GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE NETWORK
Ecovillages.org
ECO-COMMUNITIES- be the change you want to see in the world
URBAN AND RURAL creating replicable models
Living locally thinking globally
Dedicated to Sustainability Plus- putting more into the environment than we take out of it
GEN a federation of more than 15000 communities worldwide
All the continents except Antarctica
3 Major Regions
Ena
North, mezzo, south America
GEN Europe and Africa
Oceania
Southeast asia
Indian subcontinent
Australia and new Zealand
Japan
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD (IAC)
NEXT GEN
Global youth network
GEN PROGRAMMES
Living Routes
Ecovillage design education (EDE) etc.
MAJOR COMMUNITIES
ENA
LOS ANGELES ECOVILLAGE
ITHACA ECOVILLAGE
THE FARM
Syrius
NATURE SPIRIT
THE BACA
HUEHUECOTYIL
LA CARAVANA
GAIA ARGENTINA
BRAZILIAN NETWORK
GEN EUROPE AND AFRICA
FINDHORN
DAMANHUR
TAMARA
ZEGG LEBENSGARTEN
TORRI SUPERIORI
SENEGAL
IVORY PARK
THOLEGO
OCEANIA
AUROVILLE
SARVODIA
CRYSTAL WATERS
TUI
WONG SANIT
TOKYO CO-HOUSING
Our VALUES
Thinking globally and acting locally
Honoring existing traditional ecovillages
Building replicable new community models
Living in human-sized settlements
Having a light ecological footprint
Being Environmently friendly
Creating child-friendly communities
Respecting the local biosphere
Growing healthy food and protecting our water resources
Providing Experiential education (hands on)
Using Renewable energy
Participating in Environmental restoration
Creating wildlife Sanctuaries
Supporting indigenous people’s movements
Creating Unity through diversity
Establishing Ethical businesses
Respecting cultural diversity
Creating community living and learning centres Come and see, learn and take home
Encouraging exchanges among communities
(It’s not about reinventing the wheel)
Having fun
Our motto: If it isn’t fun it isn’t sustainable
AFFILIATIONS
UNITED NATIONS, UNITAR, UNDP
The GEN has United Nations ECOSOC status as an official representative for NGO’s to the United Nations in New York,
Geneva, Nairobi, and Bangkok
UNESCO, MAB PROGRAMME
GAIA TRUST
ANOTHER MOTTO:
A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE THAT WE NEED IN THE WORLD.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
GEN WORLDVIEW HAIKU by Marti
JAPAN HAIKU
HAIKU originated in Japan among nature lovers and spiritual wanderers. It is based on pure economy of form and extreme generosity of spirit. In Japan, poets spend years contemplating a death poem of a few lines. With a stroke of a pen and a liberated spirit, good HAIKU reaches high and deep, connects experience and conscious mind. It is the sound of a solitary flute in a vast symphony of life. --MARTI
SAMURAI JOURNEY
Walk tall,
speak little,
bend like bamboo.
Iya Valley, Shikoku
ZEN PUPIL
A plank of rough wood,
waiting to be carved
into endless forest.
Mount Hiei
JAZZ IN THE LOTUS MATRIX
Padma-
garbha-
loka-
dhatu.
Todai-ji Temple
Nara
PILGRIMS PATH
Footsteps fly between earth
and sky,
only hills and valleys
stand in the way.
Kirihata-ji Temple
Shikoku
ZEN MASTER
Calm clear eyes
bend boughs,
catch rain,
a hundred moons in a hundred
drops of water.
Sojiji Temple
Yokohama
MATHEMATICS
Black river
plus
silver moon
equals
crystal water.
Kyoto
JAPAN HAIKU by MARTI
Collection Nature and Evolution
Auroville Press Publishers
Tami Nadu, India
c. 2005.
HAIKU originated in Japan among nature lovers and spiritual wanderers. It is based on pure economy of form and extreme generosity of spirit. In Japan, poets spend years contemplating a death poem of a few lines. With a stroke of a pen and a liberated spirit, good HAIKU reaches high and deep, connects experience and conscious mind. It is the sound of a solitary flute in a vast symphony of life. --MARTI
SAMURAI JOURNEY
Walk tall,
speak little,
bend like bamboo.
Iya Valley, Shikoku
ZEN PUPIL
A plank of rough wood,
waiting to be carved
into endless forest.
Mount Hiei
JAZZ IN THE LOTUS MATRIX
Padma-
garbha-
loka-
dhatu.
Todai-ji Temple
Nara
PILGRIMS PATH
Footsteps fly between earth
and sky,
only hills and valleys
stand in the way.
Kirihata-ji Temple
Shikoku
ZEN MASTER
Calm clear eyes
bend boughs,
catch rain,
a hundred moons in a hundred
drops of water.
Sojiji Temple
Yokohama
MATHEMATICS
Black river
plus
silver moon
equals
crystal water.
