Our Story!
Hello! We are Prashant Kumar and Ben Reid-Howells, co-founders
of the
Centre of Resilience
in Prashant’s native Bihar, in the NE of India.
Since opening the doors of this community learning centre one year ago we’ve trained teams of locals who have helped in responding to floods that displaced 10 million people here in Bihar and we’ve built region-wide networks of volunteers to hand out food rations during the Covid-19 pandemic .
Now we’re reaching out to you to help us train disadvantaged breadwinners to create and sell products made of upcycled waste and inspired by Indigenous Bihari culture, in a way that is ethical and empowered !
We don’t just want to make change, we want to make changemakers!
This training program will be led on the ground by Prashant and will be for people of marginalised communities facing racism, caste-ism, and climate change . It will provide learners with a reliable source of income , as well as empower them to become environmentally conscious, ethical entrepreneurs.
See Prashant’s TedX Talk here !
Where the money will go:
- Finishing the workshop where trainings, product design and fabrication will take place.
- Buying the machinery and raw materials we need to create products.
- Running training programs in the basics of upcycling and ethical, sustainable business.
By contributing to this crowdfunding campaign, by buying our upcycled products and by signing up for email-updates, you are not only financing our hard work, but also motivating our trainees by knowing that their skilled work will go straight to appreciative hands around the world.
Once we build up product recognition through purchases such as yours, our project can grow into a full social enterprise, empowering more community members in this region to become self-sustaining.
So what upcycled products are we training learners to make??
Here are some examples of the products that we will be making -- and some of the learners in the program -- all possible thanks to the funds raised in this crowdfunding campaign. All these products are a combination of waste-upcycling and natural designs Indigenous to Bihar.
As learners master the design and fabrication of products, they
become one step closer to becoming self-led, sustainable
entrepreneurs and employers in their own community.
Every donation brings us closer to being able to launch this
initiative that will empower so many more people than we are
currently able to serve.
Read the story of how this all began below in: The Impact.
Read more about us and our backgrounds in upcycling art and community work here:
https://www.centreofresilience.org/the-vasudhai...
Help us launch this effort that will keep on giving.
Once our social enterprise is up and running with the funding
and first product sales from this campaign we will start selling to
local, regional and international clients.
This means this upcycling social enterprise won’t only become
self-sufficient, but will eventually contribute to our costs of
running other programs at the Centre of Resilience
, like our ongoing
Covid
Relief work
, annual flood-response work and trainings with local artisans
to preserve some of Bihar’s beautiful, sustainable Indigenous
knowledge and practices.
The Impact: Addressing Global Issues with Local Solutions
Here in Bihar we are facing issues of economic instability, poverty, climate change, social marginalisation, the destruction of our natural environment and increasingly, the disappearance of our Indigenous cultures and knowledge.
While these are large and complex problems, we believe that we can move towards ways of living that overcome these injustices, bring people together, provide a good life, and heal the land around us for future generations . To do this, we need to build sustainable lines of work that are sustainable for the workers and our natural world. And this is what Ben and I have been doing together since 2017.
The funds from this campaign will help us pay off the initial fees to launch this start-up which will employ and provide a secure livelihood to 6 trainees. All six of these people will be those who earn the money for their family, which means every donation helps us provide skills-training and a reliable livelihood to a local family.
Here’s where the money from this campaign will go!
FINISHING THE WORKSHOP: approx. 10,000.00 USD
-Filling of mud to raise ground level around workshop- 2750 USD
-Concreting and waterproofing of floor - 2050 USD
-Partition of studio work spaces - 1100 USD
-Creation of storage space - 680 USD
-Furniture and interiors for office space - 1375 USD
-Furniture and interiors for workshop space - 1375 USD
+ Safety inspections, legal fees - 600 USD
MACHINERY & TOOLS - approx. 2,750.00 USD
-Angle Grinder: 60 USD x 4: 240 USD
-Steel Cutting Chop Saw: 350 USD
-Welding Machine: 550 USD
-Bench Grinder: 100 USD
-Bench Drill Press: 300 USD
-Safety Equipment: fire extinguisher, glasses: 200 USD
-1 load (300 KG) of scrap metal: 300 USD
+ Other raw materials: 350 USD / month
+ Tool maintenance, blades, bits, parts: 300 USD / month
PROGRAM COSTS: approx. 20,400 USD for 6 months
-Main Skills Trainer Salary: 820 USD / month
-Fine Arts Trainer Salary: 550 USD / month
-Workshop Manager Salary: 350 USD / month
-Centre Vehicle: purchase and maintenance one year: 6000 USD
-Trainee Salary: 200 USD / month x 5 Trainees: 1000 USD / month
-Administrative costs: 350 USD / month (Program Evaluations, Legal Fees)
-Utilities: 300 USD / month (Internet, Electricity, Water)
-Documentation: 350/month (Video, Photography, Interviews)
-Float: 2,000 USD: Emergency Funds.
TOTAL START-UP FUNDS REQUIRED: approx. 33,400 USD, or 40,000 CAD.
Note : As always, we will seek to reduce this estimated start-up cost by leveraging community support, interns, volunteers, local funding and donations of tools, machinery, etc.
Once these start up fees are covered, the sales of every product made will go towards our team’s salaries and back into the social enterprise to finance more materials and trainings.
We are working to build pathways towards resilience.
Each donation is a stone on this path.
THANK YOU for every stone you add!
How We First Started This Work
In 2017-18, we witnessed thousands of low-income families affected by floods across Bihar, and in response we set out to build the Bihar House, a model for resilient housing. We were able to do this work thanks to a team of hired local workers, dozens of volunteers and the financial support of our families, our own personal savings, small loans and international donations.
In January 2020 we launched the Bihar
Centre of Resilience
, which now operates out of the Bihar House.
The community programs we are currently running are prototypes for our future work, which we will scale up once we have evaluated and seen how effectively we are addressing local needs and creating lasting change. Though we planned to start small and slow, last year’s flooding which displaced some 10 million people in Bihar, and the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic, have kicked us into high gear.
We have already provided disaster relief to more than 15,000 people, trained 100 volunteers, grown 50 species of native species and food crops for a local community of 50 slum dwellers.
All thanks to local support and donations like yours.
See our
2020 work in this update.
And our
2021 work in this update.
As our programming has grown to far larger scales than we had initially planned, we have partnered with other regional initiatives, built our networks of support, and now see the full potential for the impact of a Centre for grassroots, community led, direct action here in the state of Bihar.
This is our story. Help us make it continue!
More on our story:
https://www.centreofresilience.org
https://www.vasudhaivaride.com
Risks & Challenges
Spreading the Word: We’ve had some incredible support from friends and family around the world in these past years. Our biggest challenge in fundraising is getting the word out to new circles. If you decide to contribute to this cause, help us overcome this challenge and tell your friends, family or colleagues why you decided to support us and what makes supporting work like this meaningful to you!
Dealing with complexity: Bihar is not an easy place to work, with frequent shortages of materials, power-outages and currently, the Covid 19 pandemic. Here we rely on Prashant’s 10+ years of experience in creating, training and managing teams in upcycling workshops that he has led in India and internationally. Prashant is also a macgyver to be reckoned with! He is very good at getting things done with what’s available. We call this jugaad , in Hindi. From the physical construction of the Bihar House, to coordinating volunteer crisis response teams during last year’s floods and the Covid 19 pandemic, Prashant is no stranger to leading efforts through challenging and complex situations.
Other Ways You Can Help
Some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean you can't help:
- Help us to get the word out and make some noise about our campaign!
- Share our campaign on Fb, IG, Twitter and Email. Every share goes a long way, trust us!
