Rajasthan, India, Ongoing
The Hope Project in India is creating a nature retreat in Ranthambore, a town in Rajasthan that is easily accessible from New Delhi, for the children living in inner city informal settlements. This will be a place where poor urban children can get away from the city and discover themselves and the world around them in a secure natural environment. The project site is close to a famous tiger sanctuary, and the town is known for its scenic beauty.
This project was co-designed with adolescent Muslim girls from The Hope Project school in Nizamuddin Basti, an inner-city, Muslim majority, informal settlement in central New Delhi. The girls have little permission to venture outside their community. The annual Kid’s in Nature camp, organized by the trust running their school, is one of the few vehicles for them to connect with the world outside their settlement. The charity decided, in consultation with the community, to build a permanent facility for this activity.
The girls and teachers accompanying them to the camps worked with architects from the ACE Trust to co-design the new permanent facility. The girls participated in various visioning workshops and worked with simulation tools to design the nature retreat. The students of the Hope Project school are now working with landscape architects to plant the multiple gardens and create natural wooded areas at the site.