Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary Winter 2013-14 Education Announcement
Listening to the Land: Nature, Community and ActionGurukula Botanical Sanctuary
December 5th 2013 to April 2014
December 5th 2013 to April 2014
Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary (GBS/the Sanctuary) is ready to host educational internships/camps/activities in the coming months. The provisional rubric for these, Listening to the Land: Nature, Community and Action gives a general sense for what we intend. We welcome small groups and/or individuals to join us in forest-based work and enquiry. GBS’s mission as well as its educational endeavours are based on the understanding that nature is primary and that the planet is in peril.
Species are being annihilated worldwide as we read this. Great destruction is about. Without a living planet, without rivers and forests and natural communities of plants and animals, human existence is not possible. How can we address this crisis, which is at once both planetary and local? What is the most pressing problem that we can identify, and how can we effectively work on this?
To learn more about GBS please visit the website: www.gbsanctuary.org
A note on education at GBS
For more than 20 years we’ve been exploring educational exchanges at the Sanctuary. Possibilities exist here of experiencing community life, growing intimacy with the natural world, acquiring skills of body and mind, exploring questions and concerns in dialogue with others, designing and engaging in bio-centric studies, and being part of intensive action-oriented work.
The Sanctuary’s School in the Forest programmes as well as the Landscapes and Lifeskills course (which ran for five years in collaboration with Himal Prakriti, Munsyari) have attracted many schools as well as young people from the region as well as around the world. Please see the education pages on our website for more details.
To learn more about GBS please visit the website: www.gbsanctuary.org
A note on education at GBS
For more than 20 years we’ve been exploring educational exchanges at the Sanctuary. Possibilities exist here of experiencing community life, growing intimacy with the natural world, acquiring skills of body and mind, exploring questions and concerns in dialogue with others, designing and engaging in bio-centric studies, and being part of intensive action-oriented work.
The Sanctuary’s School in the Forest programmes as well as the Landscapes and Lifeskills course (which ran for five years in collaboration with Himal Prakriti, Munsyari) have attracted many schools as well as young people from the region as well as around the world. Please see the education pages on our website for more details.
The months ahead
This year we wish to draw upon the learning from all these educational experiences to offer a more flexible community-based opportunity for individuals or small groups to learn together with us, from the natural world, and also, to learn to care for it.
If you have the time, you could explore an internship for three months, one that will be based out of GBS for the greater part. This will also extend over to the upper Nilgiris in a unique opportunity to engage intensively with the forests and grasslands of that region, through restoration workcamps involving hard physical labour as well as learning about native plant ecology. We may also visit our friends in different parts of the Western Ghats and elsewhere in south India, all of whom do similar work to us. Our visits will be timed according to their land and community needs.
We emphasize that those who wish to experience a fuller range of learning offered at GBS benefit greatly by spending a period of three to four months (December to March/April).
However, there is also room for individuals to join in for shorter stretches.
Our hope is that small groups, individuals or volunteers become part of the working community; pitching in for 4 or more hours of work a day. Time, people and resources would be available to create learning experiences unique to every person’s interests and capabilities. The range of time periods can go from 3 days to 3 months.
This year we wish to draw upon the learning from all these educational experiences to offer a more flexible community-based opportunity for individuals or small groups to learn together with us, from the natural world, and also, to learn to care for it.
If you have the time, you could explore an internship for three months, one that will be based out of GBS for the greater part. This will also extend over to the upper Nilgiris in a unique opportunity to engage intensively with the forests and grasslands of that region, through restoration workcamps involving hard physical labour as well as learning about native plant ecology. We may also visit our friends in different parts of the Western Ghats and elsewhere in south India, all of whom do similar work to us. Our visits will be timed according to their land and community needs.
We emphasize that those who wish to experience a fuller range of learning offered at GBS benefit greatly by spending a period of three to four months (December to March/April).
However, there is also room for individuals to join in for shorter stretches.
Our hope is that small groups, individuals or volunteers become part of the working community; pitching in for 4 or more hours of work a day. Time, people and resources would be available to create learning experiences unique to every person’s interests and capabilities. The range of time periods can go from 3 days to 3 months.
Costs: Ideally everyone participating can contribute towards expenses. We have worked out a basic cost covering food, and other incidentals to be Rs. 250 a day. We request Indian nationals to pay this amount. We request foreign nationals to pay $20 a day to create a fund to help individuals who cannot afford this.
For school groups, costing will be done differently.
The amount is negotiable on the basis of work, you can also pay more and not work and vice versa.
Accommodation will be basic and shared: tarpaulin over a mud floor, woodfired stove, bathing in the river, pit toilets, rota/group cooking by participants.
Accommodation will be basic and shared: tarpaulin over a mud floor, woodfired stove, bathing in the river, pit toilets, rota/group cooking by participants.
All travel costs are to be met by participants.
Modules offered at Short Notice
In addition, the GBS team will also offer some of the modules we' ve run in past years (Birds, Reptiles, Insects, Plants, Forest Ecology, Introduction to Rainforests, Art in Nature, Writing in Nature) and perhaps some new ones. These will run at short notice and will be posted on our facebook page.
In short, there are three ways of participating in Listening to the Land at GBS this year:
• An informal internship for a couple of months or more (three is recommended), to learn different skills, and how to work with the natural world. We can host a maximum of 5 individuals for the entire stretch.
• Short stints of 3-10 days, for an initial exploration We can accommodate a maximum of 5 individuals at any given point in time over and above those staying for the entire period.
• School visits for a maximum of 12 students and 2 teachers for 7-10 days.
Individuals will be selected based on: 1) a letter of intent, and 2) a conversation over skype/telephone with one of us.
For more information please contact:
In short, there are three ways of participating in Listening to the Land at GBS this year:
• An informal internship for a couple of months or more (three is recommended), to learn different skills, and how to work with the natural world. We can host a maximum of 5 individuals for the entire stretch.
• Short stints of 3-10 days, for an initial exploration We can accommodate a maximum of 5 individuals at any given point in time over and above those staying for the entire period.
• School visits for a maximum of 12 students and 2 teachers for 7-10 days.
Individuals will be selected based on: 1) a letter of intent, and 2) a conversation over skype/telephone with one of us.
For more information please contact:
Suprabha Seshan
Email: jungler@gmail.com
Mob: 09448059414
Email: jungler@gmail.com
Mob: 09448059414
