Postcards from India - 4 August 2011

Today we arrived in Delhi. As soon you set foot out of the airport the heat clings to you and doesn’t let go. You can only fully understand what Delhi is like when you weave in and out of the Delhi traffic, hear  horns blasting from all angles, rub shoulders and dodge the swarms of people scuttling around you; it is here that you feel the energy and intensity of the city. 

After arriving at the hotel we met up with Oli and Sunil, who are both teachers in the UK, who have recently set up IPE (Innovation in Participatory Education). We discussed our ideas  and plans for the sessions for next week in Leh that is taking place from 8 August to 13 August at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Leh.

Our visit marks the one year anniversary since flash flooding devastated large parts of Leh and surrounding areas in August, 2010. Multistory will be collaborating with IPE and Seeds to provide teacher training workshops, where the teacher, Stanzin, will be planning lessons with Oli and Sunil to introduce new teaching methods and  new active learning techniques which will use  creative activities such as photography to educate the pupils about the impact and risks of flooding in Leh.

Through this collaboration, we hope to explore new ways to engage and educate people about risk reduction in areas such as Leh, by combining the expertise of different stakeholders. These are Seeds in disaster risk reduction, IPE in participatory education and Multistory in participatory arts practice.

This project is part of the Small Change programme where we aim to start small: to research and develop new ideas, to share resources, expertise, knowledge and learning, in order to inform and develop bigger and more sustainable projects.