Outreach Programmes

Bhoomi College is now a name to reckon with when it comes to Education for Sustainable Living, Organic and Natural farming, Holistic Education and Nature Education. Hundreds of Bhoomi fellows in over 10 cohorts have been involved not only in learning practices and processes of sustainable living but also in self-exploration and building perspectives on politics of modern development.  Most of them are now engaged in multiple roles in NGOs, the social enterprises they have started or in other activities.

Over the last few years, many organisations and educational institutions have approached us -

• to conduct programs/workshops/interactions/visits for their members/students. Very often we receive requests from the students of architecture to visit and explore sustainable buildings and a sustainable educational space.          
  We have organised programs and visits for school children for Nature Connect engagements. Some of the schools that have visited the campus are-– Sandeepani Academy for Excellence, Aurinko Academy, Atelier School etc.
• Bhoomi has always been open to sharing our understanding, learning, and experiences in educational processes gathered over more than 2 decades. We have been consultants to some institutions to support them in transforming themselves to being more ecology and earth sensitive spaces.

We have also organised programs for renowned educational institutions and organisations such as Azim Premji University, Denmark Technological University, Srishti School of Design and Technology, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Christ University, TVS Motor Company (Education Division), VCIL, Buzz Women, Unifly, ALC, ATA-Chennai etc.

Following are the programmes undertaken: 

1. Online Holistic Learning Program for Adiyar Theosophical Academy (ATA)
2. Azim Premji University - Sustainability Learning Visit
3. Buzz Women – Learning from Bhoomi’s Practices
4. One-day workshop with the students of the Masters in Sustainable Leadership of Denmark Technological University (DTU)
5. Course Design and Delivery for NIFT Gardening & Landscaping Elective
6. Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology - Connecting with Self, Land, and Community
7. ALC-TII – Sustainability Learning Visit
8. Partnering with TVS Motor Company for The Nature Education sessions in Government Schools in Hosur, Tamil Nadu
9. Unifly Collective – Holistic Education Learning Visit
10. VCIL Community – Learning Alternate Development Narratives Visit

Online Holistic Learning Program for ATA

ATA approached Bhoomi College to conduct online workshops for their teachers on Holistic Learning. ATA is a school situated in the campus of the Theosophical Society, one of the green patches in Chennai which lends itself to doing activities that connect the self with the environment. Their pedagogy is exploratory and process oriented.

Bhoomi offered the following modules over six sessions conducted online for 15 of their teachers. Sessions were focused on the following themes:

1. What is education for? - Evolution of education, principles of modern day education, promises vs reality
2. Systems thinking and habits of a systems thinker
3. Gaia Theory - Earth as a living being, object and process perception
4. Seeing the whole self – Understanding and accepting diversity in each child.
5. Seeing the whole child - Erik Erikson and stages of growth
6. Circle Time – To build perspectives, brainstorm to find solution to a problem or to resolve an issue.

Azim Premji University - Sustainability Learning Visit

Azim Premji University (APU) runs a Master’s program in Development and the second year of the program has a specialisation in Sustainability. As part of this elective the students and facilitators visit Bhoomi campus to observe and experience a sustainable space where organic gardening, rain water harvesting, recycling water, solar power, eco-friendly buildings etc. are integrated in the system and practice.

Facilitators from Bhoomi College engage with the students and talk about the thought and philosophy behind these practices and how the physical environment impacts the way of living of the people who come to Bhoomi. Post the talk they hold their sharing and discussion in their own group.

Buzz Women – Learning from Bhoomi’s Practices

The organisation works with women in the marginalised sector. Buzz Women is a global ripple movement of women finding their inner strength and then creating unstoppable waves of transformation in their families and communities.

Holistic training and hand-holding programs address various dimensions of poverty through the 5 Cs—Cash, Care, Climate, Community, and Confidence. The interventions are tailored to be context-specific and impactful, ensuring they meet the real needs of the communities.

A group consisting of Buzz ambassadors (donors and well-wishers) coming from the Netherlands, along with the middle management at Buzz Women India and other team members, visited Bhoomi College to explore certain strategic questions for the organization. 

The group interacted with the Bhoomi team to gain insights into the ecology and climate- resilient activities and to understand and learn from the processes and practices at Bhoomi. The members of the team visiting from Buzz, were from diverse backgrounds. A total of 13 members were part of this visit.

The team from the Netherlands comprised entrepreneurs and founders from diverse sectors, including marketing communication, digital transformation, healthcare, legal, art and history, venture capital, and personality development.

The team from India included managers and associates with educational backgrounds in the social sector. They have experience in NGO operations, training, and knowledge of agriculture and soil fertility. The staff also bring expertise in Finance and HR.