Kyoto
JAPAN HAIKU by MARTI
Collection Nature and Evolution
Auroville Press Publishers
Tami Nadu, India
c. 2005.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Money Sources Handout
Sources and Resources on Money and Exchange Alternatives
Compiled by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
P.O. Box 42663 * Tucson, AZ 85733 * 520-820-0575 * Email: thg@mindspring.com
Key Concepts
Credit clearing
Credit clearing is the process by which credits arising from sales are used to directly offset debits arising from purchases without the use of conventional money. This process takes place within an organized circle of associated trading partners. In accounting terminology, Accounts Receivable are offset against Accounts Payable.
Monetization
Monetization is the process of converting the value of fixed collateral assets into credit that can be spent. In conventional banking, a bank monetizes the value of collateral assets when it creates a deposit by granting a loan. For example, when a bank grants a mortgage, it essentially converts the value of a house into a demand deposit that the borrower can then spend. The process of monetization can also be effected within a credit clearing circle when a member is granted a line of credit or overdraft privilege based on the goods and services they offer for sale.
Websites and Blogs
Reinventing Money: http://www.ReinventingMoney.com
Community Information Resource Center: http://circ2.home.mindspring.com
Beyond Money: http://beyondmoney.wordpress.com
Tom's News and Views: http://tomazgreco.wordpress.com
The Infography about Community Currencies: http://www.infography.com/content/507632641358.html
The Online Database of Complementary Currency Systems Worldwide. Stephen DeMeulenaere, Complementary Currency Resource Center. http://www.complementarycurrency.org/ccDatabase/les_public.html
Community Exchange System. South African New Economics Network (SANE). A web-based currency exchange platform and network. http://www.ces.org.za/index.asp
Books – Primary (mostly available at the website http://www.ReinventingMoney.com)
Greco, Thomas H., Jr., Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender. Chelsea Green Publishers (VT), 2001.
—, New Money For Healthy Communities. Thomas H. Greco, Publisher, P.O. Box 42663, Tucson, AZ 85733, 1994.
—, Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis. Second edition, Thomas H. Greco, Publisher, P.O. Box 42663, Tucson, AZ 85733, 1990.
Riegel, E. C., Private Enterprise Money. New York: Harbinger House, 1944.
—, The New Approach to Freedom. San Pedro, CA: The Heather Foundation, 1976.
__, Flight From Inflation. San Pedro, CA: The Heather Foundation, 1978.
The first book is out of print but may be found online through our website, http://www.ReinventingMoney.com.
The other two books by E. C. Riegel may be obtained from Mike Aldana at the E.C. Riegel School of Money, 1430 Mountain View Lane, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402. Phone 208-522-5050. The prices are $12 for one book, $22 for two, plus postage and handling of $4 for one book, $1 more for each additional book. Acceptable payment forms are cash, check, or money order only.
WIR and the Swiss National Economy. Beard, Philip, trans. Philip Beard and Tobias Studer. Available at http://www.lulu.com/phbeard.
Other
Jacobs, Jane, Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life. New York: Vintage Books, 1985.
Kennedy, Margrit, Interest and Inflation Free Money. New Society Publishers, 1995.
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/kennedy/english/
Linton, Michael, and Thomas Greco, "The Local Employment and Trading System." Whole Earth Review, No. 55, Summer 1987.
Modern Money Mechanics. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 1992. Online at http://www.ReinventingMoney.com
Timberlake, Richard H., and Kevin Dowd (eds.), Money and the Nation State. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1998.
Zander, Dr. Walter, "A Way Out Of The Monetary Chaos". From The Annals of Collective Economy, Geneva, 1938.
Available at http://www.reinventingmoney.com/zanderChaos.php
Zander, Dr. Walter, “Railway Money and Unemployment.” From The Annals of Collective Economy, Geneva, 1934.
Available at http://www.reinventingmoney.com/zanderRailway.php
Video Documentaries
Money as Debt by Paul Grignon. Website: http://www.moneyasdebt.net/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&q=%22money+as+debt%22&hl=en
Money: Who creates it? Who controls it? Who profits? A film by Isaac Isitan. Les productions ISCA, Montreal, Quebec. http://www.lesproductionsisca.ca
The Money Masters. http://www.themoneymasters.com/. 1-888-the-plot
Pertinent Quotes
When businessmen resolve to set up a money system, they agree to hold in trust for each other goods and services that are pledged against the drafts which they have issued in the form of money. These values—that are held in trust by all for any who may present a money draft therefore—constitute a vast pool, not housed at one place, but scattered throughout the trading sphere. This vast pool of goods and services is the basis or backing for the outstanding money supply. "Reserves" and metal hoards are but window dressing. Only that which is purchasable is back of money.
– E. C. Riegel, Private Enterprise Money, Chapter 6.
"Au r o v i l l e Outreach Nadukuppam"
A newsletter from Auroville Universal Township
Au r o v i l l e
Outreach
April 2007
Nadukuppam - where children teach their teachers
Nadukuppam High School is a Government Secondary
School which a few years ago had only three rooms in a bad
state of repair, five teachers for over 570 children, a high
drop-out rate, only around 10% pass rates in exams, no water,
no toilets, and no greenery around it - just 4 unfenced acres
of dust and wandering cows with a couple of trees nearby. In
2003 it was adopted by Auroville"s Pitchandikulam Bio-
Resource Centre as part of a development project for the
region, and since then has been transformed.
