Overview of VFAVR's projects

Projects under the umbrella of AVAT, the non-profit NGO for the development of the rural surrounding region of Auroville:

• DEEPAM, takes care of the mentallyand physically disabled children of the villages.
• THAMARAI, a centre devoted to education and Tamil culture of the village Edayanchavady
• LEC (Life Education Centre), a vocational training centre in handicrafts for socially disadvantaged girls
• AVHS (Auroville Health Service), serves education and information in matters of health and hygiene
• AVAG (Auroville Village Action Group) is the originating unit of AVAT and at the core of village development since 1983. (please see our special page still under construction)
• LIVELY, a training centre for tailoring and textiles marketing, especially for girls. (see more details on the page "Weltwaerts-projects")
• Bamboo Research Centre focuses on the manifold use of the natural construction material bamboo and combines it with vocational training of village youth in bamboo technology.
• MOHANAM und SVARAM, two units which cultivate the Tamil culture and the building of Tamil musical instruments together with Tamil children and youth.
• AIAT (Auroville Institute of Applied Technology), formerly AIS (Auroville Industrial School), the vocational training centre of Auroville, which aims at providing first class vocational training in more and more different trades for boys and girls after the tenth grade of the secondary school and which provides training courses and skills of many subjects for all people in evening classes. (see also some information on this webpage!)
• Reach for the Stars is an initiative, which provides stipends for tamil youth after completion of the 12th grade who had otherwise no chance for higher studies or a vocational education. (see English article here!)

Other Development Projects

• Aikiyam (formerly known as New Creation Bi-lingual School (NCBS)), this full day primary school gives boys and girls from socially disadvantaged families the opportunity to grow up bi-lingual (tamil, english) starting from  Kindergarten till completion of the 8th grade and to be integrally promoted in their personal potential according to latest pedagogic findings. (see more details on the page "Weltwaerts-projects")
• New Era Secondary School (NESS) continues the education of Aikiyam on the secondary level till completion of the 10th grade and prepares its students through the grades 11 and 12 for a study at a college or university. Please see also the special website of NESS!
  Both schools – Aikiyam und NESS – have applied for and received an autonomous status, which enables them to apply most progressive and own pedagogic concepts and to issue after 2010 its own certificates, which will be acknowledged in whole India.
• Arul Vazhi School started in 1984 as an evening school for 15 pupils and comprises today educational offerings for up to 100 boys and girls and also a Kindergarten in the morning.
• In-Tuition: Starting from work with so-called drop-outs a special promotion of children and youths has developed outside of schools.  "Weak" boys and girls get tuition as singles or in small groups.  Drop-ous are prepared to pass their missed examens and youths receive language skills in English.  In the meantime a team of 4 teachers is taking care of about 30 children and youths.
• Sadhana Forest aims - as its name indicates - at the revival of the indigenous dry evergreen tropical  forest over a presently semiarid area of 70 hectare.  This goes together with the development of sustainable ways of living and farming, which are disseminated in courses and demonstrations in the neighbouring villages. In addition the knowledge in sustainable tropical forestry and farming is transferred to countless volunteers and students in a variety of courses.  In January 2010 a three-year long training program of future trainers had been started. (see more details on the page "Weltwaerts-projects")
• Wellpaper works as a social enterprise, which develops products from waste materials, which are then produced by women Self-help Groups (SHGs) in the villages around Auroville. Wellpaper buys these products from the SHGs and markets them worldwide and enables the women an independent income as producers. (see more details on the page "Weltwaerts-projects")

Important Notice to our friends and donors:

While most of the projects are promoted by our donours directly, there are also projects for which our organisation applies for funding from third public parties - in addition to private funding - and enables thus bigger projects. In this way the first and second phase of AIAT (AIS) had been financed in the past as well initial funding for starting up LEC and the microfinancing activity of AVAG.

Presently (2011-2012) a new project for AVAG with intended public support by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is under preparation. The project aims at the substantial extension of the Micro-Financing Corpus Fund to enable AVAG to support and advise more Self-Help Groups and to give more micro-credits. For its own 10% contribution VFAVR has to raise from its donors € 16.000,-. More details are to be seen on our special webpage AVAG and AVAG's own website.

Other projects have been started 2009 and 2010 as part of the "Weltwärts Program" of the German Government, which promotes the work of volunteers in developing countries. For details of these projects please refer to our webpage "Weltwaerts-Projects".

 

 (updated 13-8-2011)