Shared passions beyond borders: the Auroville Learning Exchange (ALE)

The Auroville Learning Exchange (ALE) aims to connect Auroville with the world outside through the sharing of ideas, cultures and experiences. Its vision is to create the conditions for unity in diversity through shared passions and long-lasting relationships. The core team is Chali, Dave and Elene.

Dave Storey is an Aurovilian who has done a lot of work in different countries. This experience makes him feel that Auroville is too internalized in its focus: that we are not sharing our discoveries enough with the rest of the world and not taking enough inspiration from elsewhere. Like many Aurovilians, he is also aware that, while we term ourselves an ‘international’ community, there are many nationalities and cultures which are under-represented or not represented at all. 

To help remedy this, he came up with the idea of a learning exchange between Aurovilians and individuals in under-represented countries. Individuals would spend about six weeks in each other’s community during which they would do a project which would benefit that community. At the same time, they would be learning about a very different culture and talking about their own. 

“Essentially it is about diversifying the pool of people that we have in Auroville while helping create awareness about Auroville as well as centres in under-represented countries,” explains Elene, the coordinator of the project. “Dave’s plan was to go ‘off the grid’. He didn’t want to launch a conventional internship programme or knowledge exchange. He wanted to focus on creating human connections through shared passions or interests.” 

The first step for the ALE team was to build a list of contacts. Aurovilians were asked to identify individuals or groups doing interesting work in any country which is currently under-represented in Auroville, while people in those countries were asked if they knew of Aurovilians who shared their interest. The ALE group then invited people with shared interests to collaborate on writing a proposal for a learning exchange. 

There are a few criteria.  Those applying from abroad should not only be from an under-represented country, but what they are doing should be of interest to Auroville and they should be able to communicate well in English or French. All participants, whether in Auroville or abroad, are expected to be receptive to new perspectives and be willing to host their learning exchange partner or partners for the exchange period. 

The project was launched in 2018 and the deadline for applications was September 2019. “We had ten applications,” says Elene.  “The proposal we selected was put together by film-makers from Kenya and from Auroville. 

“The Kenyan, Timothy Mwaura, is a man who does social photography. At the moment he is making a film about life in Nairobi, contrasting life in the slums with that in the more affluent areas and documenting the issues that arise. He is asking ‘What is a city? How does it care for its inhabitants?’ 

“Then he heard about Auroville where the principles and goals are very different, so he wants to come here to study this place and see what he can learn and if there are any commonalities. If he has time, he would also like to look at Auroville through African eyes by interviewing the few Africans we have here.”

The Aurovilians involved in the exchange are Sri Kolari and Serena Aurora. Sri does social photography while Serena is a documentary film-maker. They will follow and document Timothy as he films in a Kenyan city. While there, they will also make presentations about Auroville. 

The original plan was that Timothy would come here in March and Sri and Serena would accompany him back to Kenya in April. However, the coronavirus has put this on hold. Now the exchange is scheduled to take place next year. 

The pilot project is being sponsored by the Dutch foundation, Stichting de Zaiier. But how will it continue in the future? “We will rely on donations,” says Elene.  “Among others, we hope to receive support from Auroville International because one of the intentions of the project is to assist in the setting up of AVI centres in new countries, or in bringing more energy to existing centres. But we’re not talking about a huge amount. Apart from the travel costs, expenses will be minimal as participants will be hosting each other during their stay in their respective countries. And in Auroville we hope that the pavilion groups and Aurovilians of the same nationality will also contribute and help.

“It’s a unique opportunity for Aurovilians to build new relationships and gain fresh perspectives with people who have a shared passion outside of Auroville, so we hope it will become sustainable in the long-term.