Gramya: a hut, a farm and twenty villages

In February 2006 our founder, Shri Sameer Mohan, decided to live in a hut on a farm off the Bareilly–Pilibhit road. A few volunteers joined him, with no electricity and the barest of facilities. That farm and that hut became the first identity of Khushhali, and the beginning of Gramya, the Foundation's programme for integrated rural development.

The farm was first set up as a training centre for organic farming. Volunteers made compost from cow dung, pest repellents from cow urine and neem, and manure from farm waste using the NADEP method. Farmers from twenty surrounding villages were invited to the centre to learn, and many decided to farm organically themselves. To make sure they earned a fair price, the Foundation sold their organic produce to its own volunteers and supporters in the city.

Soon the farm was bringing more to the villages. Doctors from Bareilly came to hold medical camps, and scientists from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute held camps for livestock. Education centres for village children, sewing centres for women and gymnasiums for young men followed; by September 2012 the sewing centre at Garem was holding its own prize distribution, and in June 2017 a newspaper reported on the vermicompost being made at the farm under the headline "Khushhali brings Bapu's dreams down to earth". Gramya has since reached more than fifty villages, with its regular work concentrated in about forty villages of Nawabganj block.

The Foundation's motto took shape in those years, and it still guides its volunteers: Samajhdar banein, Zimmedar banein, Bhagidar banein — understand, take responsibility, take part.