Sadhana Forest
City: Auroville
State or Territory: Tamil Nadu
Postal Code: 605101
Country: India
Description
Our vision is to transform 70 acres of severely eroded, arid land on the outskirts of Auroville. In a spirit of human unity, our aim is to introduce a growing number of people to sustainable living, food security through ecological transformation, wasteland reclamation, and veganism. Our energy and resources are focused on the creation of a vibrant, indigenous forest.
People of all ages and abilities are welcome to come to stay and get involved with us. Our experience with guests, from all over the world, has been very positive. They have created here a vibrant community atmosphere. Living and participating together, and sharing our experiences brings us into harmony with nature and ourselves. One of our community members put it very nicely in her letter to us when she left: “May there be many more forests to grow people”. We are happy to welcome guests here any time of the year and always have plenty of space for them!!!
We practice Self-Directed Education. Children here have the freedom here to explore and be themselves and are treated as equals. We give them the necessary support to grow, but do not control them in any way. There are a few families living here. Groups of children come to visit regularly and every week we also host groups of local children our ‘Children’s Land’ playground. We even offer a one month SDE course for all ages called: UniverCity of Compassion.
SDE Optimizing Conditions
- Responsibility – All parents living here are supposed to give their own children the freedom to decide on their own activities: whether to play, help in the community or learn whatever they are interested in in whatever way they want.
- Youth Autonomy – Children have no obligations in the community. They are free to explore whatever they want.
- Access to Tools and Technology – We have a rich community with people from many different backgrounds with many different skills who are happy to share. Community life itself involves many different activities.
- Adult Allies – All people living here are invited to make time for children when they ask for attention or support. Everyone is asked to engage with children as if they were adults, in a non-authoritative way. There is no competition or evaluation of any sort.
- Free Age Mixing – We are a community of people from different ages. We spend most of our time in the common areas of the community where everyone interacts freely.
- Community – Children's voices are heard. They are taken seriously and whenever there is a problem we sit down with them and try to reach a compromise. The directors always have a listening ear for everyone and try to make everyone feel included.
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