming to Hunarshala for four months now. He has gotten into carpentry and loves trying his hand at different things. Even during the lockdown, Bharat went on to learn new skills. He learned about electrical and at Hunarshala; he is learning about carpentry and is actively involved in making furniture. On the other hand, Bharat found himself working on the Tire Garden project as well.
One of the most amazing things about Bharat is the way he is evolving in his opinions and identifying himself. For Bharat, schools felt monotonous, almost as if there was only one thing to do. He feels radically different about Hunarshala. Bharat enjoys delving into different things and he thinks Hunarshala has helped him regain his love for learning.
About school, he says “I felt like a prisoner in there.”
He loves the fact that young learners can also facilitate at Hunarshala, with any skill that they might possess and would like to share to help others.
Bharat‘s family is quite happy with his progress at Hunarshala. He thinks that the learning space has made him confident of earning for himself and being financially independent.
“I have had an amazing experience at Hunarshala. Someday, I will become a social entrepreneur and help other people.”
— Bharat, 20.
Fashion and Sewing Hub
The New Normal
Fashion keeps changing with time. And so does our learning. Because of Covid, the Fashion industry added another accessory to its wardrobe that became a necessity in no time — a mask. Our imaginative and creative students are not behind in catching up with this trend. Learners in the Fashion Design academy made these beautiful and protective cloth masks and now use them to stay safe in the middle of a pandemic. While the rest of the world buys disposable surgical masks and pollutes the planet, learners at Hunarshala make their masks and learn about upcycling and fashion in the process.
Here are some of our designer masks!
Apart from that, learners at our Fashion and Sewing Hub spent time learning and working on garments like tops, kurta, and skirts. Our learners learned neck and cloth designs like stitching boat neck kurta, collared kurta, and embroidered kurta. Our learners worked in several areas, from cloth cutting to stitching and working embroidery. They made beautiful kurtas and skirts from scratch.
Among the many girls who are learning different types of sewing and stitching, three are planning to start something of their own in similar fields. Rekha, Basanti, and Maya plan to start on their own and make this a source of their livelihood. In these months, the girls have worked very hard with all the practice at cutting, designing, and stitching the clothes. They have shown their creativity in things like making blouses, dresses, kurtas, skirts, and doing patchwork on curtains. We see a promising manifestation of their idea in the future. Their journey till now at Hunarshala has helped them explore their career paths.
Rekha is one of the eight family members in her home. Her father is a farmer and her mother, a homemaker. Rekha has five siblings — three brothers and a sister who are studying. At Hunarshala, Rekha has been around for two months and is an active learner of sewing, photography and computers.
“I experience and learn so many new things. I really like that about Hunarshala. I love how people treat each other and how they work around here. It’s different.”
For Rekha, the school felt very restraining. She loves the freedom to choose what she wants to do, and eventually learn at Hunarshala. Rekha feels her physical movements become restrictive in schools, but here she can do around and pick whichever activity interests her.
One of the biggest changes is that Rekha is now very assertive. She talks about her ideas, her dreams and aspirations, and puts forth her opinions in discussions where she was reluctant and hesitant earlier. She tells us she wants to set up her own shop and become a tailor. This in itself shows how her confidence in herself and her work has made her dream of running a shop of her own.
Even though Rekha is focused on making a living out of sewing, she does not shy away from trying new things. Although she did join to learn fashion and sewing at Hunarshala, Rekha is now opening her skills to filmmaking and computer. She is also a fast learner and applies all her ideas in some ways in the learning space. Her ideas about her career and job have changed, and so have her inhibitions. She wants to, someday, teach others what she learns at Hunarshala.
“Another thing about Hunarshala that I like is the fact that once you learn something, you can teach it to others as well. I am happy that I get to teach what I learn to others.”
Rekha is excited that her parents support her journey at Hunarshala. They see her learn and implement so many new things and always encourage her to pursue her dreams further and learn more.
“My dream is to become a tailor/dressmaker. I want to work well and sustain myself and my family financially.”
Design Studio and Makers’ Space
Carpenter of My Own Dreams
In our Rural Engineering course, learners work on making engineering relevant and helpful to the rural areas and their unique needs. The focus is on how to make products that are sustainable and locally relevant, and our space is full of motivated learners with a head full of ideas and zeal. Students learned about making a bamboo table. They worked on getting the materials for the bench, cutting and shaping the bench and getting it all together. They also made a bamboo plate dryer.
