Dear friend,

We are only happy to receive you at Sarang. However, we have some basic infrastructure constraints. We appreciate that many of you are ready to stay in a tent and don’t mind the zero comforts, or just looking for a day trip etc.  However, it is also about our convenience.  Whatever roofs we have are being used for storing our books, music instruments and other equipment. Naturally, our minds are fully focused on finishing the first set of residential buildings. Then we will start with the visitors’ block, where we will have all the basics for receiving you. Until then you will have to wait.

Apart from the respective jobs we have, the master plan brainstorming and design discussions, we are the workers behind each building here. Hence the rather slow progress.  We will soon have a section on the website where we will be posting updates.

Can we make it faster?

With the kind of enthusiasm we see, the number of parents and kids waiting to experience Sarang, the youth who are willing to contribute physically, we might be able to expedite the process.  Do you think we can join hands and make things work faster? We have put further details below. Please read and let us know if you would like to join our efforts.

The visitors’ block is where we will be receiving visitors, doing the presentations on Sarang, conducting trainings and hosting camps. Volunteers and skilled labours can also stay here. We will be building it with mud, wood, bamboo and stone. As a last resort, we might use steel so as to finish things faster. There will be all basic amenities like compost toilets and solar power.

These are some of the key components of the visitors’ block:

  • 3-4 cottages which can accommodate at least 5 people each.
  • A compost toilet
  • A kitchen-dining-cum gathering hall (This can also become a partial dormitory for groups)
  • A rain water harvesting tank for all the roofs above and
  • A 1kw solar system for powering the block

Here is an approximate budget for the above at the time of writing this:

Sl.No Item Amount
1 Cottages 1.25 lakh each
2 Compost toilet 50 thousand
3 Kitchen-dining-cum-gathering hall 3 lakh
4 Rainwater harvesting tank – 25000 litre capacity 1.5 lakh
5 Solar system (We might get a 50% subsidy on this amount) 2 lakh

 

If we set this much up, we can re-start camps for kids, families can attend our trainings on the hills, volunteers / skilled hands can stay comfortably and work on further development and there will be space for people to sit, talk and involve in activities that Sarang has to offer. We have mud, wood and bamboo in our campus. The expense will be material from outside and skilled labour for harvesting material and building. Volunteering is another factor that will keep the costs at the mentioned level. (If you are wondering about the low budget. ? )

What we can do.

We are talking about 12-15 lakhs in cash / material, and necessary volunteer hours. Do you think together we can raise this amount? (and those who are interested in volunteering for Sarang can pitch in for this fundraiser in whatever way possible from their own locations)  Currently, Sarang Trust’s account is inactive due to no financial activity. Once the account is activated, we shall inform you and you can make the deposit.

Since we are talking about money, please note the following:

  1. It has been our policy to take condition-free donations. Please respect that. We have avoided funds from agencies and individuals who asked us to differ from our path. Even if you don’t understand some of our ideas, we have a reason for everything that we do and we don’t do here. You will have to trust us on that.
  2. We will send you the summery of expenditure at the end of the work / at a given interval. We are aware that when it comes to money, things better be transparent.
  3. There will be no tax exemption for your donations since we haven’t got the 80G yet. (In fact, since there is no financial activity for Sarang Trust we have given a written request to the income tax department to keep our 12 A registration valid even though there is no auditing happening – as you know, all the current activities are from our personal incomes.)
  4. If you find it difficult to donate, you can lend us money for long-term without interest. Honestly, we have no idea when we can return it, but with the basic infrastructure in place, we will be in a better position to pay back.
  5. Please note, we will continue to charge for the stay and accommodation from the visitors since we believe in self supported model. However, we will definitely work out something for the donors. We think that is only fair.
  6. See this as an investment for the betterment of education in the society. Your returns will be in the form of positive thinking good citizens. It is not just about your kids or our kids.

We would like you to know that we have no other life or goal than the realisation of Sarang. We might be slow, but we will build the rural university that we all dream about (while we know the process will become faster with financial support, we want to clarify that we won’t wait for the same)

While we interact with all kinds of people, children remain our priority. After all, they don’t wait for anything and they are growing up every day. The earlier we reach them, the better.

Want to talk further on this?  (Please use the form below only if you are interested in financial / construction material contributions.  For your comments, suggestions and queries, please use this form. )