PART 1: Making Every Drop Count

Whenever one thinks of growing, we find ourselves at the crossroads: expanding our branches to reach greater heights while keeping in touch with our roots. At SoulTree, we made a tough choice: to stay closer to our core.

One such partnership that keeps us grounded and gives us our much-needed strength, is our association with Uttarakhand. In more ways than one, it has been a constant challenge to give back to this very community we source many of our raw materials from. While working with the farmers and understanding the many concerns they face, we kept meeting the biggest of them all: the shortage of water.

And that’s how the journey of saving every drop of water began, with a problem to solve: nurturing livelihoods and sustaining our relationships with the farmers, all while continuing to produce quality, organic products. 

Ground Zero

While the near future, we see is one with every village we source from, being able to conserve and use water wisely, we all need to start somewhere to tend to this recurring problem. And so we did, with Talla Pali, a village in Uttarakhand, as ground zero, and with our local NGO partner, to execute the plan, and make the solution a reality. 

Dreaming a Reality

Despite knowing the in and out of agriculture, villagers in Uttarakhand, including Talla Pali, face many challenges to keep their livelihood afloat. From many of the men leaving their homes to migrate to cities, to shortage of water leading to less produce, the women of the village are left with the burden to generate income and keep their houses running, to sustain livelihood.

As SoulTree, we observed what this meant for the community before intruding. Whatever we do has to add value to the community, the collaboration and even to us. This meant that we could not just fund a village and sit back to see what happens – that would not be reason enough.

So, we made another choice: taking responsibility of the entire produce from this project, in return making sure that anything that the farmers put energy and effort into, does not go in vain. 

Making the Dream a Reality

And so, one drop at a time, the model village, and our water conservation project, we started to bring our idea to life.

With organic farms that have potential but lack resources like water, we imagined a plan to start with a model of this village so that it can be used as a learning - by empowering every villager to play their part and get the wheels of the idea moving.

With a broadly big but deeply specific plan that has deadlines, milestone, passion and will, in equal amounts, we set out.

Keep watching this space to find out how the project became a reality, step by step.