The Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary is a forest garden in the Western Ghat mountains of Kerala, India, dedicated to conservation and education. Hard Rain Project offsets its residual carbon footprint by purchasing land on behalf of the sanctuary, set aside for the planting of trees, the conservation of native flora and fauna, and the restoration of degraded habitats.
Landscapes and Lifeskills course 2009–10: call for students
For many years we’ve been exploring working and learning possibilities at the sanctuary and this season we would like to open the space up for more self-guided programmes. For those interested, possibilities exist here of experiencing community life, gaining knowledge, acquiring skills of body and mind, exploring questions important to us, designing and engaging in nature-centric studies. Based on all this we’re open to creating a self-guided working and learning community experience together.
The Sanctuary’s School in the Forest programmes (now 16 years old) as well as the Landscapes and Lifeskills course (fifth year) have attracted many people from the region as well as around the world. We wish to draw upon the learning from all these educational encounters to offer a more flexible community-based opportunity for individuals or small groups to learn together with us, from the natural world.
The L&L course has been redesigned this year to be structured more like an internship at the GBS end (please ask for the brochure). Those who wish to experience the full range of learning offered under the L&L programme benefit greatly by doing the whole thing, December 1st to May 30th). However, like in previous years there is room for individuals to join in shorter stretches, hence this flyer "Season of Shared Learning". We will probably still offer some of the modules we have run in past years, but this will be decided by the interest of the group and may run at short notice. Look out for announcements!
Our vision is that small groups, individuals or volunteers become part of the working community; pitching in for 4 or more hours of work a day as well as some payment for food and accomodation. (See flyer).
Time, people and resources would be available to create learning experiences unique to every person’s interests and capabilities.
Read the flyer and please let your circle of youngsters (and others!) know about all this.
Suprabha, Sandy and Chaiti
GBS education team
Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary
