Balanand aims to represent and encourage the creativity in school children from all over the country by providing an opportunity to participate in a fun art competition based on a theme. This year's theme is 'Ahimsa’ in line with 150 years of celebrating Mahatma Gandhi. In collaboration with the Inner Wheel Club Association and Kalanand artists, Balanand patrons fund the workshops.
The Balanand contests were held in a 150 schools across India. View the gallery for more.
Balanand aims to represent and encourage the creativity in school children from all over the country by providing an opportunity to participate in a fun art competition based on a theme. This year's theme is 'Ahimsa’ in line with 150 years of celebrating Mahatma Gandhi. In collaboration with the Inner Wheel Club Association and Kalanand artists, Balanand patrons fund the workshops.
The Balanand contests were held in a 150 schools across India. View the gallery for more.
SAMANAND empowers educators
with creative tools
to foster inclusion, emotional well-being, and empathy in school communities.
Samanand is an initiative of the Prafulla Dahanukar Art Foundation dedicated to fostering inclusion, empathy, and emotional awareness within educational spaces through arts-based and experiential learning approaches.
The program supports educators, facilitators, and school communities in developing more inclusive and compassionate learning environments where every child feels seen, heard, respected, and valued. Rooted in the understanding that creativity can become a powerful tool for connection and social transformation, Samanand uses the arts to encourage reflection, dialogue, sensitivity, and meaningful participation within classrooms and communities.
Through workshops, training sessions, creative processes, and reflective practices, Samanand introduces educators to arts-based methodologies that help address diversity, emotional wellbeing, neurodiversity, social inclusion, and relational awareness in educational settings.
At the heart of the program
inclusion is not simply a policy or educational framework,
but a lived human experience that begins with the ability to listen deeply, respond compassionately, and honour differences with dignity and care.
Cultivate
inclusive and emotionally safe classroom environments.
creativity
as a tool for connection and communication.
Develop
sensitivity towards diverse learning needs
Encourage
empathy, collaboration, and mutual respect among students.
Explore
reflective and experiential approaches to teaching and learning.
The classroom
Samanand recognises that classrooms are not only places of academic instruction, but also spaces where children develop their sense of belonging, identity, confidence, and relationship with others.
Through arts-based engagement, educators are invited to move beyond rigid models of learning and create environments that support children emotionally, socially, creatively, and intellectually.
A note from the trustee
“Samanand emerged from a simple yet urgent question:
How can education become more humane, inclusive, and responsive to the emotional realities of children and communities today?
In many classrooms, difference is still misunderstood, overlooked, or isolated. Through Samanand, we hope to create learning spaces where diversity is not merely accommodated, but genuinely welcomed as a source of richness and growth.
The arts offer us unique pathways into inclusion because creativity naturally invites listening, participation, imagination, and multiple ways of expression. When educators engage with arts-based processes, they often rediscover the importance of presence, empathy, and relationship within learning.
Inclusion is not only about supporting those who struggle; it is about creating communities where everyone feels they belong.
Through reflective and creative practices, Samanand encourages educators to cultivate classrooms where children can express themselves freely, learn collaboratively, and experience dignity, sensitivity, and connection in everyday learning.
In a world increasingly marked by fragmentation and isolation, education must also become a space for healing, dialogue, and human connection. This is the deeper intention of Samanand. ”