German volunteers in Auroville: the Weltwaerts programme

Although the overall programme is under the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the programmes in the different countries are run by local or international organisations. In the case of Auroville, a sub-group of Auroville International (AVI) Germany is the core team responsible for selecting the volunteers and preparing them for the experience, while an Auroville team supports them during their stay here.

Thomas and Birgit from AVI Germany, who visit Auroville every year to speak with all the volunteers and assess the programmes, are the indispensable bridge between the two groups.

“It wasn’t so easy to get Auroville accepted as a venue for the Weltwaerts programme,” says Thomas. “In the beginning we were a little bit suspected to be a sect, so we had to assure the Ministry that we would not force the volunteers to become Aurovilians, that we would not indoctrinate them! Subsequently, a number of officials from the organization have come here and all have been very pleased with the work and the quality of the people running the projects. So now we have a very good standing with the organisation.”

In fact, this is not Auroville’s first experience with German volunteers. There was an earlier scheme, beginning in 2000, in which young Germans could opt out of military service to do development-related work here. However, the experience was not completely positive for all concerned. “It was not so well organized,” admits Thomas, “the volunteers were less prepared and less well looked after in Auroville. The Weltwaerts programme is quite different.”

The preparation

It is indeed. Run with German efficiency, every detail seems to have been covered. Every year, the Auroville programme is posted on the Weltwaerts website and on the site of AVI Germany. People interested, between the ages of 18 - 28 years, send an application to Birgit.

The team has decided that eighteen volunteers a year is the optimum number they can manage in Auroville at present. As there are often more applicants - in one year over one hundred- a selection has to be made. The selection group consists of Thomas, Birgit, Muna and Anke, a former Aurovilian who is living in Germany, and former Auroville volunteers.

The team determines their motivation and whether they have had any experience of working abroad or of social work in Germany. “These are indicators,” says Birgit. “If you have lived in a different culture or engaged yourself in a social activity in the past, it is more likely you will commit yourself to the Auroville programme.”

Once a selection has been made, there are further phone interviews with the chosen applicants to ensure there are no health issues or psychological issues. “In the interviews, we are also very realistic in the way we present Auroville,” says Thomas. “We do not try to persuade people to come; rather we tell them it could be very difficult, so that people who might already be a bit uncertain would back out by themselves. At this point, we also ask a former volunteer to meet with them to give them more information and to give us their impressions of the candidate.”

Finally, the volunteer is asked to sign a formal contract. The contract specifies, among other things, that they have to work for at least 30 hours a week in a specified Auroville project. The volunteer also has to contribute financially. While 75% of the programme is funded by the German Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation, the rest has to be supplied by the volunteers themselves. If there is a gap, says Thomas, AVI Germany has to bridge it.

Finally, before the volunteers leave for Auroville, they come together for two seminars in Germany. In the first seminar, all the Auroville projects willing to host the volunteers are presented in detail, and then they have to make up their mind where they want to work. “They are told how many people can work in one project,” says Thomas, “but then the choice of who works where is made by the volunteers themselves. Only if they cannot agree among themselves we may intervene. Normally, they should stay for one year with their chosen project, but if the project doesn’t work out for them they can change later.”

The second seminar is a preparation seminar where the volunteers get a crash course in Tamil, learn about intercultural communication and engage in further team-building.

The Auroville experience

During their first week in Auroville, the volunteers live together and attend an introductory seminar run by the Auroville team. They are given a basic orientation to the most important places in the community, and taken to all the projects that will be hosting volunteers that year.

At present there are about thirty work places in Auroville projects for Weltwaerts volunteers [see below]. “Each Auroville project has to be accepted by the German Ministry to become a Weltwaerts project,” explains Thomas. “The project holder applies to the Ministry through us, and we ensure he or she supplies the necessary information and can provide the necessary support structure.”

After the first week, the volunteers split up and go to their different work places. They can choose where they want to live. Some of the project holders provide accommodation for the volunteers. Additionally, some capsules in Discipline community have been constructed for them.

During their Auroville stay, they come together monthly, and there is a seminar in December or January when they share their experiences with the Auroville team. “This happens after three or four months,” says Thomas, “so there is still time to move them in the right direction if a course correction is needed. After four months, we come over and interview all the volunteers individually, as well as the project holders, to assess if everything is going well. The local team is also very important because they have to intervene if there are problems.”

Towards the end of their stay, there is a second seminar when the volunteers review their experiences here and start looking towards the future. Generally, these are overwhelmingly positive. “The Weltwaerts organisation does a survey, and 100% of the Auroville volunteers report it was really worthwhile,” says Thomas. “They say the most positive aspect for them is their personal development. ”The designated Auroville projects benefit not only from the work and enthusiasm of the volunteers but also financially. The organization donates €50 a month per volunteer to every project where a volunteer is working. If a volunteer discovers their project needs special help, additional support may also be given from the running budget of the Auroville Weltwaerts programme. In the past, the programme has also helped finance volunteer huts and a new well in Discipline, a computer building in Aikayam School, and when the cyclone struck in 2011 it provided emergency help for the projects that needed it.

