Participatory Rural Development Foundation

Participatory Rural Development Foundation has an office at 59 Canal Road in Shivpur-Shahbazganj. It’s a quiet area compared to the city center. Most people around here just call us the office on Canal Road. The building is an old house that we’ve turned into a workspace. There’s a garden in the front that we try to keep tidy, though the weeds usually win. We spend a lot of time out in the villages, so the office is often half-empty during the day. When we are all here, it’s a lot of talking and planning on old wooden tables. We have maps pinned to the walls and stacks of papers everywhere. The road outside can get very muddy when it rains, and the canal sometimes smells a bit earthy. We don't have much in the way of fancy tech, just a couple of old computers and a printer that jams when you need it most. We drink a lot of tea and talk to the farmers who come by to ask questions or share their problems. It’s a slow-paced environment but there is always something that needs to be done. We keep our boots by the door because of the dust from the rural tracks. It’s a simple life focused on the local community, and we like it that way. We usually lock up around dusk when the mosquitoes start coming out from the canal.