2nd December was a big day for our partner the Happy Hands School for the Deaf, as we unveiled our plans for the new school building at Shikha Eco-Learning-Village. Odisha’s Minister of Planning & Convergence, Commerce & Transport Padmanabha Behera laid the Foundation Stone in a well-attended ceremony. This event followed from a successful fundraiser, in which the Happy Hands School raised Rs. 360,000 as a starting point for the first phase of construction of […]

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Tree Census Our recent Tree Census at Shikha Eco-Village showed how many different types of fruit trees have been planted over the past three years. Click on the link below to see the diversity of 319 fruit and nut trees  planted by Shikha developers. Other trees such as teak, sandalwood, etc, are not yet included in this census. Shikha tree census  

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The Happy Hands School for the Deaf has welcomed their latest arrivals, six additional deaf primary school children. The school has now grown to 30 children, and Shicol conducts research on alternative educational practices together with the International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies. The main cornerstone of education at Happy Hands is the use of sign language, the natural and accessible form of communication that every deaf child can fully participate in. The […]

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Five busy days awaited the participants of our short course on permaculture, an alternative framework for living sustainably. The Shikha campus was the perfect experimental ground, where we could collect and analyse soil samples, construct a greywater harvesting system, build a vegetable bed and spiral herb garden.  In between theoretical sessions about permaculture, the practical outdoor work kept everyone active and on their toes in heat of up to 45C. Permaculture trainer  Dharmendra Vepari from […]

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In our part of rural Western Odisha, practices, culture, and knowledge around food have changed a lot over the past decades. To explore this issue in some detail, Shicol sat down to discuss with a group of locals – women, men, and children. To reflect on something as mundane as what we eat, there is nothing better than explaining it to complete outsiders. Luckily, two guests from the UK, professors at the transdisciplinary Institute of […]

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