One-day workshop with the students of the Masters in Sustainable Leadership of Denmark Technological University (DTU)

Background

Denmark Technological University organises a field visit to India for students of their Masters in Sustainable Leadership. The objective of the workshop is to get the participants to broaden their perspectives of leadership models.

The Workshop

The overall intent is to help participants strengthen their inner grounding, expand their understanding of leadership through a more connected and ecological lens, and foster a deeper alignment between their personal growth and the systemic change they seek to create.

The experiential sessions get the participants to examine, in every one of our systems, institutions, communities, fields of study and our individual lives - our fundamental approach and thinking from the perspective of nature’s principles - Diversity, Interdependence, Cyclicity and flow, Part and the Whole and Self-regulation - as our First Principles.

The participants are given exposure to various frameworks and concepts. They get to engage with nature as a teacher for systems thinking, resilience, perceptions, complexities, personal growth and Eco-Leadership. Through frameworks such as the Hero’s Journey exercise, participants are encouraged to explore their own leadership paths — recognizing characteristics needed to drive sustainability initiatives within complex, real-world contexts.

The participants also get to interact with Seetha the founder of Bhoomi Network, a practitioner deeply rooted in this work, offering real-life insights into sustaining commitment in the face of challenges, and learn from her journey. Especially how one continues to works with complex and challenging contexts.

The participants also experience reflective and meditation practices that support them in integrating their learnings at both a cognitive and emotional level, leaving them with a stronger inner foundation, a broadened vision of leadership, and a deeper sense of connection — both to the living systems they seek to transform, and to their own journeys ahead.

Takeaways

The workshop leaves participants with:

• A deeper understanding of leadership as an inner and outer journey
• Practical frameworks that bridge ecology, systems thinking, and personal growth
• An expanded sense of what it means to lead with empathy, courage, and connection
• Renewed energy and inspiration for their ongoing work in sustainability

Course Design and Delivery for NIFT Gardening & Landscaping Elective

NIFT, Bangalore offers a diverse range of General Electives to the UG students. It is a 35 hours credit course aimed at giving students exposure to many skills.

NIFT approached Bhoomi College to conduct the Gardening and Landscaping elective for their students.

This included designing a gardening curriculum for 35 hours, conduct sessions, engaging with students, arranging for the tools/equipment and other material needed for gardening as well as guiding students for hands on work. Since this was a credit course it also included assessment and evaluation which was based on students’ presentations and hands on work.

As part of this elective the group created a terrace garden and grew some vegetables and flowers. They learnt the basics of starting a garden and maintaining it.

The curriculum designed by Bhoomi covered the following topics –

1. Introduction – historical and economic perspective, connecting with food and land etc.
2. Introduction to Gardening - Gardening Basics, Urban and Rural gardening, Understanding Your Climate and microclimate, Gardening Tools, what can be grown and where, Explore and design the planting area: Maybe Terrace etc.
3. Learning about the Soil - Learn about different kinds of soil, Different growing mediums, Life in the soil
4. Starting an Organic Garden - Organic and Urban Gardening, Choice of plants, Companion plants, Rotation plants, Starting seedlings and Transplantation, Sowing Seasons.
5. Terrace Gardening - Basics of Terrace gardening, Choice of containers, make your own container, Soil improvement, Soil preparation, Preparing soil in pots, Sowing seeds/saplings.
6. Manure & Composting - Preparation of Manure: At home and fields, Composting: Aerobic and Anaerobic, 4 Stages in Composting, composting at home: Do’s and Don’ts, Create a compost Bin, Mulching (dry / green)
7. Pests, diseases and Weeds - Pests, diseases in the garden and how to identify them, Natural Pest control methods, Mono-cropping vs. Multi cropping
8. Natural Landscaping - Understanding basic principles of designing a natural garden/landscaping, Learning to identify different trees, shrubs, creepers etc, to plan a garden
9. Design and aesthetics of a garden - Understanding basic elements for designing a garden/landscaping, Landscape planning, its elements and design

Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology - Connecting with Self, Land, and Community

The visit was part of an ongoing design project titled RePair – Learning with and from Nature, which gets the students to move from an anthropocentric to an eco-centric way of thinking in their daily lives.

The four-day programme, centred around the theme, Connecting with Self, Land and Community. The programme offered an experiential understanding of what it means to live in more conscious relationship with the Earth.

Through sessions the students engaged in Eco-centric Ways of Living, Perception, Seeing the Whole–Gaia, and Seeing the Whole–Self. The students explored the key shift from separation to interconnection. The community engagement brought about the integration of the head with the heart and hands.

ALC-TII – Sustainability Learning Visit

Transforming India Initiative (TII-alcindia.org/tii) is a 2 year post graduate programme offered by ALC, combined with post incubation support to help interested youngsters and professionals start their own social enterprises.

