Insight Walk
A COMMON VISION
Working in extremely marginalised and disadvantaged communities, to empower women and children through learning opportunities, which can help them break the cycle of poverty.
WHat THEY DO
Insight Walk works in villages that have no direct access to basic facilities, where parents work very long hours and where average household incomes are lower than INR 5,000 – 6,000 per month.
The Innovation and Passion Lab: A community centre that offers programs for children to learn through practical application and to develop ways to express themselves. The curriculum includes exposure to subjects like farming, basic electronics, stitching, crafts and product design and also involves bringing artists and musicians from the communities to share their skills.
The Insight Walk Fellowship: A program that engages local women to be inspired into agents of change, thereby strengthening the community ecosystem. Typically, a fellow is someone who couldn’t complete her education for reasons beyond her control. Insight Walk trains the fellows on the Door Step School curriculum, which focuses on basic literacy, practical experiments and hobby development. The fellows also receive weekly mentorship to address their challenges at the lab as well as at home.
Local women of the Insight Walk Fellowship
The Innovation and Passion Lab
Science: Windmill
Science: Geometry
Science: Magnets
Science: Pulley system
Basic electronics
Product design
The science of farming
Farming experiments
Agricultural equipment
Agricultural structures
Learning craft
Reusing materials
Lettering
Artwork
Learning to stitch
Making stuffed toys
CORNERSTONES
The curriculum is focused on hands-on learning, innovation, scientific curiosity and engaging the child’s immediate surroundings. Parents and families are frequently engaged at the lab so that they feel invested in their child’s progress.
Through the program, both the children and the fellows develop communication skills, interpersonal skills and self-awareness. They are encouraged to address local problems pertaining to their communities and to use materials readily available to them for their solutions.
Students conserve both financial and environmental resources by creating non-breakable & reusable diyas for Diwali using natural materials.
Students gain hands-on experience with organic farming, and create sustainable solutions by working as a collective.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
- About 270 children & 12 fellows have been part of the Insight Walk program across 9 villages in the district of Kolhapur, Maharashtra over a 2 year period.
- Children have shown improvement in reading, their ability to grasp new concepts and sensitivity towards the environment. The products they have created through the lab reveal an impact on their creative thinking and problem solving skill.
- Women who have been part of the fellowship program have show a marked increase in confidence, developed a sense of ownership and now take initiative to solve problems that arise in the course of program implementation. These women have been involved in training new fellows successfully. The fellows have also received support and encouragement from their husbands and families.
HIGHLIGHTS
The children made eco-friendly rakhis and Ganapati idols, where even the dyes were made from vegetables and flowers. These were then sold, and the money collected was gifted to the Gram Panchayat towards flood relief.
While the children are learning to organically farm the patch of land near their school, they have begun to develop practical solutions to problems of farming – such as an electronic grass cutter and farm umbrellas to ease their farming efforts.
