Fagunia Foundation

Fagunia Foundation is our social support initiative to make a positive impact on local communities and the environment. Ever since we started Fagunia, we have been keen to do our bit for improving the quality of life in our region. We initially focused on a few things that we could directly have an impact on. Like reducing our environmental footprint, ensuring our presence here and our hiring practices are helping to uplift the local economy (click here to read more about our sustainability initiatives), and enabling some rapid relief support during the COVID pandemic.

Over this period, we also informally engaged with communities around us to understand the local issues and challenges. Based on this understanding, we decided to conceptualize and implement social support initiatives in specific focus areas through Fagunia Foundation.

Fagunia Foundation

The foundation has identified the below focus areas to work on.

We have begun working on the following on ground initiatives currently and plan to implement more initiatives in the other focus areas soon.

Centre for Learning

On 15 May 2025, we started a Centre for Learning in Bajoon, a small village in Nainital District. The idea was simple: to offer a bit of after-school help to children around us in Classes 9-12, especially in subjects like science and math, where support is often hard to come by. Our initial aim was to lay a strong foundation for those aspiring to pursue higher studies in STEM fields. We began with just two children.

To our surprise, word spread quickly. Now, as of 25 Jul 2025, more than 30 children from five villages come to the centre every day. We currently run five batches, and have found three tutors locally who teach them science, mathematics, and physics.

For younger children (Classes 1–8), we’ve just started an activity-based learning program. It’s a space full of laughter, small discoveries, and lots of questions — exactly what we had hoped for.

That said, the pace of this growth has been a little overwhelming. So for the next few months, we’re going to focus on:

• Supporting and mentoring our current tutors
• Making the learning sessions more effective
• Strengthening the younger kids’ learning module

We’ve also had many parents ask if we could help their children prepare for entrance exams to residential schools like Navodaya and Him Jyothi. That’s something we’d love to work toward once we’ve found our rhythm.

We are deeply grateful to Justice Pradeep Nandrajog (Retd.) and Advocate Rameeza Hakeem, who stepped in early on to support this work — their generosity and encouragement means the world to us.

Establishing a Digital Lab and Infrastructure Support

In June 2024, through the generous support of Linde, we donated two desktop computers and other supporting equipment to the Government Primary and Middle School of Faguniakhet Village in Nainital District. The school lacked a functional computer and therefore the school children were lacking in digital literacy skills. The new computer equipment is expected to fill this gap and also support the school teachers in using multimedia tools to support their teaching.

With the support of the Taaran Trust, we also installed ceiling fans in all classrooms, including the Anganwadi Centre, at the school to help provide a comfortable learning environment during the summer months. We also purchased additional books for the school’s library for different class levels in multiple languages that will help to enhance learning and reading skills.

Going forward, we aim to introduce additional digital tools and modules that can enhance the digital skills of the school children. We also hope to expand this program to other schools in the region.

Co-curricular Education Modules

Co-curricular activities are structured programs outside the regular academic curriculum that complement and enhance students’ educational experience by developing additional skills and interests. Research shows that when children are exposed to co-curricular activities at school, their learning outcomes are significantly improved apart from improvement in social skills, mental health, peer engagement and communication skills.

With the support of experienced theater for learning practitioners Nidhi and Jayesh, we are currently implementing a pilot co-curricular activity program at the Primary and Middle School of Faguniakhet village. Based on the leanings and outcomes from this pilot program, we hope to scale this initiative to more schools in the district.

Improving Access to Public Health

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2021, with the support of actor friend Ashwath Bhatt, we collaborated on a support initiative to equip local health facilities at different locations in Uttarakhand with essential medical equipment to tackle the pandemic. We distributed the equipment amongst three well known local NGOs: Chirag, Aarohi and Agrani India Foundation’s Arogya Project to strengthen their COVID-19 healthcare initiatives at their community health clinics in the districts of Champawat, Almora and Nainital.

The support not only helped in pandemic mitigation measures but also strengthened their preparations for tackling the third wave of COVID-19. It also was able to bridge the health infrastructure and equipment gap that exists in the mountains. The supplies that were distributed included oxygen concentrators, oximeters, infrared and digital thermometers, face shields, N95 masks, surgical masks, PPE kits, oxygen masks, BP machines, vaporisers, reusable gloves, surgical gloves, surgical gowns, wheel chairs and more.

Fagunia Foundation is currently exploring the implementation of new public health initiatives that will improve access to well equipped primary health facilities and diagnostic services for remote rural mountain communities.

Donate/Support

If you are interested in supporting our social support initiatives and would like to donate, or if you would like to volunteer your time, do write to us on: hello at fagunia dot com.

Donors

We are grateful for the generous support of the following donors.

Partners and Supporters

Our special thanks to the following partners and individuals for their ready support, partnership and collaboration.