Dear potential volunteers,
Help Build a Flourishing Indiginous Food Forest!
We are now offering a FREE Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course, with hands on experience over two months in the summer of 2012 in Anse- Pitres, Haiti. This will give participants the chance to apply their knowledge and help the local Haitian community.
Sadhana Forest Haiti is an international volunteer community that aims to reintroduce an indigenous food forest to Haiti. We share with volunteers and our local community our desire to live sustainably, from organic food growth to alternative energy sources, to composting. We utilize Permaculture techniques and design philosophy to achieve our goals.
On Friday December 30, Cyclone Thane hit the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry with heavy rains and wind speeds of up to 135 kph (83 mph) and tidal surges of up to 1.5 meters (5 feet). The cyclone hit the whole coast from Chennai down to Karaikal. Our district, Villupuram, is among the worst hit as the cyclone epicenter hit close to Pondicherry.
Sadhana Forest was highly affected by the cyclone. The storm hit us around midnight and strengthened throughout the morning. Around 2:30 AM on Friday morning, 94 volunteers, including families and children, were evacuated from their living spaces to the safest dormitory in Sadhana Forest. In time, the dormitory roof suffered severe damage and everyone underneath was quickly soaked. Although the conditions were very harsh, all of our volunteers kept their spirits high and cared for each other. We are all thankful for going through this experience in a loving supportive community.
Sadhana Forest suffered damage on every structure. Out of 20 houses of the long term volunteers, 14 have been completely destroyed. This has been our greatest loss. These houses accommodate those who have committed to work with us for a few years or more with complete dedication. Additionally, the roofing material of all the huts including: the main community hut, the kitchen, the dormitories, and the remaining residential houses were blown away by the strong winds. The foundations and safety of most huts are severely compromised due to very wet soil around the structures. Also, the laundry and the shower huts were both ruined by the storm.
In the forest, most of the young TDEF trees that we have planted survived. Unfortunately many of our older trees and Acacias have fallen. The vegetable garden and orchard have been completely devastated. The majority or our fruit trees including all the banana trees, papaya trees, and mango trees were uprooted.
The traumatic experience of the cyclone didn’t hinder the volunteers’ spirits. As soon as the sun reappeared we started clearing the paths, making urgent repairs, drying bedding and blankets, and salvaging belongings from the broken homes. However most of the repairs require the purchase new materials and skilled labor which incur heavy costs.
We need urgent help from all our well-wishers, friends and family around the world.
The total damage to infrastructure is estimated at: 2,800,000 Indian Rupees, equivalent to 41,790 Euros or 52,830 US Dollars.
If you’d like to support rebuilding a long-term volunteer’s hut, it would cost 90,000 Indian Rupees.
Please see the attached spreadsheet with the detailed estimate of all emergency rebuilding costs.
Thank you very much for your care and love for Sadhana Forest.
Lots of love,
Yorit and Aviram
Donate to Support us:
For tax exemption in the US, and donations from other countries:
https://secure.aviusa.org/donations_donatenow_sadhana.php
For tax exemption in the UK:
http://www.aviuk.org/donate.htm
Rebuild
|
|
| 14 Long Term Volunteer Huts at 90,000 each |
1,260,000 |
| Couples’ Huts |
110,000 |
| Children’s Land Toilet |
50,000 |
| Fencing |
100,000 |
| Laundry Hut |
100,000 |
Roof Repairs |
|
| 6 Long Term Volunteers Huts roofs at 50,000 each |
300,000 |
| Main Hut Roof |
28,000 |
| Family Hut Pillars + Roof |
25,000 |
| Solar Panel Hut Roof |
15,000 |
| Retreat Hut Roof + Pillars |
30,000 |
| Family Hut Roof + cross beam |
10,000 |
| Tool Shed roof |
10,000 |
| Entrance Hut Roof + cross bean |
25,000 |
| Parking roof |
10,000 |
| Shower Hut roof |
90,000 |
| Toilet dorm roof, broken wood on support |
40,000 |
| Middle Dormitory roof |
20,000 |
| Training dorm roof |
200,000 |
| Kitchen dorm roof |
50,000 |
| Kitchen roof |
80,000 |
Pillar Repair |
|
| Bike Hut |
2,000 |
| Toilets, walls |
15,000 |
| Healing Hut |
20,000 |
| Old Shower pillar, doors |
30,000 |
| Dosa Kitchen pillar |
3,000 |
Replacement of Damaged Equipment |
|
| Water Tank |
5,000 |
| Children’s Land shade net |
15,000 |
| Children’s Land water tower |
70,000 |
| Children’s Land PVC pipe |
2,000 |
| Solar System new invertor, connectors |
85,000 |
| Total Estimate in Indian Rupees: |
2,800,000 |
| Total Estimate in Euros: |
41,790 |
|
Total Estimate in US Dollars: |
52,830
|
Here is Auroville Radio’s half hour Interview with volunteers of Sadhana Forest on the effects of the cyclone.
On the 27th more than 250 people participated in the 2nd birthday of the Children’s Land project! Eleven games and many performances were held during the celebration! All the volunteers of Sadhana Forest, about 100 volunteers, ran the activities.
All the children went home with a mask and a smile…
So the celebration was a great success!
The most popular activity was Face painting! By the afternoon the children’s faces were full of color!
Another activity was natural playdoh! They first draw on paper and then fill the formes with the playdoh. The children created many beautiful colors!
Tasting and Guessing - This game is a blindfolded discovery of taste and smell. The children were given different foods to guess what they were!
The speciality of the day - Vegan muffins, rosella leaves and seeds, tapioca chips, cinnamon, star anise, citrus leaves, turmeric, and chili powder, and banana… They loved it!!!
There where also many performances during the birthday!
There was a puppet show, capoeira (Brazilian dance), clown and magic perfomance, body percussion and more
