Volunteers

The German Government set up the Weltwärts programme to allow young Germans to volunteer in a different country for 6-18 months in areas like education, health, environment, culture and human rights, in order to broaden their minds and strengthen international understanding.

The following are excerpts from volunteers' final reports after 12 months in Auroville A transformative year that still resonates Much time has passed since my Weltwärts year in 2008-09.

“Wishing to move forward in collaboration towards the building of the city and the right administering of Auroville,” the AVFO on 9 May issued a call for self-nomination in key areas of the Auroville administration, eg a group, service, unit or trust.

The GB-FAMC informed the managers of small guest houses that the Financial Services accounts of these guest houses would be closed by 15 June 2025 and requested the managers to cancel any future bookings.

On 11 April, the Admissions and Terminations Registry informed the community that it had received and verified 28 applications from people aspiring to join Auroville as Newcomers together with 10 children.

Friederike Mühlhans has a long experience of working for Auroville International (AVI). Since 1997 she has been a board member of AVI Germany and since 2003 she has been Secretary of the AVI Board, with a four-year break when she served as Chairperson.

Abishek, a youth from Annai Nagar village, recently spent 18 months volunteering in Germany, as part of the Weltwärtsprogramme.

Since the shock of the destruction of the buildings and forest clearance, the Youth Center (YC) has been receiving support and appreciation from the community.

Integrated Animal Care Centre (IACC) was started in 2005. It is a legacy of Ann Plummer. She was known as “Animal Care Ann” as she used to give food and look after stray dogs and cats.

Akash Nandkumar, an Auroville volunteer, left his body on October 13th. Akash first came to attend Auroville’s Swadharma programme in July-August 2018, and afterwards continued to live in Auroville, developing Hempcrete which became his life’s passion, working with the Auroville Earth Institute and others pioneering the difficult research and development work.

On Tuesday May 26th, Vijayamala, a long-term volunteer at New Creation's Crèche and Boarding School, passed away due to a heart attack at JIPMER at the age of 51.

Like so many Auroville projects, Annapurna farm started with a simple keet-roofed hut, no money to speak of, not many expectations but with high aspirations.

Savi - meaning ‘key’ in Tamil - is the official service in charge of organising and facilitating the interaction between volunteers and Auroville units.

Auroville receives a minimum of 300 volunteers per year from more than 30 nationalities and this number is increasing every year. An official volunteer (registered with Savi) works at least 24 hours per week in one occupation from 120 work positions available in Auroville.

My name is Marie, I come from France where I studied art and graphic design, in Paris and in Le Havre. I came to Auroville in October 2018 through Service Civique.

Imagine being a young person, discovering, participating, and actively dedicated to the development of Auroville. Imagine living in a group of twelve, all volunteering in the community: people from different parts of the world, with different cultural backgrounds, but with a common intention to experience and contribute to Auroville.

The post hails from the cozy north-eastern town of Shillong in the state of Meghakaya. The inspiration for the writings comes from my personal journey through this labyrinth that we call life.

I finished my undergrad studies in architecture in 2017 from Bangalore. I come from Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh. During my stay in Auroville, I lived in several places including ‘La Maison des Jeunes’ which influenced me to make 0 comic strip relating to the community.

Money, in any of its forms, stipulates a hierarchy of values, which creates separations between people as well as between humanity and the environment.

I was brought up in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram School and I am currently working for YouthLink and living in Maison des Jeunes. In my quest for meaning, I have found my place in Auroville.

I am Mitali Joshi, 24, born and bred in Bombay, India, I have been volunteering with Thamarai Educational Projects as content writer, editor and facilitator in the after-school program.

On 23rd February, a one day event, The New Creation Emerges, was held in Bhumika Hall. The morning was a very special one as ten young Aurovilians shared about their lives and aspirations.

During the guest season in Auroville, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the number of workshops, classes and seminars that are on offer. With notice boards overflowing with announcements of programmes, Auroville does look like “the place for an unending education.”

Under this programme, over the past eight years 122 young German volunteers have come to work in Auroville, generally for a period of one year.

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.

While the topic of youth is getting a lot of attention in Auroville recently, the focus on youth empowerment has long been a mission of the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture.

The work of Sadhana Forest is well known. Yearly, more than 1,000 volunteers come for shorter or longer periods to learn about water conservation, rainwater harvesting, earth dam building, afforestation, alternative energies and many more ‘green’ practices.

My experience of Auroville started in August 2013, as an intern at the Auroville Earth Institute. For six months, I had the chance to lead a research project on a promising new technology for construction, Poured Earth Concrete.

Recently, a number of small structures with shiny roofs have come up on open ground near Citadines. This is a small experimental settlement for Newcomers and volunteers called La Maison des Jeunes (“house of the young”).

Auro-Orchard, one of Auroville’s biggest farms, took the decision to go organic in October 2012. How have they done? And how optimistic are they about the future of food production in Auroville?

In 2009, the World Bamboo Congress in Thailand declared the 18th of September to be World Bamboo Day (WBD). This day is intended to raise awareness of bamboo, one of the best renewable resources, as one possibility for meeting the growing needs of our global population.