BADI ASHA SCHOOL

Badi Asha in Hindi means “Big Hope”. About 167 students, ages 4 to 16, from kindergarten through grade 6, who live in Varanasi's impoverished Aurangabad district, receive free education at the school. We offer our students free healthcare, two nutritious organic meals, school materials and uniforms in addition to a child-centered, creativity-centered education and a secure place for learning and play. Additionally, we help our alumni with their secondary school fees.

We give great importance to the pedagogy aspect, in fact we design and implement regular training sessions for our teachers and our approach is based on non-traditional methods of education and pedagogy, inspired by the philosophies of Montessori, Steiner and Krishnamurti. Beside the regular curriculum we focus on art, music, drama and gardening which we use also in a therapeutic way for students with special needs. For our students and community members we offer computer training.

In the school, a Gender Equality Program leaded by Asian Bridge Foundation is offered yearly to our ex-students and school staff. The program, aimed to increase understanding of gender-based violence and its root causes in Indian society, covers topics as human rights, responsibilities, gender-based roles and gender-based discrimination, patriarchy, masculinity and sexuality.

BROWN BREAD BAKERY

Founded in 2006, is the first organic bakery and restaurant in Varanasi, India. As part of the Learn For Life Empowerment Project, the company offers free vocational training and employment for ex-students and underprivileged individuals, promoting sustainable organic farming and local food production.

The trainees' plan includes learning the German language and obtaining a visa for further training in Germany. In Varanasi, we have a restaurant and guesthouse that provide a safe, clean, and friendly environment for vocational training.

The guesthouse, located near the river Gange, offers a perfect location for exploring the city and resting on the rooftop restaurant. The company also offers a Tour Guide vocational training program, offering a unique insight on the city through the lenses of their own knowledge and experience of their own hometown.

Organic German Bakeshop is the unit of Brown Bread Bakery in Delhi which produces fresh bakery products, mainly German and Italian recipes, and a variety of packed food. We have partnered with three Delhi shelter homes to offer free bakery vocational training to 18-year-old boys and girls, aiming to equip them with valuable skills for their future after leaving the shelter home. The Varanasi branch produces most packed food, providing jobs for school mothers, improving their economic condition and self-esteem. All staff are provided with fair working conditions and free healthcare.

TAILORING PROJECT

Our Tailoring Project is committed to Community and Women’s Empowerment. In Indian traditional society, women are usually restricted to domestic work and do not enjoy economical independence. That is why it is important to create job opportunities for them.

Moreover, professional tailoring is normally considered as a ‘man’s job’ in India and therefore to acquire professional tailoring skills for a woman becomes truly empowering. The all-woman staff is trained to design and produce tailored goods which are sold under the “LEARN for LIFE” brand. All products sold are hand-made, the fabrics used are hand-printed and many are hand-woven and only natural dyes are used according the traditional techniques. 100% of profits go to further support the project.

TOUR GUIDE

Tourism has become one of the fastest growing industries worldwide; and in India it represents a substantial percentage of GDP, Learn for Life forces the great potential of this sector and the wealth that it could bring to Indian people, therefore we have started a new vocational training for tour guides in Varanasi.

The training is to provide the participants with a series of important hard and soft skills through Computer classes, English Language classes, Economy classes and History and Culture classes. As we are aware of the big environmental challenge that the world is facing, we know that Tourism can either play a positive or a negative role in such sense. Therefore, Learn for Life promotes a Sustainable Tourism, whose theory and practice are taught to the trainees as well. Furthermore, we ensure that the trainees internalize concepts such as work ethics, fair working conditions and professionalism which are always guaranteed to them from our side.