• Schools had little space for Adivasi languages, culture, and ways of learning

• As first-generation learners, many Adivasi children struggled to enter and stay in school

• Many community members felt isolated from mainstream, not wanting to participate

“Schools make our children feel small; they sit quietly, afraid to speak. They start believing they are inferior.” 

• Integrated relevant Adivasi knowledge, culture, and values with academic learning

• Created pathways to schooling for all children despite geographic and social barriers

• Parents and villages take ownership in children’s learning and schooling decisions 

• Alumni pursue a variety of careers and serve actively as youth leaders in the community

• Adivasi-led governance, with over 80% of the team and board drawn from the community

• The Adivasi school is now only up to primary, leaving adolescent children to mainstream schools 

• In mainstream schools, cultural disconnects persist and learning is weak from early grades

• Adivasi resource teachers don’t have credentials to teach in mainstream schools

• Disengagement and dropouts increase over time; limited access to jobs matching Adivasi strengths

• Harder for children from villages deep inside forests, or with low parental support 

• Establishing a residential KG–12 Adivasi school as the core of culturally rooted modern education

• Developing Adivasi educators with credentials who shape both community and mainstream education systems 

• Reclaiming the villages as sites of learning, integrating school, culture, and local work

• Support New Campus Phase 1 

• Sponsor program support

• Introduce us to potential partners

“Our children must learn to live in this world, but should never forget our language and culture – this connection, this affection for others.”, Gudalur Adivasi Elder

“While we can never go back to the preagricultural era, we can perhaps take the world’s remaining hunter-gatherers as our guide.”, Pandora’s Seed: Why the Hunter-Gatherer Holds the Key to Our Survival