Our Story
Founded as a nonprofit in 2004, ANKURI — The Agency for Non-Konventional Urban and Rural Initiatives has been working in northern Uttarakhand, India, since 2000 and now supports over 100 women through a variety of projects that provide employment, education, and training in skills such as knitting, entrepreneurship, and organic farming. We structure our programs around the the belief that for sustainable social and economic development to be successful, an integrated approach is essential.
The word ankuri means a ‘sprouting seed.’ Just as a tiny seed has the potential to grow into a vast tree, ANKURI has grown from a single idea that was sown over fifteen years ago out of the desire to see the rural community grow and flourish into strong, independent, and respected members of their society.
Over the years, ANKURI has expanded this vision by creating an internship program to partner with universities in the United States and India. We have also hosted independent student interns from the UK and the Netherlands, to participate as catalysts in our programs. We are currently in the process of starting a small organic farm with the aim of creating a model permaculture system that local villagers can replicate.
We market our products through our social enterprise — Pure Hands by ANKURI.
Timeline
2000
Knitting program started as an employment generation program
2003
Participated in Dastkar Annual Craft Bazaars with products knitted by village women
2006
Started supplying hand-knitted mufflers and hats to FabIndia — www.fabindia.com
2007
Established an annual English summer school for village teenagers taught by US volunteers
FabIndia orders expanded to include stoles
Participated in Dastkari Haat Annual Bazaar
2008
Four week Internship Program with medical undergrad students from US universities
2009
Collaborated with designer Tahir Sultan
2010
Interns from US universities initiate annual Health Camps in partnership with www.dilse.com
Spinning Program in collaboration with Khadi Gram Udyog at the Rikholi campus
2011
Collaborated with Khadi Industries to train 40 women to spin
2012
Stitching and embroidery training for 40 women
Literacy Centre formally started
2013
Spinning Centre closes due to flash floods
First Literacy Centre intern
2015
Internship Program formally launched with US universities
2016
Research Intern from Maastricht University, Netherlands
2017
Agriculture Program formally launched
2018
Mushroom growing facility created to train local villagers
2019
Agriculture work on community farms begins