Community MakerSpace Workshop Inauguration Ceremony

The Graminno workshop is envisioned as a Community MakerSpace Workshop that will provide all the facilities for Graminno team members to experiment and implement the innovations that help create an ideal living environment that combines harmony with nature and the benefits of technology.

The workshop will be used to conduct collaborative learning sessions for the village youth and children by our core team of volunteers. These are bi-directional learning sessions, where we try to learn from the villagers about their incredible skills of living in harmony with nature, while they learn from us about our skills of communication, technology and and project planning.

Though the workshop has already been used for sessions during the setup process, a formal inauguration ceremony was held on 21st November 2020 with the presence and blessings of the entire village community. The ceremony was officiated by Sivaram Laxman Khaire, one of the elders in the village.

The entire village assembled in the foyer of the workshop early on Saturday morning to attend the inauguration ceremony.

The village has two groups of homes - a relatively smaller group of homes belong to the Buddhist community and is called the Baudhvadi (बौद्धवाडी), and the rest of the homes are located a short distance away. The workshop is set up in one of the homes in the Baudhvadi.

The women of the village had dressed up in brightly colored sarees and were anxiously looking forward to the inauguration ceremony.

Tushar, the project coordinator for Graminno, his wife Sapna and little son Shiva were greeted warmly by Ashutosh Bijoor, CTO of Accion Labs - the organization that provides financial support for Graminno.

The inauguration speech was delivered by Anand Khaire, who is one of the young and dynamic leaders in the village. Anand provided a quick summary of the intentions of the ceremony, and welcomed everyone to participate in it. He also introduced Sivaram Laxman Khaire as a respected elder, and acknowledged the support of the Gram Sabha of Atale.

Sivaram Khaire then cut the red ribbon to officially declare the workshop open!

While everyone was enjoying the snacks served, Shahid and Amit from Accion Labs demonstrated the prototype of the Graminno Communication Network, that consist of a mobile app and a network of IoT devices to provide internal connectivity within the village, even though there is no public internet or mobile connectivity available within the village. This technology is powered by the Maze Framework developed by Accion Labs.