URAVU began as a collective of friends, individuals with social consciousness, political convictions, and doubts too. People who were searching for alternative ways of living, meaningful social practices, sustainable political and economic interventions for social well-being.
Uravu is a non-governmental organization registered under the Indian Trusts Act. Uravu works with people, governments and private businesses as a development partner. It is an institution in the making.
Establishing sustainable rural micro enterprises based on the processing and value addition of local, natural resources is the major challenge taken up by Uravu.
Uravu works mainly with bamboo, the “Green Gold,” the “resource of the 21st Century,” and implements end-to-end programs in the bamboo sector.
The focus of Uravu is on developing bamboo processing skills among rural women through training programs and introduction of appropriate tools, technologies and processes.
Uravu conducts design development and product diversification programs for artisans and runs a Common Facilities Centre for bamboo processing.
Uravu provides various escort services for stabilizing producers’ self-help groups and micro enterprises. Uravu Eco Links Ltd., the public limited company promoted by Uravu trust members, assists producer groups in marketing their products in various markets. 

To augment the local resource base of bamboos and to enrich the environment, Uravu runs a bamboo nursery, supplies planting materials of varied bamboo species to local farmers and conducts bamboo planting programs.

Uravu conducts diverse programs in the Thrikkaipetta village including the Bamboo Village Program for demonstration of applications of bamboo, community-led eco-tourism, annual Jackfruit Festival, Travelers’ Forest Program etc.Uravu also promotes farmers’ self-help-groups, floriculture groups etc.

Our Vision

Access and control over natural resources is the key to the well being of rural communities & Indigenous People. However, deforestation, environmental degradation & substitution of food farming for the sake of cash cropping under the pulls of globalization have by now seriously decreased the resource base of most rural occupational groups, threatening their livelihood security. The substitution of traditional small-scale commodity production based on locally available agro-based raw materials with the factory system of production has caused much unemployment, especially amidst rural artisans.

Uravu strives to re-establish people’s access to resources, knowledge and markets