It has been two years since Pukka Herbs laid the foundation stone at Chennamaji High School, the start of Pukka’s ‘Ayur-Phal’ fair trade project in South West India. The school is at the heart of a community in a forest in the Western Ghats that includes farmers who are growing some of Pukka’s finest Ayurvedic herbs. The decision to support the school was one that came easily; there are few things valued more by the community than the future of their children, and by supporting their education and health Pukka hope to show how much the company values the healing herbs they continue to provide us.
The ‘Ayur-Phal’ fair trade project has been both rewarding and challenging, and after two years Pukka are closing the first chapter and taking stock of what the company has been able to achieve and where to go from here. The aim has been to build new classrooms, improve the standard of teaching and introduce environmental education, help the school generate income through growing organic herbs and provide Ayurvedic healthcare to the community. Looking back it can be seen that some of the aims have been achieved; others are partially or yet to be realised.
After laying the first stone in 2007, a solid foundation for six new classrooms was constructed. This was then followed by long-awaited recognition of the school by the government, entitling the school to a regular source of funding to support the teachers’ salaries and general improvements to the school’s infrastructure. This additional support has been a great boost to the school, and especially to the morale of the teachers who had previously been working on a voluntary basis. The only setback has been that the integration of the school into the vast and somewhat baffling bureaucratic system of the local government has held up construction of the school building while a new committee of decision-makers is formed and rather lengthy decisions made. The outcome will determine whether or not Pukka will continue with funding the school buildings or whether the government can take this on itself.
