Banvari Workspace

On July 10, the interns went to visit another workspace in Karnataka in a village called Banvari. Banvari is much smaller than Kodaghalli; there are about 200 inhabitants in the entire village. The village itself is beautiful. All the residences are painted bright blue or green and the village seems to be built right into the surrounding agricultural lands. These fields are marked by a dark red clay, that is rather dry these days due to the lack of rain. The village is in the middle of a few raised plateaus and surrounded by forests. The residents of the village said that there were snakes, tigers, and elephants in these forests, so I think staying in the village will be quite an interesting trip.

From what I gleamed from the residents, the workers in the Banvari workspace are still in training. The workspace itself is a bit limited in comparison to Kodaghalli’s. From what I saw there are several sewing machines but no electric equipment or material for screen-printing. I think a couple of the interns will spend a few days in Banvari interacting with the women and their children. Given Banvari’s relative isolation, I think this will be very valuable in it of itself for the women’s participation in Ubuntu, which may feel like a very distant thing in a village of that size.