Pragati : What are we trying to do?

This is a small attempt to support a village that has a community of 80 families. Our vision is to start with educating the children and giving them access to a network of volunteers who could be their mentor / teacher and guide. The model will be to co-create and co-build with the community where we involve the village members in our activities

Know More about Aaloo Bari Busty

Lower Aaloo Bari Busty, is a village about an hour walking from Darjeeling in West Bengal, India. Darjeeling is a scenic hill station, in the Eastern region of the Himalayas in India.

Formed during the British era, this 100 year old village has a community of 80 families. Agriculture, Tourism, and construction work are the main avenues for employment. Many families are into agriculture along with cattle farming, which becomes difficult due to the rainy season, as there are not enough open meadows for cattle grazing. A handful of them work for government jobs. Most of the youth work for travel companies during the season as guides, porters, helpers or cooks.

This village lies at a walking distance of an hour from Darjeeling, with no road access. All children in the village walk to school everyday as many of them study in Darjeeling as the school in the village is only up to Grade 7.

A chance trek and a conversation led to the realisation that while the parents aspire for the children to be well educated to escape a profession that could become difficult to sustain, they lack guidance and the resources to break the boundaries. Project Pragati is aimed at adopting all the children in the village, so there is parity and no child is left behind

This is our way to give back to a region that brings so much joy and warmth to all travellers to the Eastern part of Himalayas in India.