Camps And Workshops
Himalayan Ecocamp
An excursion is meaningful when learning can be experiential. This makes the excursion memorable, fun as well as a productive engagement. At Avani, each one has been working with the rural community in the Kumaon region of the lower Himalayas for over two decades.
With an abundance of knowledge and experience behind, Avani is now working towards developing a programme through which Avani’s knowledge and experience of sustainable entrepreneurship in rural India together with the wealth of traditional knowledge about crafts, culture and local natural resources can be shared with people from outside this region.
This camp is a step in this direction. Wishing to offer young adults the opportunity to see and experience a lifestyle of an agrarian community that
is located remotely, finds a balance with their natural environment throughtheir everyday practices and sustains a stable community life through a rich resource of cultural practices related to faith and occupation. In this six-day camp, the participants will be encouraged to discuss and reflect upon the theme of conscious consumption through an emphasis on the value of labour, understanding farming practices and conservation of natural resources such as forests.
The camp has been designed to enable the participants to experience the life of a community-based grassroots organisation as well as have the opportunity to observe everyday life in a Kumaoni village.
A combination of activities followed up with reflective discussions, hoping will leave participants enriched with thoughts and ideas that create an impression to last them for a lifetime.
Natural Dye Workshop
For colour and fabric enthusiasts, Avani offers a Natural Dye Workshop. Spread over a week, this workshop is for people interested in starting a journey with natural dye. The workshops have been of interest to individuals from the textile industry, craft entrepreneurs and even parents with children in alternative forms of education!
Meant as an introduction into how natural dye is produced and the various forms in which it can be applied to fabric, this workshop explores 6 different natural dye materials and their different shades. Six days in total, this workshop is structured to include 3 days of theory and demonstrations, two days of ‘self-practice’ and a day of excursion.
Workshop demonstrations are made using natural wool yarns, but self-practice is possible on fabric. Avani encourages participants to bring any of their previous dyeing experiments with them as well. If participants wish to dye specific clothes during the ‘self-practice’, they may bring along up to two metres of fabric. Fabric and yarn, however, is always provided to all participants.
