Village Action Newsletter No. 10

Monthly news about the efforts of AVAG to bridge the gap between Auroville and the villages around it.

Previous Issues

• 1. AVAG-PIMS Medical Camps
• 2. AVAG meets with the Panchayats
• 3. Microproject Fund
• 4. Women - Strength in Numbers
• 5. First Sports Meet for the Village Youth
• 7. Summer Camps For Village Kids
• 8. PEP is about happiness!!
• 9. Creating Common Ground

“We want to learn English”

Two village girls engrossed in their English book

While interacting with the children and youth of the neighboring villages, AVAG’s development workers have come to know that many of them wish to learn English. “If we know English we can talk to the foreigners who come to our village”, say some. “With the knowledge of English we can get a good job in Auroville”, say others.

We were delighted to know that their wish to learn English has something to do with Auroville. “The knowledge of this language would surely increase their possibility to work, interact and make friends with the people from all over the world who live in Auroville and eventually it could result in building a better relation between Auroville and its villages”, we realized. The only problem we faced was that we did not have enough people capable of teaching English in AVAG.

Nevertheless, with a team of four teachers, we have started offering regular English classes at our main office and at AVAG’s ‘Mohanam Cultural Centre’, to at least one hundred children belonging to at least ten neighboring villages of Auroville. We plan to expand this program as we find more teachers and volunteers from Auroville. We have kept our methodology of teaching similar to that of PEP (Primary Educational Project). We use a lot of innovative games and pictures to make the children speak so that they get familiar with the structure and sound of the language. We also give them interesting exercises to get them into reading and writing English.

“Yes, she is as good as her brother”
(Some excerpts from a Gender Sensitization Seminar)

Recently AVAG conducted a ‘Gender Sensitization Seminar’ for around 50 local women and girls belonging to different villages of the Auroville bioregion. For many young girls, it was perhaps the first occasion in their life to learn, discuss and exchange ideas about issues related to gender and sex.

Women and young girls enjoying the seminar

On this occasion, AVAG had invited a qualified advocate from Pondicherry, Mr. Kumarasamy, who explained to the women their legal rights and clarified the laws regarding women issues such as dowry, early marriage, re-marriage, domestic violence and sexual harassment.

Unfortunately, a village woman in India never has the opportunity to learn about her rights as a woman and as a human being. At an early age, it is hammered into her head that she is inferior to her brother and her husband and her job is only to serve the family. Thus, living in ignorance of her civil liberties, she endures hardship and appalling abuse.

The women thoroughly enjoyed discussing the notion that “men and women are equal”. They giggled and laughed when we told them that, in the modern world, women also go out to work and men cook, do the laundry and share all the household responsibilities with their wives. Perhaps all this seemed surreal to these women who rarely get a chance to free themselves from their daily household drudgery.

They were inspired by the stories of some of the women leaders of India like Indira Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu and explored the possibility that they too, as women, can influence the direction of their future, not only for themselves but also for their family and village.

At the end of the seminar all the women seemed very happy. They thanked AVAG for giving them the opportunity to participate in such an educative seminar and expressed their wish to attend such sessions on a regular basis.

A child’s nightmare ends!

Just imagine 40 little children forced to sit on a dilapidated floor with huge holes and jagged pieces of broken stone and concrete protruding dangerously out. Not to mention, the huge, vulgar, disease-ridden rats that scurry in and out of the holes and cracks in the floor and the occasional snake that slithers in to take refuge. This place would terrify anybody let alone the little children.

Well, my dear friends, this was the condition of the Irumbai Primary School, before AVAG’s Community Officer, Maheshwari, took the situation into her own hands and made what was an extremely dangerous learning environment into a safe and comfortable one.

Maheshwari (extreme left) with AVAG team

Maheshwari managed to obtain Rs. 5,000 from SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan), a central government scheme to improve educational standards in rural India, and AVAG contributed Rs. 16,350 for the cause.

With her network connection in the surrounding villages, she roped in an honest and hard-working contractor to tackle the job. After days of continuous work, not only did he get the floor done but he also painted the walls and built an extra toilet, which the teachers had especially requested, the state of the two existing ones being simply too revolting to describe.

Out of his goodwill, the contractor also did some extra repairs, such as fixing the windows, renovating the two existing toilets and constructing a soak pit, for free.

So, Maheshwari, give yourself a big pat on the back for the first-rate job. You have been able to give the little children of Irumbai Primary School a safe, comfortable and caring learning environment.

“Run, Forest Run”
(AVAG kicks off its regular sports program for the village boys)

Last month, after a great deal of planning and discussions, AVAG finally managed to start a regular sports program for the village boys at Auroville’s Dehashakti Sports Complex. It is hoped that this program will greatly help in bridging the gap between Auroville and the surrounding villages.

Village boys participating in a modified relay race

Almost 50 boys of the surrounding villages have already started participating in this sports training offered to them by a group of Aurovilian coaches. The enthusiasm among the boys is amazing. They love to run around the sports complex, which is surrounded by a thick, lush-green forest, and it is hard to get them tired even after two hours of continuous physical training.

The next task for AVAG is to arrange for some comfortable clothes and shoes for these boys so that they can run freely and play games like Soccer and Basketball without hurting themselves.

AVAG foresees a great potential in this program as sports has no language or cultural barriers and it allows people of goodwill to come together and make friends.

For more information

Please visit the Auroville website to read more about the villages around Auroville and to read about Village Action. You can also write village action at avagoffice@auroville.org.in or contact AVIUSA.

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Auroville Village Action is currently running many projects in the villages surrounding Auroville (see a list of project proposals.) Your donation can help improve the lives of some of Tamil Nadu's most impoverished villagers. Any donation, large or small, will make a difference. You can donate online now with your credit card on Helping.org's secure server.