India’s rapid modernisation has deepened the cultural and social gap between rural and urban youth. Stereotypes, unequal opportunities, and a lack of meaningful interaction have fueled misunderstanding and limited cooperation.

The Trustbuilding Program in India was created to address these divides, believing that lasting change starts with honest dialogue and practical collaboration across communities. 

Our work centers around building bridges of understanding between youth from diverse backgrounds:

• Facilitated dialogue circles – safe spaces for rural and urban youth to share experiences, challenge assumptions, and build empathy.
• Leadership and coexistence training – workshops on intercultural skills, ethical leadership, and collaborative project design, encouraging youth to establish lasting relationships and social responsibility.
• Community immersion – urban youth participate in rural development projects and outreach such as planting rice with rural students, while rural youth visit their urban peers in the cities and learn digital and communication skills, seeing firsthand the value each brings to India’s future.
• Mentorship and alumni networks – ongoing support for program graduates to continue leading peer dialogue, promoting trust beyond the project’s lifespan.
• Training teachers as trustbuilders to continue building a culture of trust that the project team starts in each school they work with.  

• Close to 700 youth participants directly reached through dialogue and immersion programs.
• Over 70 trustbuilding activities were held, reaching diverse communities.
• Over 40 teachers trained as trustbuilders.  
• Documented shifts in mindset and behavior which ripples from students to their families, across communities.  
• Stories of transformation, from urban youth adopting more inclusive attitudes to rural participants. 

“I thought the urban children would look down on us and would not want to interact with us. But when I met them, they were friendly and polite. This cleared up the misconceptions for good". — Rural program participant

“Participating showed me the vibrancy and challenges of rural India. I’m not just aware, I’m now involved in joint projects that create real impact.”  — Urban dialogue facilitator

• Overcoming bias: A teacher mentioned that before attending the project, she had been reluctant to tutor a student from a different religion. After attending the project and practicing inner listening for several months, she realised that she had an unconscious bias about the religious group and decided to tutor the child.
• An urban school donated 10 computers to their rural partner. This school also made an intention to donate funds collected by their students to support the infrastructure need for the donated computers.
• A rural child changed his life goal after a visit to a sports stadium during an urban visit. He went on to train for running events and got selected at the state-level to train further.
• Strong bonds: Numerous children remain in contact with each other after the programme. Some keep in touch by sending greeting cards for festivals, others are part of a WhatsApp group to help each other in their studies. One rural boy turned to his urban friend for moral support when one of his buffaloes went missing.
• After attending the project, some of the urban schools organised the sale of agricultural produce at their school premises. This was to help rural communities to find an urban market for their produce.

These stories, and many more like them, are proof that India’s next generation can cross divides and build stronger, more collaborative communities. 

India's future depends on its youth learning to bridge divides, collaboration between urban and rural and genuine understanding and tolerance. Supporting trustbuilding means investing in leaders who can overcome polarisation and ensure inclusive growth. With additional support, we will:

• Expand the project to new regions.  
• Train new youth leaders across the country.
• Launch region-specific community projects that promote exchange and joint problem-solving.  
• Strengthen monitoring and evaluation to drive policy advocacy and demonstrate impact at scale.