HESCO in its essence is truly rural as it derives inspiration from the villages and devises solutions for their problems. It helps them to focus on their economic and development needs and encourages them to tap local resources that open up new avenues to self- reliance. For the last 30 years, HESCO have been applying knowledge of the environmental sciences and simple technologies to bring consistent development to the rural villages of the Himalayas. Their innovative and ecologically-sound solutions so far, have yielded outstanding results in their target regions, and have brought them national recognition, and recently international attention for their contributions to rural mountain development considering the pioneering work and philosophy of HESCO team, armed with advanced knowledge of the environmental sciences and low-cost technologies. They live and do field research in the rural villages of the Himalayas. They live the Spartan lives of the villagers they serve, and tap the human resources of these villages to determine the real practical interventions necessary for their economic development. To grasp the aim and impact of HESCO’s work, understanding of pervasive poverty that exists in the day-to-day life of the people in India’s rural mountain villages is necessary. HESCO as the group is popularly known which its acronym, was formed in 1979 by a group of people who felt strongly over the rapid deterioration of the Himalayas. The group was formally registered under the firms and societies Registration Act (1960) in 1983 and under FCRA in the year 1991 to ease the formalities required by many associating agencies.
Vision
Dr. Anil Joshi and HESCO serving the rural villages of the Himalayas are demonstrating a viable and extremely successful model for rural development in India. Their positive outcomes are, no doubt, due in part to their adherence to the group’s core philosophy which could serve as inspiration to us all: * Serve in the spirit of dedicated volunteerism * Acknowledge and develop the natural talents of the people you serve * Give freely of your knowledge and time * Encourage self-sufficient and “simple” solutions to the practical problems of those you serve * Promote the practice of “shridan”: that every village which is helped with development, will in turn, adopt and help another village in their locality. * Promote sustainable development with a priority on environmental protection and economic independence
Mission
1. Resource based ecological and economical development of Himalayan community, 2. Building and empowering community organization for socio economical independence, 3. Science, Society and Institutional networking
Natural Resource Management,Sustainable Livelihood, Micro entrepreneur, Skill Development
Uttarakhand,Himachal Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir, North East States