Santé Integral Heath Centre

Dr Bérengère, or Dr Be as she is known in Auroville, holds a French MBA in International Business. She then studied Ayurveda at the Gujarat Ayurved University in Jamnagar, India.

Aurosugan was born in Auroville. After completing an MBA in hospital administration, he worked at the Aravind Eye Hospital for many years. Recently he returned to Auroville and set up a primary eye centre here with ambitious plans to eliminate blindness in Auroville and the bioregion.

On May 25th, long-term pioneer Peter Holl passed away in a hospice in Hamburg after coping with cancer for more than a year. He was 74. Having been part of a Sri Aurobindo study group in Berlin in the very early seventies, ‘Peti’ as he was called (pronounce Peetee), left his job in the banking world, had his father drive him to the autobahn and hitchhiked overland to India, arriving in the Ashram in 1972 where he received Mother’s darshan and lived for some time.

After some time with no positive COVID cases in Auroville, five Aurovilians contracted COVID 19 in October (as recorded by the Santé Coordination team).

Aurosugan coordinated Auroville's COVID response in the second wave, drawing on his experience in health care administration at the Aravind Eye Hospital, working together with the Auroville support team.

Auroville’s Institute of Integral Health Santé and the Auroville Village Action Group have issued the booklet “Nal Valvu” (Good and meaningful life), which aims at raising awareness about COVID-19 – how it spreads, how to manage the risk of infection, what Community transmission and herd immunity are, and how the Covishield vaccine effects immunity.

Auroville and local youth are being trained in the Y-PEER methodology by the Auroville Peer Education Network (APEN) that enables them to help their peers deal with the challenges of life here.

On the morning of February 21, at a beautiful ceremony held behind Santé, the Morning Star Birthing Centre was dedicated. The Centre, proposed to be ready by 2020, will provide Auroville with a specialized space for maternity and childbirth.

On January 29th, Nisha (K. Nishanthi), who worked as a nurse in Santé, left her body after a prolonged illness in Nallam Clinic. Her husband Raj and other family members were with her.

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

Recently, a group of Aurovilians concerned about the direction of our economy discussed alternatives. Anandi is part of the management team of Pour Tous Distribution Centre, Jocelyn is on the Santé team, Nicole is a member of the BCC and management of the Visitors Center, Isha coordinates the Auroville Board of Services, and Manohar is the webmaster of the Auroville website.

“For us, the human being comes first,” reads the website of Linea. “We offer a friendly environment where people can walk in, have a consultation, be well-treated and get detailed aftercare.

Auroville is not short of doctors and therapists. They work not only with the body but some work also with subtler levels of the being. A number of therapists work independently from home, others practise in one or more of the five major health and healing centres.

On 15th August, 2015, the Santé Clinic was opened. It is an experiment in integrative medicine as an approach to integral health. But what is integral health?

A friend of mine would regularly examine the annual 21st February bonfire to see if the coming year would be a good or a bad one for the Auroville community.