Outreach

  • 347 villages
  • 44,849 families

Regenerate

Revitalize

Restore

OUR STORY

The Timbaktu Collective is often compared to a Banyan Tree, like a forest itself, housing so many insects, birds and animals, having multiple roots.

Its origin is also as complex. It needed a woman from Kerala and a man from Bengal to come together in Anantapuramu District of Andhra Pradesh. The man, known as Bablu aka Choitresh Kumar Ganguly, arrived on the 1st of April 1978 and stayed on. The woman, Mary Abraham Vattamattam, arrived on the 15th of May, 1978, stayed a few days at the Rural development Trust (RDT) and then went on to work amongst the tribal people of Srikakulam, in North Andhra Pradesh.

Bablu and Mary actually met only in 1981, in a meeting in Penukonda. It took another five years for Mary to return to Anantapuramu district and continue her journey, with Bablu.  

RECENT EVENTS

INITIATIVES

Dharani

The Organic farming initiative of the Timbaktu Collective began in 2005 and today it works with 2,072 smallholder farmers from 70 villages spread across 10 mandals of Sri Satya Sai and Anantapuramu districts.

Swasakthi

Initiated in 1992, Swasakthi is the flagship programme of the Collective. It has promoted four independent alternative financial institutions. They are owned and run by 31,103 marginalised women, across 324 villages. Together, they have a capital base of INR. 52,12,25,372 (approximately USD 6.3 million).

Kalpavalli

Kalpavalli (“eternal source of abundance”) is the Collective’s work on the restoration of village commons. Initiated in 1992, Kalpavalli programme seeks to reverse the damage caused.