The return

The volunteers do not always experience a soft landing when they return to Germany. “Sometimes they feel they have changed but nothing in Germany has changed, and their family does not understand how they feel,” says Birgit. “For some, this is the worst aspect of the return.” “Some have problems reintegrating because they look at German society in a new way now,” says Thomas. “We are very limited in what we can do to help them reintegrate. What helps the most is for them to meet together as a group in Germany. They can give each other emotional support and talk about their issues with those who will understand.”

Once they are back in Germany, they have the opportunity to remain active, either by helping select future volunteers or becoming a contact person for them.

Do they become interested in the ideal, the philosophy of Auroville? “Some of them do,” says Thomas. “Two of them have joined our core group in AVI Germany. An astonishing number also revisit Auroville, and one has become a Newcomer. We also have a Sri Aurobindo centre in Berlin where we have an Auroville garden, and many former volunteers come and work there. Many also come to our annual Auroville International meeting: about 20% of the volunteers have actually become members. This is already changing the nature of our meetings.”

As for the future, Thomas envisages the possibility of a reverse programme in which Tamil Aurovilians or local people from the bioregion could come to Germany for training. “It would require quite a lot of preparation. To qualify, they would need to attain a certain level of proficiency in a skill as well as in German, but then they could receive further training in Germany and come back with an extra qualification. At present, the students in the outreach schools here are not well enough prepared but this is a possibility for the future.”

And what about Thomas and Birgit themselves? What impact has the Auroville weltwaerts programme had upon them? “Sometimes it is hard work,” says Birgit, “but this job makes me happy because through it I feel I can contribute something to Auroville.”

“It gives me a chance to learn much more about Auroville,” reflects Thomas. “Having studied in detail some 25 Auroville projects for the weltwaerts programme, I feel I understand Auroville a bit at a deeper level. I have more understanding of the internal developments and a better sense of what needs support. The weltwaerts programme is part of our contribution to the development of Auroville.”

Some of the projects at present hosting Weltwaerts volunteers include Discipline and Auro-Orchard farms, Auroville Botanical Gardens, Sadhana Forest, EcoPro, Sunlit Future, Thamarai, Udavi and Aikiyam schools, Auroville Institute of Applied Technology (AIAT), EcoFemme, Village Action, Deepam, Pichandikulam, Svaram, Mohanam, and Lively/ Bamboo Centre.

Jeline (“call me ‘Jeli’”) is working on Auro-Orchard Farm. “So far we’ve been weeding and planting, as well as harvesting vegetables. I really enjoy the work, even though sometimes it is hard. In the middle of the monsoon, we had to harvest peanuts. The local women and I were out harvesting in the heavy rain for hours, but it felt good because there was a strong feeling of solidarity between us.

“In fact, two of the reasons I signed up for the Weltwaerts programme were to be active outside, digging in the soil (my previous job had been in an office), and also to get more deeply inside another culture.

“I am living in Kottakarai village and I really appreciate the local culture. It is very different from Germany. Germany culture is very individualistic, whereas the Tamil culture is very family and community-based: the individual does not seem to count at all. In the village, you always have to be there for your neighbours; you have no private space. This can be hard to cope with, but I think it is good for me because I have a tendency to shut myself off and create my private world, and here I am forced to open up.

“After Auroville I will go back to Berlin for at least one year. After that, I think I will continue travelling and doing voluntary work. What I really like about it is you are not doing it for the money but for what you can contribute to the project. You just want to help the project and gain some knowledge, and I really, really like this approach.”

Florian is one of the older volunteers. He studied landscape architecture in Germany and worked for two years as a landscape architect. He is volunteering at the Botanical Gardens.

“The Botanical Gardens is a very nice place to work because there are a lot of different things to do and you can change every day; it is very flexible. In the beginning, I did a lot of tree-planting, learning about the local trees which are very different from those in Germany. These are some of the reasons I am here, to extend my knowledge and to do physical work which, for someone like me who has worked in an office, is a really good experience.

“After a few months, another volunteer, Kirar, and I started our own project, which was to create a dyeing garden, planting trees and shrubs from which dyes can be made to colour clothes. Our next step is to build a small pavilion.

“What I will take back from here is the realization that things can be done in a different way. Everything is regulated in Germany, but here you don’t have all these rules and regulations. With the dyeing garden, we didn’t start out with a plan. We just set off, and let it shape itself. This is really un-German! But it’s a great experience to know that you don’t need a lot of regulations to achieve something interesting.”