MakerGhat aims to develop a MAKER MINDSET among youth. We encourage youth to develop a sense of agency and confidence to address local and global problems. They not only learn technical and soft skills but also think about, design, and implement solutions to challenges in their communities and beyond.
Our Vision:
Creating Community Leaders
At MakerGhat, we firmly believe that the best people to address challenges for communities are those from these communities. Unfortunately, historical inequalities have made it challenging for underserved communities to be heard and obtain the resources they need for societal change. MakerGhat creates safe and open community spaces equipped with resources and mentors. Our goal is to facilitate social and economic change at the hyperlocal level by supporting the creation of community leaders. Over time, we will evolve into an incubator for projects, enabling youth to launch social and commercial enterprises that empower their communities.
The MakerGhat team has years of experience working with underserved communities in the education and development domains. We have first-hand experience with their creative potential, despite (and often because of) their lack of formal education. Among youth, in particular, there is a thirst to challenge the status quo and maximize their potential, but limited opportunities. MakerGhat provides a platform where they can nurture and showcase their talents, in an environment where they are free to experiment and contribute to society in a variety of ways.
Why make?
Making is a powerful practice for several reasons.
It connects with and views with respect and dignity the historic practices of crafts, repair, agriculture, small businesses, and other hands-on activities that are part of the daily environment for the vast majority of students in India.
It offers concrete and tangible results to youth which builds confidence when their worth is too frequently tied to grades. Students become co-creators of knowledge and products, not merely consumers.
There is sound evidence on maker education’s ability to deliver learning outcomes on critical thinking, problem solving, and risk-taking.
It requires minimal resources to get started, and can be adapted fairly easily to connect with the context that students are in.
Our maker culture is…
Community-Centric: Young people provide the human resources and energy for driving the various activities at MakerGhat. They identify the challenges and potential solutions that are most compelling and relevant to them and their communities.
Collaborative: Young people not only use the resources of the makerspace to generate original products but also help and inspire others to realize their ideas. We also develop partnerships between students, researchers, social enterprises, domain experts, and more around the world to support projects.
Self-Driven: We provide scaffolding to the point where students are able to advance their own learning. We “graduate” students from MakerGhat so that they can pursue their own careers. We hope to create a domino effect where alumni of MakerGhat go on to inspire others in their communities.
Inclusive: We are particularly interested in supporting populations for whom opportunities to engage in such activities may be limited. We plan the location, timings, and costs of our programs to enable as many people to attend as possible, especially girls, and youth in rural areas or going to government schools.
We are also committed to sharing our curriculum, materials, and other program resources with individuals, communities, and organizations. Our model and materials have been contextualized to Indian settings, and may need further adaptation locally, which we are happy to assist with.