"In those days, the surrounding villages were a sad sight. There was a group of us, we began to look at what we could do. But it wasn't until we were joind by Ambu and Morris, who told us: What you are doing is looking like charity, you can't do this for a long time. It would be more in the spirit of Auroville to do development work".
Bhavana, been in Auroville since 1971 and the founder of Village Action Group, talks about the difference between the two, how the project evolved over the years – and also how she came to realize that Auroville is her true home indeed.

“Village Action Group” is taking care of more than 50 villages around Auroville. This organization, which combines Aurovilians and salaried employees, tries to help villagers (especially women and youth) to organize themselves into self-help groups, for personal and economical development (micro-credit) and village development (micro-project). Other activities also supported by Village Action are education, sports, culture, health, ecology… Anbu has worked for 20 years in AVAG; he now directs its activities under a trust of “Village Action Group”.

Have you ever wondered how people party in the village? Tuesday, February 24th marked the end of a nearly week-long festival in honor of the Hindu Goddess Kali. AurovilleRadio attended the festivities of the final evening in the village of Alankupam and caught glimpses of a Tamil festival atmosphere. Play the following selection to learn about the Goddess Kali and hear an interview with Vika asking Shaktivel, a local resident, to explain how the festival unfolds.

Raji, from Alankuppam, is a member of the Sri Aurobindo Women's Group. This five year old group is part of Village Action. Their work includes public social work such as helping people clean their village and helping children who attend night school in their village. They receive advice or help as needed from the Village Action Group as well as attending the meeting in village action monthly. They come from several different villages: Kottakkari, Pudhupakkam and Allankuppam, all members of the Village Action Group. Initially they began with one group and increased in number, expanding creatively what they do with the recycled paper.

A kerosene lamp works in a similar way to a candle. This type of lamp is also known as an oil lamp; smoke from this type of lighting can cause respiratory problems especially if used in enclosed spaces. This week Juli and Marcus speak about their experience and work in Auroville: a project called Mission Tejas which plans to eradicate kerosene lamp usage by replacements with LED lamps. They talk about the new campaign in villages around Auroville.

In this week's Tamil program there are interviews from Sangamam, a yearly festival held in Auroville  in which people of the surrounding villages interact with Aurovilians in a playful manner.  Manikandan speaks, one of the organizers of Sangamam.  Also there's Raja and Magesh, who performed in past  years in this festival along with a  Tamil melody of Bhuvanasundhari, who is an Aurovilian.

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The Tsunami came and washed up onto the shores of the eastern coastline of Tamil Nadu four  years ago. And now what's the situation?  Aurovilian Vimal who works as a textile designer at Upasana is one of their team involved with re-designing the livelihood of the fisherfolk, who were hit by the Tsunami.  In an interview with Vimal he speaks about some of the aspects of his work, such as 'Small Steps' and how the Tsunami changed  and even improved life for the fishermen and their families. He also talks about his own experiences, how he sees life, having lived in Auroville for the past four years.
To listen to the interview (in Tamil) click in the logo play.