ESTP GROUPE

Balenahalli it’s a small village 60km north of Mysore in the state of Karnataka, it’s known for its diversity, culture, nature and cuisine. The community of Balenahalli belongs to the tribe called Jenu Kuruba, Jenu means Honey and the term Kuruba generally refers to shepherd. They were re located from Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, more than hundred years ago. The government of India identify them as primitive tribe under the integrated tribal development project and accordingly the welfare measures on basic needs and alternative land is given to construct houses and live. At the movement there are 75 families with 250 members living in this village. Since they moved in to their new environment they are struggling to integrate themselves in to main streams society. It was in 2012 we got request form our partners JR-France to set up a service learning project for a group of university students from HILAPS from Paris. Their main requirement is their students to work along with the community on a developmental project where the volunteers and the community would work together to bring out the change. As FSL-India works with many organization to implement developmental projects, we were able to identify Balenahalli and soon found out that the community in the Balenahalli village lacks sanitation facilities, awareness and practices. The project is about to improve the sanitation facilities in the village including relevant awareness and teaching activities. For Schools: Renovation of classrooms to give more space to the school for bringing more children in future. Developing the school Infrastructure and Beautify the school premises and promote non formal education to the children. Also to bring awareness on waste management and Health and Hygiene to the school children. Hence the volunteers will be involved in renovation, mural painting, waste management, Kitchen gardening, Tree plantation and Educational drawing. For Community: The volunteers will be Involving in Toilet construction and giving awareness on waste management, Health and Hygiene activities to create a safe and clean environment in and around the village. This will helps to the community improve their health and social status. The volunteers will also have chance to interact with the Tribal community and local engineering students to have multicultural experiences. The leisure activities will be visiting cultural sites during the weekends and explore the city and the villages. There will be review meeting at the end of the day and a midterm evaluation to discuss about the Progress made, challenges faced and plan for the next week.