ROOT.EDLet's talk

A creative studio for intentional learning.

Learning to Be. Learning to Belong. Learning to Become. Through books, games and lived experiences, we create ways for children, young people and families explore what it means to truly know ourselves, relate to one another, and find our place in the world.

Our roots
01Our roots

The roots matter too.

For inspiration, we didn't have to look very far.

We have the Laligurans (Rhododendron), Nepal's national flower. What caught our attention was not just the flower, but what sits underneath it. Its roots spread wide beneath the ground, anchoring the plant and helping it withstand the conditions around it. They also help sustain the life growing around it.

We think growing up is a little like that.

There is a lot of focus on what children should know and be able to do - what they can read, write, build, solve and achieve. Those things matter. But the fruits are only part of the picture. The roots matter too.

Children already come with curiosity, imagination and a capacity to learn and adapt. As they grow, their experiences help shape their character, values, relationships and the choices they make. When those roots are strong, children have more to draw on when life gets difficult. They can know themselves, find their footing, build healthy relationships and care for others. They can grow with a sense of purpose, in their own way and on their own terms.

We can't control every experience a child will have. But we can be thoughtful about the ones we create, giving them space to ask questions, try things out, make sense of what happens and find their own way.

That's the spirit of Root.ed.

Our roots

For inspiration, we didn't have to look very far.

We have the Laligurans (Rhododendron), Nepal's national flower. What caught our attention was not just the flower, but what sits underneath it. Its roots spread wide beneath the ground, anchoring the plant and helping it withstand the conditions around it. They also help sustain the life growing around it.

We think growing up is a little like that.

There is a lot of focus on what children should know and be able to do - what they can read, write, build, solve and achieve. Those things matter. But the fruits are only part of the picture. The roots matter too.

Children already come with curiosity, imagination and a capacity to learn and adapt. As they grow, their experiences help shape their character, values, relationships and the choices they make. When those roots are strong, children have more to draw on when life gets difficult. They can know themselves, find their footing, build healthy relationships and care for others. They can grow with a sense of purpose, in their own way and on their own terms.

We can't control every experience a child will have. But we can be thoughtful about the ones we create, giving them space to ask questions, try things out, make sense of what happens and find their own way.

That's the spirit of Root.ed.

02Our approach

How we think and design

We are all learning how to make sense of the world as we grow.

We learn from what happens to us, from the people around us, from the stories we hear and from the ideas we're exposed to. Over time, we begin to make sense of these experiences in our own ways. And the meaning we make can shape how we think, feel, learn and act.

  1. 01Start with questions

    Children are naturally good at asking questions. Why? How? What if? They ask because they want to understand. We think there is value in keeping that curiosity alive and helping people get better at asking questions that open up new ways of seeing.

  2. 02Make learning intentional

    Learning happens all the time. But we can be more deliberate about what we learn from it. For us, intentional learning means knowing why something matters, how it connects to what we already know and experience, and what we might do with it.

Learning is a cycle.

It starts with a question, and keeps coming back.

At the core

Who am I?

The questions we return to change as we grow.

Three BIG questions sit behind what we make.

We come back to them throughout our lives, and our answers change as we grow.

01

Who am I?

Notice what you feel. Understand what matters to you. Make sense of your experiences.

  • What am I feeling?
  • What matters to me?
  • What do I care about?
  • What makes me, me?
03What we create

We make learning meaningful and memorable.

We turn these ideas into things people can experience for themselves.

A story can give us a way into a conversation or help us make sense of a feeling. A game can make us think about how we work together, the choices we make and what happens next. A conversation can open up a question we hadn't considered. A workshop can give us the chance to try something out and learn from what happens. So we make books, games, stories, workshops and lived experiences for children, young people and families.

Drag to explore

Lived experiences

06

Navigate

NAVIGATE is a guided learning experience that gives young people practical ways to work through these kinds of situations. Through real-life questions, simple thinking tools and conversation, participants learn to look beneath the obvious, question their assumptions, consider different possibilities and identify what they can do next. The intention behind these learning sessions is to help young people make better sense of uncertainty and turn new ways of seeing into thoughtful, intentional action.

Explore
Children and facilitators celebrating after a Root.ed reading workshop

Designed in Nepal.

Inspired by its people, places, stories, cultural and natural heritage.

04The future we hope to grow

People who know themselves.

Who feel connected to where they belong.

Who care. Who think before they act.

Who know they have something to contribute.

Ankeeta Shrestha, founder and learning curator of Root.ed

Ankeeta Shrestha · Founder & Learning Curator

05A note from the founder

I've spent the last 15+ years working in international development, starting with community-based work in Nepal and parts of India, and later moving into research, strategy, policy and organisational learning across education and health. Much of that work has been about change. How do people change? How do organisations learn? Why do some ideas take hold while others don't?

Over the years, my work took me from communities to systems. It made me think a lot about what shapes people's lives: the opportunities we have, the expectations we grow up with, the people we learn from and the systems we're part of. But I kept coming back to a more personal question:

What shapes the people we become?

Read Ankeeta's note

That led me to think more about the everyday experiences that shape us long before we enter a workplace or an institution: the conversations we have, the stories we hear, the questions we're asked, the things we're encouraged to notice and the things we get to practise.

And that's where Root.ed came from. It's a space where I can bring together my work in learning and systems thinking with my curiosity about children, young people and how we make sense of ourselves and the people and places around us.

I don't think there is one formula for how people should grow.

I do think we can create better conditions for people to question, explore, connect and find their own way forward.

That's what I'm trying to build with Root.ed.

Let's talk

+977 9801083556

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@being_rooted5

Some of our work starts with an idea.

Some start with a problem.

Some start with a simple: "I wonder if we could..."

We're always interested in seeing where that conversation goes.