Today, thanks to financial help from 6 Irish schools plus
additional infrastructure paid for by the regional education
authority, the cooperation and encouragement of the local
Panchayat, which contributed three more acres of land for
outreach programmes, the recruitment of more teachers,
and the input of an Auroville team led by long time Aurovilian
Joss Brooks, it has become a model for other schools. Now
its exam pass rates have risen to over 60%, and it has drinking
water, shade trees, fencing to keep cows & goats out, toilets
with baffle reactors for treating the waste, a general
wastewater treatment plant using aquatic plants to cleanse
the water prior to nurturing a plant nursery, and many other
improvements. It has also become a major source of
inspiration for others in the field of education.
Birth of the project
Auroville originally became associated with this school
through a European Commission-funded project to restore
the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest. This project, which
included a component for environmental education in the
bioregion, gave Joss the opportunity to realise a longstanding
Auroville dream, to create an outreach centre in the heart
of the Tamil Nadu countryside where the best of Auroville's
environmental experience and skills could be used to help
rejuvenate local communities. The area surrounding
Nadukuppam - a village of around 2,000 families - was
ideal for such a project, because it was relatively unspoiled
(it's off the beaten track,
some 6 kms north of Kaliveli
Lake) and is sited between
two remaining stands of
indigenous forest.
"Moreover, the school's lack
of resources and poor
academic record made it an
ideal test case," says Joss. "If
we could achieve something
there it would be really
significant."
The first essential for the
Auroville team was to build
trust and relationships with the
teachers, Government
education authorities, parents
and local village leaders.
"Once people understood
what we wanted to do and
saw that we were committed,
everybody became very
Aurovillian educator Lourdes Epinal with children from Nadukuppam’s Eco Club supportive," says Joss.
With money from the European Commission project
and additional assistance from Quaker Service Australia and
the Australian government, the initial major focus of the
project - the construction of an Environmental Education
Centre (EEC), the funding of a biological research team
and training and employment of environmental studies
teachers - then became possible. (The biologists, based in
Auroville, go regularly to the area to study its fauna and
flora, then document everything and transform their material
into teaching aids - charts, posters, textbooks, etc - for the
school's EEC teachers.)
The situation today
Today the school grounds not only contain the extra
classrooms so badly needed, and the EEC building, but also
a tree nursery for indigenous seedlings, a raised-bed vegetable
garden, a medicinal plant garden, a water purification plant
with solar pump raising water from underground storage
tanks to nurture a freshly planted area of trees near the
school buildings, a vermicomposting unit, and a waste
recycling set-up where paper, plastic, metal and glass are
separately stored for later resale (the school grounds are
kept clean and tidy by the children). One also finds a spirit
of enthusiasm pervading the school, its children and staff
that was unimaginable before the project took off.
What is special about Nadukuppam is that - inspired by
their teachers and all that is happening around them
(the children have even been introduced to GIS
mapping techniques!) - a lot of the drive and energy
is coming from the children themselves. Nearly one
in five has joined the school's Eco Club, which has
taken the initiative to systematically study the local
area. They have conducted research on features like
nearby water catchment ponds and lakes, have asked
village elders how things were in their youth, and
have then used what they have learned as shared
educational material for the rest of the school, and
for 15 other schools in the area up to 10 kms away.
Partly from the herbal and vegetable gardens in the
school grounds, which are nurtured using
vermicompost prepared by the children, a daily health
drink is prepared for children from a mixture of local grains,
cashew, jaggery, peanuts, spirulina and green beans (a prior
assessment was made of all the children to see who was
most in need, and monthly checks instigated to follow their
growth patterns). The medicinal plants are also made
available to traditional local health practitioners, and the
vegetables - plus the highly nutritious spirulina algae grown
nearby - are used to supplement the school diet. Thanks to
the children's enthusiasm and energy, now there are some
40 such herbal gardens in the area.
Fees for Trees
One highly innovative scheme deserves special mention.
When Indian-born US-trained Aurovilian educational
coordinator Lourdes Epinal discovered that quite a number
of the children from poor families were still dropping out
because their parents couldn't pay their fees, he started a
'Fees for Trees' scheme. Under this scheme poor children’s
fees are paid by an NGO direct to the school, in return for
which the child is required to dig the holes, prepare the
compost for and plant 5 trees (3 medicinal, 1 fruit and 1
indigenous) somewhere close to the family home, and then
protect and take full care of them to maturity! At the same
time they are made aware of their positive contribution to
the fight against global warming.
The Nadukuppam children, who are aged 10-15 and
study physical, social and biological sciences plus English
and Tamil, are equally enthusiastic about the local fauna.