As a part of the programme, reflection workshops are conducted at periodic intervals. Each of these workshops is centered around a thematic area - rural immersion, inner engineering, cooperatives, women enterprises, urban immersion, etc. and help seekers gain an in-depth perspective of the space.

The organisation wanted the fellows of TII to visit Bhoomi College as part of their reflection workshop where the focus was around building an environment, material and a sustainability consciousness in the seekers. The workshop included visit and interactions with individuals and enterprises in this space.

Bhoomi organised a half a day engagement with the group which was focused on –

• How sustainability and eco consciousness is instilled through education (for children and youth)
• Examples of the impact of this education on the students.
• A brief understanding of the approach, principles, policies and curriculum that ensure this.
• What were some of the challenges faced in this journey and what practically worked.

A quick tour of the school and college.

Partnering with TVS Motor Company for The Nature Education sessions in Government Schools in Hosur, Tamil Nadu

Bhoomi partnered with TVS Motor Company in their Greening Minds Programme – A programme that looks at integrating Nature education in the school curriculum.

The project required Bhoomi College to design a curriculum and conduct sessions while involving teachers, in 5 TVS partner govt. schools in Hosur.

The team, initially visited each of the selected schools, meeting with headmasters and teachers to understand the contexts and challenges - management perception, teacher acceptance, class strength, space constraints and English comprehension proficiency of the students. Drawing from these conversations,

• A curriculum was designed to kindle the children’s curiosity and love about nature and conservation.
• A baseline test was designed to get an understanding of the current level of awareness of the students. 
• A Student orientation was conducted to introduce children to what they can expect from the program and a general discussion about what Nature means to them and to introduce them to the interconnections in nature.
• A Teacher Orientation was conducted with the teachers to introduce them to the nature education program.
• Orientation was followed by weekly classes in each of the 5 schools by a Bhoomi facilitator. These classes were conducted for the academic year 2023-24.

The classroom and outdoor sessions with the students were, based on Bhoomi’s experience in holistic education, a mix of experiential learning, place based learning and multiple intelligences to foster enabling careful observation and nurture curiosity about nature; Making learning relevant, tangible, and deeply engaging. The sessions covered topics such as trees, soil, birds, mammals, reptiles, butterflies and many more. Field visits formed a key part of the program, with students exploring the TVS Hosur campus forest, butterfly garden, and Rare, Endangered and Threatened (RET) garden, as well as touring the factory to observe how industry and nature can coexist.

The program reached over 160 students in 5 schools, many of whom noticed local biodiversity for the first time. They began seeing more birds, trees, and insects in their daily lives, and some shared what they learned with their families and communities. The experience showed that learning about nature in nature helps turn awareness into appreciation and care.

Unifly Collective – Holistic Education Learning Visit

The Unifly Collective (TUC) is a non-profit established in 2018, working towards building leadership capacities in principals and students. The Collective run capacity-building programs (Rehnuma) for principals in budget private (Mumbai and Delhi NCR) and government schools (Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh) for the same.

As part of the Rehnuma program (Leadership Retreat), the Collective took school principals to Bangalore to expose them to exceptional learning spaces from which they can draw inspiration. The focus of the exposure visit was to help them build sustainable partnerships and showcase outstanding educational models around student leadership and community engagement practices.

The group of principals wanted to visit Prakriya to experience the holistic education model, and inspire the school principals to implement learnings in their school as well.

Bhoomi College organised an interactive session to engage with the group. The program started with the tour of the campus and talking about how physical environment is important for a holistic learning experience. This was followed by a sharing by the facilitators some of the first principles, core philosophy, some of the teaching-learning processes, teacher-child relationship etc. The conversation also included some stories of transformation where facilitators had experienced the positive change in a child which was possible due to a space that is non-judgemental, allows children to express their thoughts and feelings and accepts them for who they are.

VCIL Community – Learning Alternate Development Narratives Visit

Vietnam Community of Integral Living is a community based in Vietnam. The organisation advocates for a society that values regenerative practices and well-being. It encompasses alternative education, Social Entrepreneurship and Alivelihood, Regenerative Development and Community and Ecosystem Building.

Bhoomi conducted a 3 day program for a group of 20 students and educators from VCIL, who were on a gap year and at the beginning of learning and discovering about the world with a new perspective or definition on education, economy or development. The objective was to give them an introduction to the connections between technology, culture, ecology, sustainability, economic growth, GDP, issues of scale, the role of powerful corporations and the assumptions of prevailing economic systems. Ecological economics and various experimental alternatives were also explored. Participants were introduced to the work of Mahatma Gandhi, E.F. Schumacher, Jerry Mander, Dr Ashish Kothari, Dr. Aseem Srivastava, Charles Eisenstein among others.