This month, our learners explored carpentry as a skill that is essential and useful in their community. Hunarshala conducted advanced workshops with guest facilitator, Jivaram Ji, who helped learners with how to use basic carpentry tools for sharpening, safety and caring of the materials, woodcutting, and wood finishing. Students at Makers’ Space made bookshelves out of this advanced level training.
Jivaram Ji is a local charpai bed maker when we first met him and invited him to Makers’ Space for conducting workshops. After discussing some ideas with Jivaram Ji, he decided to take up a series of workshops. Together, Jivaram Ji and the learners at Hunarshala have made interesting products in carpentry. Jivaram Ji himself did not realise how good he was at making furniture until he showcased his skills in Hunarshala. Now, along with giving carpentry lessons to our learners, he has explored and is working now as a furniture designer. No just learners, even facilitators have been able to see changes in their own thoughts and we cannot be happier about his new path.
With the carpentry workshops, Jivaram Ji and the learners decide to experiment with pine to make the furniture. They were struggling to polish the wood and to give it a good finishing. The students got the grinder that is used for woodcutting, putting a cut-out piece of a pair of jeans on it, and worked on finishing the wood. The students decided to use this makeshift equipment for finishing along with a wood strainer. Eventually, they were able to work on their idea and coloured the wood with walnut colour. They finished a product that is as competitive as any other product in the market.
Naresh is a dreamer! He is one of the four siblings that share a very simple lifestyle back in Rajasthan. Naresh loves coming to Hunarshala and his parents support him, who work on the farms and take care of the farm animals for their livelihood.
Like many others at Hunarshala, Naresh is not very fond of schools as well. He enjoys spending time with people around, playing with them, and having fun sometimes. For Naresh, Hunarshala gives one an opportunity to learn things by doing that schools rarely offer. And it is not just for learning, Naresh thinks that the knowledge that they get from Hunarshala can help them find a career, a job, and a livelihood as well.
“Hunarshala allows me to think, schools don’t.”
At Hunarshala, Naresh works in carpentry and he enjoys making different products through the carpentry lessons. He also worked in the Tyre Project, exhibited leadership skills, and was also able to earn some money through it. Naresh feels that learning carpentry will also make him capable of earning a livelihood as he enjoys working in carpentry.
“Hunarshala is like a family. You do not feel disconnected from this place. The space makes me comfortable.”
Naresh helped Gautam at Hunarshala by setting up the Tire Garden. He started to show interest in pursuing this more by being a part of the team at Hunarshala. He enjoyed engaging with others. When people at Hunarshala needed some help with cooking, he jumped to his feet and got to the work. His spontaneity is an example of his curiosity and zeal to work more. Now, Naresh helps with cooking, working in carpentry, and in the tire project. He picked up very quickly and brought about a change in just two months.
Prior to joining Hunarshala, Naresh worked as a server and he was very diligent at it. Right now, Naresh dreams to work in carpentry. He is excited about upcycling carpentry materials into furniture and aspires to live a sustainable lifestyle by doing this.
Naresh left his job and is now finding his purpose in the different tasks that he is doing at Hunarshala. He is exploring his passion for carpentry by taking up different projects and exploring his future in this area of work. Socialising and working in teams really helped shape his personality here at Hunarshala.
Simply Radical
Simply Radical is a column at Hunarshala’s Newsletter where we discuss a simple act that has made radical changes — physical, mental, or emotional in our learning space. These are stories of extraordinary thought that lead to simple solutions. It’s simple, but not so simple. It’s radical.
In a world where consumption is the latest fashion, taking less space is nothing short of radical. Meet Avinash, our simply radical change maker.
Some time ago, people at Hunarshala felt minor inconvenience in arranging plates. There was no stand that could help hold many plates. After struggling for a little while, Awinash volunteered to find a solution and started working on it.
And then, he made this!
Now, we can stack up all our plates in one place with minimum space.
If you liked this newsletter, our learners are taking new initiatives and becoming leaders and we would love to hear from you. If you want to be a part of this family that is ever-growing and learning, or if you have any feedback/suggestions, please get in touch with us. You can drop us an email at gautambharti0@gmail.com and we would love to know your thoughts.
We wish everyone to be safe during this pandemic and sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter.
Made with love from Pgara, Rajasthan.
Hunarshala is a project developed by Shikshantar Andolan and supported by the Dharampal Satyapal Group. It is connected with Swaraj University and the Indian Multiversity’s Alliance.