Individually or in groups they choose a species to study,
and then make 5-minute presentations at the morning's
"school assembly" to the rest of the school - also separately
to parents, village elders, Women's Club members, their
teachers of non-environmental subjects, and the other 15
schools in the area - using shadow puppets, drama, songs,
dance, story telling and simple props to share their
knowledge. It’s not unusual for the children, as a result of
this shared knowledge, to be able to directly identify by
name 50 or more birds commonly seen around the school,
and to know the role that many of them play in the ecosystem
together with other local life-forms such as bats,
The school’s Environmental Education Centre
Children at work in the school’s plant nursery
lizards, snakes, fish, mammals, turtles and
insects. All this has helped them value and
appreciate the flora and fauna around them;
what it contributes to their environment and
their lives; and what life might be like if it
was no longer there. As one child recently
put it, "If we lose all this, we lose everything!"
Nadukuppam’s outreach
This enthusiasm for their surroundings
has also engendered pride within the village,
and spread to others. The local youth and
women's groups - of which there are 27 in
the area - now have separate buildings
adjacent to the school, funded by Quaker
Service Australia, for a variety of classes plus
meetings and government-sponsored
training programmes. There their members
are taught hand stitching and machine
tailoring for self-support (one group has now
"graduated" and almost all have machines
and are supplementing their family income this way), and
benefit from having a medicinal plant dispensary on site
with a trained practitioner, lessons on establishing small
vegetable-cum-herbal gardens around their house and
making their own herbal medicines for primary health care
within their families (the nearest major hospital is 2-3 hours
away, so treating minor health problems locally is important),
and lessons aimed at environmental awareness (members
who, for example, used to kill the Rat Snake in ignorance,
now know the benefits of having such snakes around i.e.
knowledge has changed their attitude and behaviour
patterns).
Other subjects taught range from water conservation,
spirulina production, the setting up of small vegetable
gardens, family planning, leadership skills, the avoidance of
HIV/AIDS, nutrition, childcare, legal matters and gender
issues. In other words the school and its associated
infrastructure is being used not just for the children's
intellectual education but to also help adults from the
surrounding area appreciate their bio-region, and learn how
to live a better and healthier life while preserving it. The
result, as Joss puts it, is that large numbers of people in the
local community have now "got the bigger picture", and are
enthusiastically supporting all that is happening at and around
the school. Meanwhile, everything taught and done both at
the school and elsewhere is being documented, so the
experience can be replicated elsewhere.
Demonstration-cum-experimental site
With the involvement of the Women's Groups and local
Farmers Association the Auroville team are also creating a
demonstration and experimental site beyond the school with
enough space for a new forest area and ecological farming.
A wind pump is to be installed there for water, and a solar
pump is already is use for rice irrigation (experiments with
new varieties of rice are showing 2-3 times the yield, with
rapid growth and less labour and less waste, which in turn
means more fodder for cattle). Hopefully as the farm
develops they will be able to provide fully organic mid-day
meals for the children.
To date 4,000 trees have been planted – a mix of local
forest, fruit and useful agricultural species; a range of organic
crops are being trialled; and check dams are to be installed
for rainwater catchment. The farm area already has its own
threshing ground, store room, cow house, and toilets /
washroom. The next phase will be to add a technical training
centre where farmers and others can learn basic things like
how to fix their own tractors, pumps, cycles, etc, and an
earth-block construction facility is to be set up with the help
of Auroville's Earth Intstitute. The land has also been fenced
against cattle & goats.
Conclusion
The conclusion from all this is that the school, its EEC
and its additional infrastructure for Women's Groups and
others can increasingly be used to plan the sustainable future
of the village and its surrounding area. However, Joss
makes it clear that the Auroville team can't force or push
anyone in such a direction; they can train, show the way,
and help them to understand, but finally it must be the
villagers themselves who take the initiative to keep
developing and improving everything. That shouldn't be a
problem, because - as Joss puts it - the villages are high in
potential energy, and once they understand things, see
how their lives can be improved, and decide to do
something, they can achieve wonders.
Perhaps the same can be said for the whole Auroville
team, whose vision and commitment has set in motion an
experiment which has enormous positive potential for rural
communities throughout India.
Girls learning tailoring at the Women’s Group premises
Auroville Outreach newsletter, which is for private circulation only, is published and edited by Auroville Outreach Team and prepared by PRISMA, Auroville.
Enquiries or feedback relating to this newsletter and its contents are always welcome, and can be communicated to:
Auroville Outreach, A.C.U.R., Auroville 605101, India E-mail: outreach@auroville.org.in
Auroville is an international township in Tamil Nadu, South
India, founded in 1968.
Inspired by the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, over
1,800 people from India and some 40 other nations are building
a township dedicated to an experiment in human unity, with
the eventual hope of contributing to international understanding
and the evolution of human consciousness. Nearly 5,000 of the
40,000-plus local people living in the dozen-or-more villages
that comprise the Auroville bio-region are also involved in the
project, providing their skills and labour.
The township, projected for 50,000 people, will radiate out
from the central Matrimandir and its surrounding gardens in
four zones, the International, Cultural, Residential and Industrial.
A large forested area, the Green Belt, will eventually surround
the entire township area.
