The way humans operate is determined by the learning systems that exist around them at home, at schools, at work, in the media, and so on. Only a complete shift out of the colonial-industrial learning systems which make us believe that personal economic gain is a complete and singular way to succeed in personal life can create this future world we imagine.
A world that is finally capable of dealing with the most pressing challenges of poverty, hunger, war, and many more.
It seems increasingly impossible to solve these problems without reimagining the framework of human society.
We want to bring learning back into people’s hands, so they can solve problems, create opportunities, and build fulfilling, sustainable lives for themselves.
Reclaiming the meaning of learning from the existing economy centred colonial-industrial-model of education by changing the learning approach to a self-directed and self-empowering one in all domains of personal, social and ecological life.
Be Moonshot
Be Empathetic
Be
Be Diverse
Be a Community Builder
Be Good
Be Fun
Over the years, we have found that there are many ways to see Project DEFY. All of these lenses cumulatively create our identity.These lenses allow us to add many dimensions to every decision we make, every design we create, and every observation we make.
Below, we share with you all the lenses we see DEFY through, ensuring that you can engage with our thought layer in depth. At the very end, you will also be able to read about the culture we operate with, which is an essential vehicle that we carry our mission on.
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We are fully compliant with Indian Law and have no conflicts with it in any manner whatsoever.
DEFY is creating a Learning Revolution, starting with flipping the mainstream education model using Nooks, but also flipping learning models across various domains like Disasters and Climate Change, Research, Sports, and so on.
Organisations have never solved systemic problems. We believe that prioritising the growth of an organisation at some point can conflict with the systemic change that must happen, since in order to change a System one needs to create a movement. Movements are not one organisation, but many organisations, people, collectives, communities and identities, attempting to achieve a new narrative. Each of our ideas is attempting to reimagine systems by creating movements with a new narrative. Instead of slow, incremental change, we aim for a ‘frog-leap’ social transformation.
When we see DEFY from an internal lens of the core team, a completely new perspective emerges. The DEFY team invites the most aspirational and creative individuals to become a part of it and to lead our movements in social change. We respect our team members as individual innovators and have always encouraged each of our team members to learn how to:
Understand social problems.
Design ideas and prototypes.
Organise basic resources to pilot these ideas.
Our Approach to Experimentation
If some of us fall in love with a problem, then we design a radical new concept to solve it. The solution may be:
A completely unexplored approach.
Beyond the conventional paradigms of the development or social enterprise worlds.
We then test these ideas through experimentation to see if they work.
Our Core Principles
They are radical and new, breaking away from existing solution paradigms.
They are decentralized, preventing the accumulation of power, money, and control in any single entity.
They see communities as leaders, not just beneficiaries.
They use self-designed learning as a tool of empowerment at the core of the solution.
They bring the problem and the solution into the public space, shifting power into the hands of people.
Our Core Principles
They are radical and new, breaking away from existing solution paradigms.
They are decentralized, preventing the accumulation of power, money, and control in any single entity.
They see communities as leaders, not just beneficiaries.
They use self-designed learning as a tool of empowerment at the core of the solution.
They bring the problem and the solution into the public space, shifting power into the hands of people.
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Project DEFY is a Sec 8 nonprofit organisation in India registered as DEFY Educational Organisation CIN number – U80902KA2016NPL09714
Project DEFY is a Sec 8 nonprofit organisation in India registered as DEFY Educational Organisation CIN number – U80902KA2016NPL09714
Address: 1st Floor, #720/A7 11th Main, 9th Cross Rd, HAL 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560008
We believe that self-designed learning gives people the power to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. But the way learning happens today—in schools and in society—often holds us back. It takes away our confidence and stops us from fixing the issues we see around us. This broken system focuses too much on personal success, instead of helping communities grow together. It teaches us to compete.
We see DEFY as a Social R&D Lab—constantly experimenting with real problems, whether discovered by us or brought in by others. When a problem captures someone’s heart, we design bold, unconventional solutions— .outside the usual ways that NGOs or businesses might try to solve problems.”
If it works, we grow it just enough, while decentralising power and resources. Eventually, we step back, letting the idea evolve into a movement, and support it as curators—not controllers.
