December 2017

Happy New Year! With the end of a year we all reflect on what great things happened in the last 12 months. For the SLI this has been so much that it would be impossible to name all of it in this newsletter. In 2017 we celebrated our second anniversary, set up the first Seed Festival, welcomed two team members into parenthood, organized 56 programmes with nearly 1000 participants and welcomed the first two German weltwärts-Volunteers and 10 interns to the team. We focused this newsletter on the entire year 2017 to recapitulate some of the biggest highlights instead of focusing on just one month as usual. We wish everyone a wonderful year 2018, with good health, much love, peace and contended life. “One day before the 3rd birthday of this institute I was invited and welcomed to have an insight. For me it looks like an important bridge, connecting the inside with the outside, the big and the small, the theoretical with the practical. There is this seed growing all over the world in these kind of projects and I wish for this “plant” the best soil and sustainable energy for the future. I am leaving with a warm feeling that change is possible, hope and a smile for all the people commiting theselves to this values and progress. I wish all the best and hopefully come back in the future!” - Lilli Daesler

Entry in our Guest Book 24/03/2017

Programmes in 2017

In the year 2017 a total of 55 regular programmes with 921 participants and one open programme with a group of ten took place at the SLI. The participants came from all 32 of the districts of Tamil Nadu. The SLI team visited 12 districts ,that are highlighted yellow in the map below, to ensure an optimal follow-up.

Read the impact stories of this year on the SLI blog: Vellore: Chimrapatti—A Sustainable Livelihood Village in the making? Coimbatore: Follow up Visit Coimbatore Tiruppur: Tirumadi

Seed Festival One of the big highlights this past year has been on 26th of July when SLI organized its first Seed Festival. On this occasion, there were more than 20 seed savers from across Tamil Nadu and around 300 varieties of tra- around Auroville learned about ditional seeds. Students from the local flora and diversity in many different schools in and various presentations while seed exchange happened all day. The festival further included talks, exhibition of seeds and knowledge exchange sessions. With a bigger turnout than expected the Seed Festival was a huge success.

“Very inspirational session, learnt about lot of things. Looking forward to come back again & gain work experience.” - Priyanshi Agrahari Entry in our Guest Book

Creation of the Institute’s garden An emergence of a beautiful organic farm in the midst of an office is still an unorthodox culture; but that is the exact same moto that SLI stands for! With tireless inputs from Mr. Raja Ganesh and a few of his companions, we have been blessed with a small yet traditionally advanced farm with all culture

mixed in its roots. The composting for manure is being done on site with the weeds and leaves growing on the field, cleared with everyone’s contribution. The contribution from Mr. Manikam’s cows was crucial for the entire process. The preparation of Panchakavya was a holistic revival of our ancient cultures of farming, which was also used for composting. A bed of alternate fresh and dry leaves, sprinkled with Panchakavya has been bedded, to be used after a month.

Biodynamic agriculture has also seeped in. With the lining up of the moon and Saturn on 2nd of Januray,18, Mr. Raja suggested that the day is perfect to cure the soil with BD500. Earlier horns from departed bodies of cows were collected, filled with cow dung and buried for over a month. On revival, it turned into an odorless substance, that was then mixed with water for an hour, by repeated CC and antiCC movement of the water, making vortexes and then cutting right through it, just by hand! This was further sprinkled over the farm lands.

The entire process from ideation till the application of biodynamic, has involved the entire workforce of SLI. Thus, by the contribution of all we created two exquisites, the aesthetically advanced farm and the chemistry of working with each other to create something! By Sarthak Das (Xavier University Bhubaneswar)

“SLI is amazing! Would love to come back & work with you guys.” -Mamtha

Entry in our Guest Book 11/12/2017

4/12 Uniquenesses of the Sustainable Livelihood Institute SLI is keen on ensuring to keep learning practical. Instead of enforcing an academical learning environment, lots of the learning at the Institute is based on activities. This way the participants get hands-on experience while having the possibility to ask anything that comes to mind rather than getting the first hands-on experience trying to recollect the gained knowledge at home. Furthermore, the activities ensure that participants remain active and invested in the programme.

These effects became visible as the 12 women in the “Wellness and Beautician-Advanced”Programme learned different traditional stiles of draping a saree. Instead of showing images an expert taught them the techniques by draping a beautiful saree on one of the participants.

“We learned simply about organic farming and using this method in our place we will get income for each and every family.” -Punitha. S. Kanchipuram District Sustainable Agriculture – Vegetables

Team additions in 2017 Many countries around the world offer young people possibilities to go abroad and experience different cultures through volunteer work. With many volunteering options concentrated in one small town Auroville welcomes large numbers of both short- and long-time volunteers. As did the Sustainable Livelihood Institute with a small gathering and delicious cake this September when Nina and Iris joined the team for twelve months. About one third of their time here has already passed by as they have been busy with this newsletter and any other tasks that two Germans, fresh out of school and with no knowledge of the Tamil language can take on.

Throughout the year ten students from universities all over India chose the SLI for their internships. After two students from Xavier University Bhubaneswar finished their time here on 9th of January 2017, SLI welcomed four young students from Tata Institute of Social Sciences over the summer. Vashini and Hareesh recorded a video at the end of their 40 day stay that has been included in the newsletter last September. With the end of 2017 the team was again joined by four interns from Xavier, three of whom are starting off the new year with us. With all these non-permanent additions to the team SLI is very happy to be able to say that not one of our team members left us last year.

Participants’ rating of the SLI in 2017

What exactly is the Sustainable Livelihood Institute? The Sustainable Livelihood Institute (SLI) was created in 2015 with the goal to provide the knowledge concentrated in Auroville of how to create a reasonable standard of living without harming the environment to the rural communities of Tamil Nadu. In order to achieve this goal many programmes, usually lasting for about three days, are designed, organised and delivered. Community members from all over Tamil Nadu as well as officials of the Rural Development Department gain knowledge and hands-on experience in the fields of perspective building, skill building and management. Sustainable Livelihood Institute is an initiative of the Government of Tamil Nadu in partnership with the intentional community of Auroville. Read More

SLI is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals

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