In 2005, Kalpavriksh started a new initiative to make natural colours with the disabled children of ASHA school in Pune. This project uses flowers discarded by large hotels and temples.

Generally hotels use a large quantity of decorative flowers which are discarded after a couple of days use. These may include gerbaras, roses, orchids and others. Temples also recieve several garlands in a day which are either thrown into rivers or diposed of. These flowers are collected on a daily basis by the staff of the ASHA school. The children are taught how to pluck the petals carefully, making sure to seperate the central core of the flowers. Different colours are also seperated to keep the consistency of colour.

Once the petals are seperated, they are then dried in the shade to keep the colour. The dried petals need to finely ground and mixed with fillers such as rice flour, to create powders that then give a rich and vibrant colour.

This simple and effective process achieves several goals simultaneously. Firstly, it gives a fragrant and colourful activity to the chidlren , providing them a therapy at the same time teaching them a new skill.  The project also reduces the amount of garbage that has to be handled by city corporations and results ina eco sensitive and natural product that people can use to celebrate Holi!!!

We would like to expand the network of people involved in the creation of such colours so if you work with a dispriveleged group of people and would like to introduce this skill to them please contact us!