Field Notes — stories from the ground.
Field reports, reflections, and analysis from Meer Foundation's team across Chhattisgarh. Eight posts live, six tags, weekly publishing cadence, and an RSS feed for newsreaders. The river speaks; we write it down.
First-person field reporting
Field Notes is Meer Foundation's blog — first-person field reports, analysis, and reflections from our team across Chhattisgarh. Where the rest of the website describes what we do, Field Notes explains why we do it, what we are learning, and where we are failing.
Field-authored
Every post is written by the team that did the work — field staff, educators, researchers, and on occasion the founder. No ghost-writing, no PR filters.
Weekly cadence
One new post every week, published on Friday morning IST. Subscribe via RSS and it lands in your newsreader automatically.
Tag-filterable
Filter posts by programme — Bolti Nadi, Farmours, Prayaas, EduSuTo, Yoga Kutumb, Heritage, FPF, Research. Read what you care about.
Subscribe via RSS. Field Notes publishes every Friday. Add our RSS feed to Feedly, Inoreader, NetNewsWire, or any newsreader — and the field reports will come to you. No newsletter, no inbox clutter, no tracking. Just an RSS feed and a cup of chai.
This week, from the field
The most recent long-form post from the Field Notes team. Click through to read the full piece — every post runs 500–1,500 words and includes field photographs and links to relevant programme pages.
What we learned walking 90 km along the Sakri
Three weeks on the riverbank taught us more about declining flow than any satellite image could. Here are the field observations that didn't make it into the formal report — the texture of silt, the smell of stagnant pools, the conversations with farmers whose wells had run dry.
Filter, read, subscribe
Filter posts by programme tag or search by title, excerpt, or author. Every post opens to a full reading view. The RSS feed at the bottom of this section carries every new post as soon as it is published.
When the SHG becomes the gram sabha
How a women's Self-Help Group in Kanker district took over the functioning of the local gram sabha — and what that means for grassroots governance in tribal Chhattisgarh.
Teaching climate science in Chhattisgarhi
Why we translated IPCC AR6 concepts into Chhattisgarhi — and the difference it made in classroom comprehension when the language matched the lived experience.
The economics of a single check dam
A detailed cost-benefit analysis of one check dam constructed under the Sakri River Walk recommendations. The numbers may surprise you — the payback period is shorter than you'd think.
Yoga Kutumb's first cohort graduates 12 new instructors
Twelve rural women completed the 200-hour certified yoga instructor programme. Here's where they're teaching now — and how the cohort model is being scaled to three new districts.
Why heritage walks matter in the digital age
On World Heritage Day, a reflection on why walking to a nearby monument beats any virtual tour — and why the physical act of visiting is itself a form of preservation.
Five Pillars: a field test in tribal Chhattisgarh
Applying the Five Pillars Framework to our own programmes. Where we score well on A-E-I-O-M, where the architecture is still deficient, and what we're doing about it in 2026.
Guriya magazine: what 32 children taught us about heritage
Editorial reflections on Issue 4. The children's essays were sharper than most adult commentary we read — and their drawings captured something the photographs never could.
Add meerfoundation.org/emerging/field-notes/rss.xml to your newsreader (Feedly, Inoreader, NetNewsWire). New posts arrive every Friday morning IST — no newsletter, no tracking.
Why field notes matter
An annual report tells you what an organisation did. Field Notes tells you what it learned — including the things that did not work. That honesty is the project's whole reason for existing.
Eight field reports spanning every Meer Foundation programme — from Bolti Nadi river walks to FPF field tests in tribal Chhattisgarh.
Field reports extend learning beyond the classroom — for our team, our partners, and our readers.
Open, RSS-distributed field notes let partners, journalists, and researchers learn from our work in real time.
Honest field reporting is itself an innovation — most NGOs publish only success stories; we publish what we learned.
Test your Field Notes IQ
Five questions on the Field Notes blog — its cadence, its tags, and how to subscribe. Score 60% or higher to earn a certificate of awareness.
Field Notes · 5-question quiz
5 questions · passing score 60%
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Once a week, every Friday morning IST. We commit to a 52-post annual target. Some weeks we publish two posts; we never publish zero. Subscribe via RSS and every new post arrives in your newsreader automatically.