Present activities in Auroville include wasteland reclamation
and reforestation, organic farming, village development,
education, health care, renewable energy, appropriate building
technology, arts and culture, handicrafts and small-scale
industries, architecture and town planning.
As described by its founder, Auroville aspires to be
“a universal town where men and women of all countries are
able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds,
all politics and all nationalities.”
For more general information visit the website:
www.auroville.org
We would like to thank the Foundation for World Education
for their generous grant towards the publication of this newsletter.
Transformation of Puducherry's Bharathi Park
Just as Auroville's work in the
areas of afforestation, education
and healthcare in the bio-region
is becoming well known, so are
its skills in design and landscaping.
What is less well known, are
the efforts to preserve the
architectural heritage of nearby
Puducherry and improve its
urban environment by the local
Chapter of INTACH (Indian
National Trust for Art and
Cultural Heritage) headed by
Indian-born Aurovilian architect
Ajit Koujalgi.
INTACH, which works closely with the various
departments of the Government of Puducherry and local
citizens to achieve its aims, has carried out a number of
projects in this field. The latest has been a major 3.5 crores
(approx US$ 800,000) project to renovate and beautify
Puducherry's 10-acre Bharathi Park initiated by the Tourism
Department, with INTACH as consultant, the Public Works
Department as the executing agency, and a number of
Aurovilians and Auroville units as lesser contributors.
Located facing the Governor's Palace at the heart of
Puducherry's historically important heritage area, the park
has had a massive facelift over the past two years under the
above mentioned scheme, which has transformed it into a
more peaceful, beautiful and enjoyable facility for the many
hundreds of people who visit it daily. Gone are the tarmac
roads crossing through the heart of the park, which divided
the area into 4 mini-parks and allowed vehicular traffic to
cross the area or park there. Now the whole perimeter has
been fenced with cast-iron railings to create a visually larger
pedestrian-only area with 4 entrance gates; brighter but more
energy-efficient night lighting has been installed; litter bins,
gazebos, granite benches, granite pathways and a granite
fountain have been added, with some of the stone items
supplied and crafted by the Auroville-based Auryaj unit; most
of the 140 trees in the park have been pruned by Auroville's
professional tree surgeon Juan Silverio-Petriz and his
assistants; hanging wind chimes and "singing stones" have
been installed by Auroville's Svaram Musical Instruments;
and new swathes of more hardy grass have been sown and
some minor planting schemes implemented, all with sprinkler
irrigation for water economy. Everything has been done to
an extremely high standard in a tasteful way.
In awareness that the park has a connection with The
Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, thanks to the work
done by an Ashramite after the second World War to
transform what was then a bare parade ground into an urban
park, it has been a special pleasure for the Aurovilians
involved to have contributed to this major renovation and
improvement scheme as they have, in a variety of ways.
Au r o v i l l e
Outreach
April 2007
Nadukuppam - where children teach their teachers
Nadukuppam High School is a Government Secondary
School which a few years ago had only three rooms in a bad
state of repair, five teachers for over 570 children, a high
drop-out rate, only around 10% pass rates in exams, no water,
no toilets, and no greenery around it - just 4 unfenced acres
of dust and wandering cows with a couple of trees nearby. In
2003 it was adopted by Auroville"s Pitchandikulam Bio-
Resource Centre as part of a development project for the
region, and since then has been transformed.
Today, thanks to financial help from 6 Irish schools plus
additional infrastructure paid for by the regional education
authority, the cooperation and encouragement of the local
Panchayat, which contributed three more acres of land for
outreach programmes, the recruitment of more teachers,
and the input of an Auroville team led by long time Aurovilian
Joss Brooks, it has become a model for other schools. Now
its exam pass rates have risen to over 60%, and it has drinking
water, shade trees, fencing to keep cows & goats out, toilets
with baffle reactors for treating the waste, a general
wastewater treatment plant using aquatic plants to cleanse
the water prior to nurturing a plant nursery, and many other
improvements. It has also become a major source of
inspiration for others in the field of education.
Birth of the project
Auroville originally became associated with this school
through a European Commission-funded project to restore
the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest. This project, which
included a component for environmental education in the
bioregion, gave Joss the opportunity to realise a longstanding
Auroville dream, to create an outreach centre in the heart
of the Tamil Nadu countryside where the best of Auroville's
environmental experience and skills could be used to help
rejuvenate local communities. The area surrounding
Nadukuppam - a village of around 2,000 families - was
ideal for such a project, because it was relatively unspoiled
(it's off the beaten track,
some 6 kms north of Kaliveli
Lake) and is sited between
two remaining stands of
indigenous forest.
"Moreover, the school's lack
of resources and poor
academic record made it an
ideal test case," says Joss. "If
we could achieve something
there it would be really
significant."
The first essential for the
Auroville team was to build
trust and relationships with the
teachers, Government
education authorities, parents
and local village leaders.
"Once people understood
what we wanted to do and
saw that we were committed,
everybody became very
Aurovillian educator Lourdes Epinal with children from Nadukuppam’s Eco Club supportive," says Joss.
