A market was held in Auroville to celebrate Earth Day. Sadhana Forest came with our chefs and some creative hands to share some of our joys and talents. Our chefs prepared some snacks to give out in the market. Sheela’s Special Laddus (ball-shaped Indian sweet) made mainly from various local organic flours and jaggery (palm tree syrup) was a succes along with Osher’s sweet ragi (local millet) pudding.

Sheela serving free vegan snacks to all visitors of the market!

Our crafts enthusiasts showed anyone interested how you can reuse items such as plastic bottles and torn t-shirts to make beautiful and fun accessories. Raja shared his techniques of cutting plastic bottles and transforming them into bangles (indian braclets) while Ally showed how t-shirts can live a second life as a trendy purse!

Cuttings from a plastic bottle and old bits of cloth to make a bracelet!

Wrapping the plastic in colorful cloth bits.

A model of a re-used t-shirt, turned into a crafty all purpose bag!

Yet another t-shirt has found a new life!

One beautiful contribution came after the cyclone, at the beginning of the year from a volunteer named Claudius. His wish was to fund and build a Yurt and share his knowledge of the subject with anyone here interested to learn.

Construction began shortly and a team of volunteers rushed to finish the Yurt in the time, just over a month, that claudius had left in India.

Making a circle where the Yurt will soon be

Frame awaiting roofing beams.

Smalls bits and bobs to screw the parts together.

Claudius and Yandi pulling up parts of the roof

The Yurt team in-front of the Yurt awaiting the final step - roofing!

Thank you very much Claudius!!!

Now that we’ve begun to see real recovery of our structures after the cyclone, it’s time to share the joy with our friends and well-wishers across the globe!

New structures awaiting keet (palm tree leaf) roofs.

Volunteers have moved into recently finished structures which have been redesigned to better withstand storms such as the cyclone.

New hut with roof and all!

The newest models are much more stable and robust; shorter and thicker pillars hide the keet (palm tree roof) from the winds at the higher altitudes and gives less chance of pillars splitting from the force, the structures are also build with bigger heavier beams which will weigh down and have much stronger resilience to the forces of nature! Some of these structures are truly tanks in comparison to their ancestors!

Shorter, more stable and durable granite pillars.

A generous volunteer chose to fund building a Yurt in Sadhana Forest, also donating his knowledge and time by building it during his stay here. Read more here.

The yurt under construction

Untill now, 5 brand new huts have been built with these new robust designs. Two roofs have been replaced and all huts that could be saved are fully repaired! We are  continuing to build huts and replace roofs, yet we have come a long way!

We are so full of gratitude and awe, toward you all, well-wishers and friends across the globe who have made the recovery, growth and rebirth of our community possible!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Deeply and sincerely,

Aviram and Yorit Rozin and the whole of Sadhana Forest