By Ellen Fish | Director, Friends of Tilonia
Dear friends,
The Barefoot College Tilonia has been serving rural communities in India for more than 50 years!
Since its inception in 1972, the long term objective of the Barefoot College has been to work with marginalized, exploited and impoverished rural poor, living on less than $1 a day, and to lift them over the poverty line with dignity and self-respect. The dream was to establish a rural college in India that was built by and exclusively for the poor.
For more than 50 years, Barefoot College has worked to improve the quality of life of the rural poor, focusing efforts on basic needs: water, health, education, energy, environmental regeneration and gainful employment building on existing skills, while enrolling individuals in the processes that govern their lives.
The College's guiding principles are:
Equality
Every team member is equally important and respected. Education, gender, caste or class does not make anyone else or more valuable.
Collective Decision Making
Collective decision making triggered by a largely flat organization that encourages a free flow of information and giving voice to the concerns of all groups, making everyone accountable to each other.
Decentralization
Decentralization of planning and implementation at grass-root levels to enable and empower individuals to articulate their needs.
Self Reliance
Self-reliant ways that encourage self-confidence and joining hands to solve problems together.
Simplicity
The staff leads a simple life working for the collective aspirations of rural communities rather than striving for individual material goals.
Openness to Learning New Skills
The staff is encouraged to learn and relearn by working in as many disciplines as possible.
Transparency
The staff leads a simple life working for the collective aspirations of rural communities rather than striving for individual material goals.
For more details on accomplishments this past year as well as the past five decades, I encourage you to review the Annual Report for 2020-2021 and the Tilonia Diaries which are attached. And for the latest video clips and reports on the 50th Anniversary Celebration this past week in Delhi, please visit the Barefoot College Tilonia Instagram feed.
The accomplishments of the Barefoot College Tilonia are thanks to the generous support of donors like you and a dedicated team of individuals who believe in the value and contribution of every individual as part of their community.
Thank you for your continued support. We appreciate your generous contributions.
Best,
Ellen Fish
Friends of Tilonia, Inc.
Links:
By Jaswanth Dadi | Project Leader
By Yogita Nishad & Jaswanth Dadi | Barefoot College Tilonia
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