With money from the European Commission project
and additional assistance from Quaker Service Australia and
the Australian government, the initial major focus of the
project - the construction of an Environmental Education
Centre (EEC), the funding of a biological research team
and training and employment of environmental studies
teachers - then became possible. (The biologists, based in
Auroville, go regularly to the area to study its fauna and
flora, then document everything and transform their material
into teaching aids - charts, posters, textbooks, etc - for the
school's EEC teachers.)
The situation today
Today the school grounds not only contain the extra
classrooms so badly needed, and the EEC building, but also
a tree nursery for indigenous seedlings, a raised-bed vegetable
garden, a medicinal plant garden, a water purification plant
with solar pump raising water from underground storage
tanks to nurture a freshly planted area of trees near the
school buildings, a vermicomposting unit, and a waste
recycling set-up where paper, plastic, metal and glass are
separately stored for later resale (the school grounds are
kept clean and tidy by the children). One also finds a spirit
of enthusiasm pervading the school, its children and staff
that was unimaginable before the project took off.
What is special about Nadukuppam is that - inspired by
their teachers and all that is happening around them
(the children have even been introduced to GIS
mapping techniques!) - a lot of the drive and energy
is coming from the children themselves. Nearly one
in five has joined the school's Eco Club, which has
taken the initiative to systematically study the local
area. They have conducted research on features like
nearby water catchment ponds and lakes, have asked
village elders how things were in their youth, and
have then used what they have learned as shared
educational material for the rest of the school, and
for 15 other schools in the area up to 10 kms away.
Partly from the herbal and vegetable gardens in the
school grounds, which are nurtured using
vermicompost prepared by the children, a daily health
drink is prepared for children from a mixture of local grains,
cashew, jaggery, peanuts, spirulina and green beans (a prior
assessment was made of all the children to see who was
most in need, and monthly checks instigated to follow their
growth patterns). The medicinal plants are also made
available to traditional local health practitioners, and the
vegetables - plus the highly nutritious spirulina algae grown
nearby - are used to supplement the school diet. Thanks to
the children's enthusiasm and energy, now there are some
40 such herbal gardens in the area.
Fees for Trees
One highly innovative scheme deserves special mention.
When Indian-born US-trained Aurovilian educational
coordinator Lourdes Epinal discovered that quite a number
of the children from poor families were still dropping out
because their parents couldn't pay their fees, he started a
'Fees for Trees' scheme. Under this scheme poor children’s
fees are paid by an NGO direct to the school, in return for
which the child is required to dig the holes, prepare the
compost for and plant 5 trees (3 medicinal, 1 fruit and 1
indigenous) somewhere close to the family home, and then
protect and take full care of them to maturity! At the same
time they are made aware of their positive contribution to
the fight against global warming.
The Nadukuppam children, who are aged 10-15 and
study physical, social and biological sciences plus English
and Tamil, are equally enthusiastic about the local fauna.
Individually or in groups they choose a species to study,
and then make 5-minute presentations at the morning's
"school assembly" to the rest of the school - also separately
to parents, village elders, Women's Club members, their
teachers of non-environmental subjects, and the other 15
schools in the area - using shadow puppets, drama, songs,
dance, story telling and simple props to share their
knowledge. It’s not unusual for the children, as a result of
this shared knowledge, to be able to directly identify by
name 50 or more birds commonly seen around the school,
and to know the role that many of them play in the ecosystem
together with other local life-forms such as bats,
The school’s Environmental Education Centre
Children at work in the school’s plant nursery
lizards, snakes, fish, mammals, turtles and
insects. All this has helped them value and
appreciate the flora and fauna around them;
what it contributes to their environment and
their lives; and what life might be like if it
was no longer there. As one child recently
put it, "If we lose all this, we lose everything!"
Nadukuppam’s outreach
This enthusiasm for their surroundings
has also engendered pride within the village,
and spread to others. The local youth and
women's groups - of which there are 27 in
the area - now have separate buildings
adjacent to the school, funded by Quaker
Service Australia, for a variety of classes plus
meetings and government-sponsored
training programmes. There their members
are taught hand stitching and machine
tailoring for self-support (one group has now
"graduated" and almost all have machines
and are supplementing their family income this way), and
benefit from having a medicinal plant dispensary on site
with a trained practitioner, lessons on establishing small
vegetable-cum-herbal gardens around their house and
making their own herbal medicines for primary health care
within their families (the nearest major hospital is 2-3 hours
away, so treating minor health problems locally is important),
and lessons aimed at environmental awareness (members
who, for example, used to kill the Rat Snake in ignorance,
now know the benefits of having such snakes around i.e.
knowledge has changed their attitude and behaviour
patterns).
Other subjects taught range from water conservation,
spirulina production, the setting up of small vegetable
gardens, family planning, leadership skills, the avoidance of
HIV/AIDS, nutrition, childcare, legal matters and gender
issues. In other words the school and its associated
infrastructure is being used not just for the children's
intellectual education but to also help adults from the
surrounding area appreciate their bio-region, and learn how
to live a better and healthier life while preserving it. The
result, as Joss puts it, is that large numbers of people in the
local community have now "got the bigger picture", and are
enthusiastically supporting all that is happening at and around
the school. Meanwhile, everything taught and done both at
the school and elsewhere is being documented, so the
experience can be replicated elsewhere.
