Rooted in Compassion: An Interview with Rahul Nagar of A Place for Us
In a remote village in Neemka, India, a quietly radical experiment in grassroots education is transforming the lives of children, families, and communities. A Place for Us is not merely a learning initiative, it is a living, breathing expression of holistic education, community integration, and conscious transformation. Emerging from the Alef Trust’s Conscious Community Initiative, the project nurtures young minds through mindfulness practices, nature-based learning, and an ethos of care that challenges the norms of traditional schooling.
In this insightful interview, Rahul Nagar, one of the project’s core facilitators shares his first-hand reflections on the challenges of gaining community trust, the visible transformation in the children, and the profound inner shifts experienced by the team itself. From building resilience amid infrastructural gaps to cultivating a new reverence for nature, A Place for Us offers a compelling vision of education as a vehicle for social and spiritual renewal.
From your perspective, what have been the most significant transformations you’ve witnessed among the children or families involved since the project began?
I have witnessed a lot of transformation amongst the children. For example, at the beginning, the project was perceived by the children as a weekend food programme. They came on Sundays just to get food – many of them are malnourished and hungry a lot of the time. Gradually, however, they started to understand that A Place for Us is more than that; they began to see that A Place for Us is an actual learning environment, but a different kind of one that doesn’t instil fear in them or exert pressure on them to memorise something in order to pass a test like in the conservative village schools they normally attend.
Initially, they were too shy to express themselves and struggled to listen or focus on simple instructions and explanations. Now, I can say they are confident in expressing their feelings about something, and they are able to listen, thanks to some of our mindfulness-based concentration activities, which have helped them significantly improve their concentration skills.
Another big change that I have witnessed is that they are able to live in harmony with nature. Although they have been living in a rural place (which is full of nature) since birth, their way of seeing nature has changed. Before the programme, trees and crops were viewed as objects; a way of gaining money, and the land itself was just a place where you do labour work. But now they have realised that trees, mustard flowers, and wheat grain are also conscious beings like us, and they respond to us in the same way we treat them.
One of our new projects, The Hand that Moves the Mustard Seed, helps the children understand the stages of transformation of a mustard seed (from tiny seed to full flower) by actually planting the seeds together and taking care of them throughout their growing process. But, of course, the mustard seed acts as a metaphor for the children’s own transformation, as we teach them inner practices to help them expand their own consciousness, from a tiny spark to something enormous.
There are many more transformations which can only be observed when you are with the children in person. So, I would like to invite you to come and see for yourself.
A Place for Us relies heavily on deep community integration. What has the journey been like building trust within the village – particularly with parents, local leaders, and those initially sceptical of outside involvement?
Without community support, this project cannot survive. Building trust amongst all stakeholders is ongoing. In the beginning it was very hard for us because the programme we were introducing was completely alien to them. We were talking about things like integrative learning and holistic education, and they had never heard of it. Up to that point, “learning” for them was only a means to an end; something to help you get a job, and we were encouraging them to engage with us in a holistic way.
In the early stages of the programme, rumours were spread that we were missionaries trying to convert children to Christianity or some other religion in lieu of free education and food. Getting the villagers to trust us meant showing up week after week to do the work, without trying to justify anything or prove ourselves through words, but reassuring everyone through our actions. And now, almost two and a half years later we have gained the trust of the children and their parents. They now accept that we are delivering a genuine education programme without any hidden agenda.
It has to be said that the villagers of Neemka district had had no exposure to the work of NGOs, so it was all very new for them. In India, building trust often requires having a physical building, something that we currently don’t have. We believe that some of the issues we had at the beginning could have been prevented if we had had an actual building.
Can you tell us more about the current challenges you face working within the legal, governmental, or infrastructural landscape in India? What does it take to keep the project running in compliance with local laws and systems?
We are not facing any legal or governmental challenges. Our challenges are more to do with infrastructure. We have issues with a lack of roads, electricity, and a building.
An earlier challenge we had was not being able to attract enough girls on to our programme. This was due to cultural beliefs (the local belief that there is no point in educating girls) as well as our own lack of infrastructure. However, some parents would have been slightly more interested in sending their daughters to a structured “school” with an actual building with classrooms, rather than an open-air Sunday social programme.
Female child safety was also an issue. Most of our male children walk around a mile to attend our programme. Some parents were fearful of sending their daughters because of perceived danger. To overcome this challenge, we found an auto rickshaw driver to bring the children to A Place for Us and then back home again. We now have female participants!
As well as that, we have followed all the rules and regulations for Indian NGOs, and the project is now being run as part of a new official NGO (A Place for Us Foundation).
As someone deeply immersed in the day-to-day life of the school, how do you support the well-being and development of the local facilitators and volunteers who help deliver the programme?
We have volunteers who help to deliver the programme, and we work with elderly as well as young people. Some provide support with the food programme and others are also involved in teaching/facilitation. Some members of our team are professional teachers (primary and secondary).
From the beginning of the project, Adi Vickers and I and the other facilitators have engaged in inner practices (including reflective practices) to ensure that we are working from a place of “wholeness”. We are aware that our ability to engage with the children and teenagers depends on our ability to be “whole”. This involves taking care of our own mental, physical, emotional, inter and intrapersonal well-being too.
In your view, what is the most urgent need or opportunity right now for the school’s growth – whether it be funding, land, materials, or something else?
We need basic infrastructure: a building that can house five classrooms, toilets, and the necessary plumbing work and electrical installations to be able to operate effectively. Land is not an issue because the NGO has enough land to build a school.
On a more personal note, how has working with A Place for Us shaped or transformed your own life, values, or sense of purpose?
Personally, I’ve benefitted hugely from this project. If I speak about inner benefits, then I would say I have become more disciplined in my life and I have also experienced a transformation in the way I see nature. I’m cultivating more patience in my life, a quality I did not have at the start of the programme.
Having had a background in accountancy and financial related topics, this project has brought me in a completely different direction in life. I feel a sense of alignment with my life purpose as I find myself involved in awareness based education.
I had been an avid meditator for many years, but this was the first time that I could find a way to transform an “individual” practice into something that could be used by groups of children in an educational context.
The outer benefits include the support we received from Alef Trust which enabled us to start the project. We were also invited to attend The Nurturing the Fields of Change Programme in 2023, and this was hugely helpful. Working with Adi Vickers and her vision of education, and meeting lots of new people who share a similar dream has been very enriching.
https://www.aleftrust.org/alef-applied/conscious-community-initiative/
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