In November 2024, the team visited Ahmedabad and Jawaja to kick off the project collaboration. At the beginning of the visit, the team was hosted at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. There, they learnt about the available expertise and courses and held project meetings and visited the campus.
During the visit, the team had the opportunity to learn more about the history of the Jawaja project. This was a collaboration between NID/MID project on rural development. The project “The ‘Rural University’ experiment” was one of many interventions from NID to learn how to educate designers to generate impact through design.
Thereafter, the team travelled to the Jawaja community in Beawar Rajasthan, where they met members of the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja (AAJ) which practiced both weaving and leatherwork.
This gave the team invaluable time to meet, discuss the project, and exchange knowledge about craft and other aspects core to the research. Crafters also had the opportunity to discuss their needs, the impact the project can generate for them, and ongoing challenges in their craft.
In conclusion, the short trip provided an excellent opportunity to kick off the activities that will be developed during the project.