Demonstration-cum-experimental site
With the involvement of the Women's Groups and local
Farmers Association the Auroville team are also creating a
demonstration and experimental site beyond the school with
enough space for a new forest area and ecological farming.
A wind pump is to be installed there for water, and a solar
pump is already is use for rice irrigation (experiments with
new varieties of rice are showing 2-3 times the yield, with
rapid growth and less labour and less waste, which in turn
means more fodder for cattle). Hopefully as the farm
develops they will be able to provide fully organic mid-day
meals for the children.
To date 4,000 trees have been planted – a mix of local
forest, fruit and useful agricultural species; a range of organic
crops are being trialled; and check dams are to be installed
for rainwater catchment. The farm area already has its own
threshing ground, store room, cow house, and toilets /
washroom. The next phase will be to add a technical training
centre where farmers and others can learn basic things like
how to fix their own tractors, pumps, cycles, etc, and an
earth-block construction facility is to be set up with the help
of Auroville's Earth Intstitute. The land has also been fenced
against cattle & goats.
Conclusion
The conclusion from all this is that the school, its EEC
and its additional infrastructure for Women's Groups and
others can increasingly be used to plan the sustainable future
of the village and its surrounding area. However, Joss
makes it clear that the Auroville team can't force or push
anyone in such a direction; they can train, show the way,
and help them to understand, but finally it must be the
villagers themselves who take the initiative to keep
developing and improving everything. That shouldn't be a
problem, because - as Joss puts it - the villages are high in
potential energy, and once they understand things, see
how their lives can be improved, and decide to do
something, they can achieve wonders.
Perhaps the same can be said for the whole Auroville
team, whose vision and commitment has set in motion an
experiment which has enormous positive potential for rural
communities throughout India.
Girls learning tailoring at the Women’s Group premises
Auroville Outreach newsletter, which is for private circulation only, is published and edited by Auroville Outreach Team and prepared by PRISMA, Auroville.
Enquiries or feedback relating to this newsletter and its contents are always welcome, and can be communicated to:
Auroville Outreach, A.C.U.R., Auroville 605101, India E-mail: outreach@auroville.org.in
Auroville is an international township in Tamil Nadu, South
India, founded in 1968.
Inspired by the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, over
1,800 people from India and some 40 other nations are building
a township dedicated to an experiment in human unity, with
the eventual hope of contributing to international understanding
and the evolution of human consciousness. Nearly 5,000 of the
40,000-plus local people living in the dozen-or-more villages
that comprise the Auroville bio-region are also involved in the
project, providing their skills and labour.
The township, projected for 50,000 people, will radiate out
from the central Matrimandir and its surrounding gardens in
four zones, the International, Cultural, Residential and Industrial.
A large forested area, the Green Belt, will eventually surround
the entire township area.
Present activities in Auroville include wasteland reclamation
and reforestation, organic farming, village development,
education, health care, renewable energy, appropriate building
technology, arts and culture, handicrafts and small-scale
industries, architecture and town planning.
As described by its founder, Auroville aspires to be
“a universal town where men and women of all countries are
able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds,
all politics and all nationalities.”
For more general information visit the website:
www.auroville.org
We would like to thank the Foundation for World Education
for their generous grant towards the publication of this newsletter.
Transformation of Puducherry's Bharathi Park
Just as Auroville's work in the
areas of afforestation, education
and healthcare in the bio-region
is becoming well known, so are
its skills in design and landscaping.
What is less well known, are
the efforts to preserve the
architectural heritage of nearby
Puducherry and improve its
urban environment by the local
Chapter of INTACH (Indian
National Trust for Art and
Cultural Heritage) headed by
Indian-born Aurovilian architect
Ajit Koujalgi.
INTACH, which works closely with the various
departments of the Government of Puducherry and local
citizens to achieve its aims, has carried out a number of
projects in this field. The latest has been a major 3.5 crores
(approx US$ 800,000) project to renovate and beautify
Puducherry's 10-acre Bharathi Park initiated by the Tourism
Department, with INTACH as consultant, the Public Works
Department as the executing agency, and a number of
Aurovilians and Auroville units as lesser contributors.
Located facing the Governor's Palace at the heart of
Puducherry's historically important heritage area, the park
has had a massive facelift over the past two years under the
above mentioned scheme, which has transformed it into a
more peaceful, beautiful and enjoyable facility for the many
hundreds of people who visit it daily. Gone are the tarmac
roads crossing through the heart of the park, which divided
the area into 4 mini-parks and allowed vehicular traffic to
cross the area or park there. Now the whole perimeter has
been fenced with cast-iron railings to create a visually larger
pedestrian-only area with 4 entrance gates; brighter but more
energy-efficient night lighting has been installed; litter bins,
gazebos, granite benches, granite pathways and a granite
fountain have been added, with some of the stone items
supplied and crafted by the Auroville-based Auryaj unit; most
of the 140 trees in the park have been pruned by Auroville's
professional tree surgeon Juan Silverio-Petriz and his
assistants; hanging wind chimes and "singing stones" have
been installed by Auroville's Svaram Musical Instruments;
and new swathes of more hardy grass have been sown and
some minor planting schemes implemented, all with sprinkler
irrigation for water economy. Everything has been done to
an extremely high standard in a tasteful way.
