Dusty Foot Foundation

Within Green Hub Northeast, besides the fellowship programme, significant efforts are directed towards enhancing the alumni network with a specific focus on conservation and livelihoods. As part of this initiative, two locations, namely West Karbi Anglong in Assam and Kiphre in Nagaland, are spearheading community-based eco-tourism endeavours led by Green Hub alumni. The Titli Trust, renowned for establishing successful models in Uttarakhand, is guiding the project, alongside collaboration from EcoSystems-India.

In 2014, Rita Banerji founded The Green Hub Project in collaboration with Northeast Network (NEN). It empowered disadvantaged youth in Northeast India through visual media to drive conservation and social change. The Green Hub Video Fellowships showcased untold stories, highlighting the region's richness and vulnerability. With 88 fellows across 8 states, the project promotes positive change, youth leadership, local entrepreneurship, climate action, sustainability, gender equity, and well-being. The collaboration between Dusty Foot Foundation and North East Network extends to Central India, expanding the successful DFF-Green Hub Fellowships model.

In January 2015, Dusty Foot Foundation (DFF) partnered with PVR Nest's Childscapes programme to provide non-formal education, nutrition, well-being, employability, and skill-building support to at-risk youth and children in Delhi. DFF established five centres, conducted community outreach in Delhi's JJ clusters and factory areas, and trained a dedicated ground team. Workshops on awareness, rights, gender, creative therapy, and exposure visits were organised. Around 4,000 youth and children were connected with the centres in the first two years. Childscapes focuses on holistic development through non-formal education, academic and computer literacy, talent exploration, livelihood skills training, and awareness of rights. It also addresses nutrition, healthcare, substance abuse rehabilitation, and well-being.

Dusty Foot Foundation collaborated with the Green Growth Initiative to produce video resources for a Sustainable Urbanism project. These videos were recorded during a workshop supported by the University of East Anglia, Savitribai Phule Pune University, People's Resource Centre, and UNESCO C2C World Natural Heritage Management & Training Centre for the Asia Pacific Region.

In each Green Hub batch, there is typically representation from the forest patrolling staff of various wildlife sanctuaries in the Northeast region. This support aims to establish forest studios, providing the fellows with on-location editing stations. The pilot locations for this initiative are the Pakke Tiger Sanctuary and Dampa Tiger Reserve. Additionally, the project seeks to initiate a network of forest frontline staff across the Northeastern region and create a consortium of retired forest frontline staff as a resource persons group.

The project encompassed forest divisions in four Assam districts: Sonitpur, Nagaon, Cachar, and Dibrugarh. Conducted by TERI and DFF, the project involved household surveys and focus group discussions with forest village households, forest fringe village households, and tea estate labour households. The objective was to understand the energy utilization patterns, including LPG, fuelwood, kerosene, and electricity, among the villagers. Over 72% of Assam's households rely on fuelwood, impacting the environment and the health of women and children. Awareness campaigns featuring street plays were conducted to promote fuelwood-saving technologies like improved cookstoves, LPG, and biogas. The Adivasi tea tribes actively participated in training on improved cookstove production, offering them an alternative livelihood option. Short films and street plays were employed for effective communication outreach.