Sustainable Living, Food Security, and Ecological Transformation
Environmental Education – Dive deep into 21st century climate solutions as you learn about water conservation, reforestation efforts, waste reduction, animal protection, and soil management while volunteering and contributing to meaningful projects.
Sustainable Living – Practice an eco-friendly carbon-neutral lifestyle, including: following permaculture principles, eating a plant-based diet, engaging in alternative construction and solar energy, using biodegradable toiletries, recycling and food composting, riding bicycles for energy production, and using composting toilets. Learn how a small force of volunteers has completely revitalized an endangered forest and raised the water table through simple and sustainable approaches.
Community Living – Participate in a compassionate and intentional community that is free of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Share in the responsibilities necessary to allow an intentional community to thrive.
Focusing the group and laying foundations:
We begin the program by building group intentions and group dynamics in our new home with our hosts on the reforestation campus. We’ll dive into basic language instruction, Culture 101, and we’ll set the stage for our experience.
Diving deep into our projects and learning immersion:
This is the heart of the learning immersion. Alongside our hosts, we’ll explore sustainability in action and immerse ourselves in each component of the projects — from building water conservation features to tree planting, cooking sustainably, and learning the underlying ethics behind this ecological approach to sustainable living.
Explore the surrounding Indian villages and the gorgeous port city of Pondicherry. Dive into the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother who inspired the global community of Auroville.
Final Travel:
This is a time to debrief, reflect, and prepare to take all the lessons you’ve learned back home with you. We’ll visit some of South India’s most impressive temples and the beautiful Tamil coastline before closing out the experience in Chennai, India.
Optional:
Visit the Taj Mahal, Amritsar’s Golden Temple, or the pilgrimage city of Varanai depending on the scope and budget of the partner organization.