In awareness that the park has a connection with The
Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, thanks to the work
done by an Ashramite after the second World War to
transform what was then a bare parade ground into an urban
park, it has been a special pleasure for the Aurovilians
involved to have contributed to this major renovation and
improvement scheme as they have, in a variety of ways.
“The Layers of the Heart”
Hladina Method “The Layers of the Heart”
"Hladina"- is based on the Sanskrit word Hladini, which Sri Aurobindo describes as the Power of Divine Love to melt all resistance and nourish physical transmutation. Sri Aurobindo foresaw Hladini as the next great power of The Divine Mother that needed to be incorporated on earth for this present stage of evolution already.”
Soleil (inlightenthebody.com), the founder of the method, developed Hladina through Mother’s guidance, finding a most simple access to the psychic being and calling it “Layers of the Heart”. The Hladina Method's process of 'Layers of the Heart', gives a direct, safe, and nurturing, route to the Psychic Being, which, according to Sri Aurobindo, is the body of the soul.. The body-mind journey relies on Mothers cellular consciousness from one's sternum through the heart to one's back bone (three layers in total), and returns again. This journey resolves emotional and behavioral pattern residue and reveals enlightening discoveries from this life and previous lives. As the psychological aspects clarify, one sees and feels the essential self-energies of one's emotional heart, the Psychic Being, and one's connectedness with the Transpersonal Self or Divine All.
When you connect to the first layer of your heart, which is right behind your sternum, you might feel love floating through your heart and body already or you will feel a sensation or see an image. The language of the psychic being is not mind oriented and can at times be felt as irrational. This language of the psychic being needs to be understood and discovered first before you feel the true connection. Along with the understanding and the connection you might discover a new dimension in yourself and feel the divine all in you actively present. The ability to love others unconditionally or simply in a truer way means to connect with the part in you that is truly a connection with the divine, namely, your psychic being. The awareness of the divine love inside you will allow you to see live from deeper points of view and will create compassion and trust.
Sometimes there is darkness in the heart, due to traumas of your past or present life which do not want to allow you to connect to your heart before those traumas are released. Hladina helps here the understanding of your own patterns, followed by forgiveness, and finally love will flow once again. The energy of letting go and of surrendering to the healing of ones past is essential to progress. Emptying the vessel in order to refill it with new and light energies, you first have to discover the pain of the block at its source. You are all here to grow, to step into a new world. A new dimension can be awakening within yourself and within your own psyche. But we are often too hurt to allow ourselves to step into this infinite world of divinity, thus we suffer that we cannot connect to the light. This might need an individual guidance to manage the hurt of the past, because it needs the care of a facilitator to bring you to the point of re-connection to become your true self again.
In the workshop we will attempt to lead you through the layers of the heart into your psychic being. We will facilitate as many individuals as possible, and acquaint you with the essentials of the process. As the workshop is attended by many people, a thorough individual guidance cannot be provided, but the experience of accessing the psychic being may be shown. Individual appointments for further exploration or clarification may be arranged. Please, contact us personally for your private sessions if considered after the workshop.
Vijnana
Integrative Consultancy & Research Institute for Natural Healing and Heath Care, Auroville
0091-413 2623 688, vijnana@auroville.org.in
Introduction by Marti
GEN
Auroville is running its first GEN-sponsored
I (Marti) have been working for the past 8 years with an international team of educators (including Daniel Greenberg from the Living Routes programme and many others) to create a communities design curriculum. Our programme is part of a collaborative effort with UNESCO and the United Nations (UNITAR) as part of the UN Decade for Education.
Recently we have run programmes in Sao Paulo, Brazil for municipal leaders, in Mexico for grass roots permaculture designers, in Lotan, Isreal with a focus on environmental and cultural collaboration and peace-making between Isreal and Palestine, in Findhorn, Scotland with a Southeast Asian link, in the community of Tamara in Portugal, in Zegg and Seiben Linden in Germany and in Ithaca, New York. In the future, programmes will be run in Woningsit Buddhist Ashram in Thailand, in Crystal Waters, Australia and in Gaia Argentina, just to name a few. Some of these programmes have university affiliations and others link to open university courses.
The EDE International Curriculum team is presently working on 5 resource manuals that we will make accessible and freely downloadable on the web. Green Books will publish the hardback books in
Just as a reminder, the GEN is a federation of nearly 15,000 communities worldwide, urban and rural, dedicated to sustainable plus living. The GEN website is: ecovillages.org
I am on the GEN and
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