Cyclone Thane – 29th & 30th December
Volontariat has long been concerned to make sense of the nature of the children of the Nila Illam programme, children from the streets of Pondicherry and children of the community of gypsies, who see nature with the hunting instinct, an approach imbibed from their parents .
There are many possibilities offered by the farm at Tuttipakkam,
with many different trees, different crops, flowering plants, farm animals like cows, goats and donkeys, ducks and geese. But the new idea is to let the children take responsibility in cultivating decorative plants or vegetables, guided by Kasthuri, a young graduate of the School of Agriculture, Pondicherry. Kasturi had been sponsored at Volontariat when she was a young student.
The soil had been tested and the seeds acquired, but the energy to go further in this project came with the visit of some European volunteers staying at the farm, and spending sufficient time to initiate gardening activity.
Obviously, the objective of the project is not to make the farm self-sufficient in vegetables. Potatoes, carrots and other popular vegetables used in the daily diet cannot grow at TTK. This was therefore essentially an educational programme for the children.
The European volunteers joined the vegetable garden project in January 2010. The entire project had a focus on respect for the environment and local biodiversity.
The organic seeds were purchased by them in the Auroville Botanical Garden, to ensure quality and origin of the vegetables eaten by the children.
On arrival, the volunteers developed new planting to
complement the work already done by Kasthuri. In their own words, “We tried to improve the land, a plot of 300 square metres dedicated to the garden. Irrigation canals have been dug up to get more beds which are planted (or seeded) with vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, beans and several varieties of spinach.
We helped Kasthuri with educating the children and adults of the farm to respect the environment. Significant improvement can be seen, for example, in the sorting of waste and waste plastics.”
Volontariat is committed to ensure that this programme continues after the departure of the volunteers and is integrated, by the social workers at Nila Illam, into the regular activities of the children.
