Eco Femme

Serena, an Aurovilian and filmmaker, recounts her journey with the nuns of the Buddhist Karsha Monastery in Ladakh, documenting their inspiring story and the powerful exchange that unfolded.

I first visited Auroville in 2000 as a student in the Living Routes programme. After I came home, Auroville lived inside me. I dreamed about it and imagined myself there, but I didn’t go back for 13 years.

The Auroville Youth Center’s (YC) annual gathering, themed this year as the ‘Find Yourself Festival’, took place on 16-18 December. The community was invited ‘to come together to celebrate in a safe, joyful, and playful space for the realization of human unity.’

While Tamil Nadu is in a second lockdown, Auroville entrepreneurs reflect on how they handled the first lockdown.

When Eco Femme founders Kathy and Jessamijn started the initiative ten years ago, they couldn’t imagine that their dreams would find such fertile ground.

On the 28th February, the RE-CENTRE welcomed the community to the inauguration of a multi-discipline centre dedicated to tackling humanity's most dirty problem – waste.

Auroville’s grocery outlets have begun to be stocked with an all-new collection of hemp-based products. Hempseed oil, hemp flour, and hemp hearts have hit the shelves thanks to Hemplanet, an Auroville unit that aims to promote the use of a wide array of hemp derivatives and eventually begin hemp cultivation in Auroville.

I wonder if this is a shared rationale, and whether being exposed from a young age to a dynamic and participatory learning environment is conducive to engaging in creating such opportunities.

Auroville recently conducted its first women’s health survey. Lesley spoke to the survey’s convener, Paula, about the findings.

Nick Klotz, an Australian newcomer, left his body on September 25th in the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences. He was recuperating from a fracture sustained in an accident in July, when he developed multi-organ failure.

When I first arrived three months ago, I imagined I was going to learn about new governance and economic structures, a new way of making decisions and managing money.

Auroville, a melting pot of arts, culture, science and society, has been involved in many educational outreach initiatives since the 1980’s.

International Youth Day was celebrated for the first time in Auroville on August 12th. Originally, the United Nations designated this day to draw attention to youth issues worldwide.

One of the most interesting initiatives to emerge out of the Auroville Retreat was the Integral Entrepreneurship Lab (IEL). Here some of the core team talk about its objectives and what they have been working on so far.

Gerald Frape is a social issues communicator who has been working for 35 years with government and non-government organizations on a wide range of social and environmental issues.

Tamil Nadu today is ranked among India’s most ‘developed’ states. Increasingly urbanised, it has a growing service sector in the cities, and is a proud leader in healthcare and information technology.

Last summer, Min Ameen and Akshay Poongta made a presentation to the Auroville community on the topic of ‘Social marketing frameworks and its application to waste management in Auroville’.

Eco Femme, a manufacturer of reusable sanitary pads in Auroville, recently met with conservancy workers in Chennai and learnt about the devastating social impact of disposable pads.