Ecdp Foundation

Down in Chhatauni, near Sameshi in the Mohanlalganj area of Lucknow, that’s where you’ll find us. It’s quite a bit of a drive from the main city center, so things are a lot slower out here. The air feels a little different, and there’s more space between the houses. Our office is a straightforward building, nothing too modern or eye-catching. We spend our days dealing with the locals and handling the day-to-day tasks that come with running a foundation in a place like this. Sometimes the electricity goes out for a bit, so we just sit out front and talk until it comes back on. It’s not like those big offices you see in the city with glass walls and uniforms. We just wear what’s comfortable and get to work. Most of the people who come by are neighbors or folks from the nearby villages who heard about us through word of mouth. We do a lot of listening. There’s always someone with a story or a problem, and we try to be there to hear it. The furniture is mostly wooden, and we have a big table where we spread out all our papers. It gets dusty because of the roads, but we don't mind much. We’ve been part of this community for a while now, and we just keep plugging away at the work.