Some children joined moving piles of branches, still left from the cyclone! Others joined in the kitchen and the vast majority came to the forest.

All the branches are now moved out of Children's Land, leaving space for other Children to come in the future and enjoy the space!

One of our forest projects is to improve one of our dams with vetiver grass, for today we will focus on making a bund to plant the grass on.

Preparing for making a bund

A heavily compacted bund starting to take shape!

Thanks to the Siragu group many of our thristy trees have been replenished and are more prepared for the dry summer!

This girl helps in the chain of transporting water from one of our mud pools to the seedlings in the forest.

Mulch (dry organic material such as leaves) spread to keep the water from evaporating, and also enriching the soil! Vishu, one of our volunteers, shows how to do this.

Thank you everyone from Siragu for joining us and help build our forest!

These children loved having their photo taken, they hurriedly huddled infront of the camera!

Clara does face painting for one of the school children.

A free vegan lunch was served to all guests, volunteers, and children.

"Raise your hands if you want a plate!"

Lunch time; rice and a spicy flavorful sauce called Kara Karumbu.

Dorian, who manages children's land, singing together with children from Apres School

The drawing space full of enthusiastic children.

Assorted instruments being played at earth day including this bamboo drum.

Here are some more images from the event:

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

full of colors!

And THEY Handled well!

HI !

The project has progressed and developed in respect to our approach with the children. We try to include more children from surrounding villages and create more expressive and diverse activities such as; drawing, artrecycling garbage, garden, swimming in the mud pool (with a boat), and possibly a new hut and playground if fundraising is successful.
We also try to give children more freedom to decide what they want to do so they can express their own creativity!

Its been an amazing few weeks in Children’s Land capped off by a beautiful celebration of the Sadhana Forest Recycling Festival!!  As the mist cleared on a gorgeous Saturday morning, the sound of young eager voices filled the air.  Both the Tamarai School and New Colors arrived simultaneously and right away we all headed to the Recycling shed, grabbed all the random materials we could carry and marched into Children’s Land to work on the construction of GARBAGE MONSTERS!!!

Everyone was so creative, transforming old broken telephones into a chest, and old chappals into hands!! Within a few minutes the children decided that one Garbage Monster would get lonely and the built two more from scratch!

This are the children from New Colors.

This was such an amazing project and it was really a special opportunity to see children from both communities working some well together, supporting eachother, and communicating so effectively to create a garbage masterpiece!!

This are the children from Thamarai.

Whilst the Garbage Monsters were magically coming to life, children were taking a colorful plunge into the HOLI celebration, covering themselves and eachother with non-toxic colorful powders to celebrate the sub-continents most colorful festival.

For a little energy boost, the hardworking Sadhana kitchen delivered a divine assortment of ‘Holi Poli’; like Ragi Chapathis but filled with a mixture of jaggery and bananas!!! Whilst snacking we were surprised by a visit from a Magician-Without-Borders from Belgium.  He mystified Children’s Land with his various tricks and showmanship.  Some children especially enjoyed volunteering to particpate in some of the tricks.  THANK YOU MAGICIANS-WITHOUT-BORDERS!!

After all the hard (but SUPER fun) work on the Garbage Monsters, a Holi Poli treat and a magic  show, the children were ready to put on their own show.

Together we crossed over to Children’s Land’s own open stage were children (and children at heart) treated everyone with singing performances, dancing, and games.

It was such a special moment to see the children open up an perform their talents with confidence and laughter of course!!!

After a closing circle and a group wave we transitioned to the  transformative experience of diving into the depths of the mud pool to cool off after an wonderful Sunday Morning in Children’s Land!!!

Thanks to everyone for your support and interest in Children’s Land!!!

Photos by Anisha.

Text by Adam.