About us
Every day in the Nilgiris starts with the onrush of nature—fresh air, hills, trees, birds, animals and our people. Mother nature offers her bounty to all. Our provider and greatest teacher, she taught us the ancient enduring law of the forest. All that we get from her are meant to be shared between the forest, those who depend on her and you.
Thus germinated the idea of ‘The Third Share’. The Kattunayakan tribes who traditionally gather honey from the forests, leave a share of the honeycomb for the bears to feast. They retain a small share of it for their families, and share the rest with you. They believe the sacred act of sharing mother nature’s endowment is the only way to let the goodness of honey nourish the body and soul.
Rooted in oneness with nature, all the other offerings under the umbrella of ‘The Third Share’ are naturally grown.
The driving force behind ‘The Third Share’ (formerly called First People Enterprise) is ‘Just Change’, an organisation born out of the experience of ACCORD in 2006, that works closely with the Adivasis of Gudalur valley of the Nilgiris to economically empower them. ACCORD helped found the Adivasi Munnetra Sangam (AMS), a membership based tribal organisation with 4000 families as members.
It creates an alternative trade and marketing system by establishing direct links between like-minded communities that enable them to directly trade with each other and thus build up a robust network of local economies that works for the mutual benefit of all its members.
It is rooted in the concept of creating direct links right across the economic chain, from labourers and producers all the way through to consumers and investors and enables them to participate in the economy with a cooperative approach rather than a competitive one.
Committed to support and enable Adivasi communities to take control of their local economies through collective action both as producers and consumers, Just Change also collaborates with organisations that have successfully mobilised communities to work together to achieve social change.
Just Change develops the tools and mechanisms by which local economies can be analysed and understood easily by the communities. Its mission is to empower Adivasis to become a proactive force within the market instead of remaining vulnerable and passive victims of the injustices of a global free market economy.
