Sadhana Forest goes to Kindergarten
19th March 2010,
By Helen
An exciting new development for Sadhana Forest in the past few weeks
has been the Green Kindergarten Project. Always keen to develop and improve relations with local villages we have begun to work with a local kindergarten in Trichitambalam, Koot Road. A group of Israeli volunteers called Adam LeAdam noticed the school one day when passing by and began talking to the teacher. Sensing an enthusiasm to work with Sadhana Forest the group suggested the kindergarten as a possible model school, demonstrating how to livemore sustainably. As the kindergarten already functions as a center for the community – handling issues such as the health and nutrition of the students, their mothers, and other pregnant women in the village – getting involved with the program will have a far-reaching effect on the community as well. Happily Becky and Helen took on the project and things began to move quickly!
Eager to connect with everyone involved in the kindergarten we
introduced ourselves to the teacher and of course, the children! The
parents of the children were invited to attend an open space in which
the philosophy of the project was explained. This allowed them to
share their thoughts and ideas for the future. We were so happy to see
their enthusiasm. We also discussed our plans to improve the amenities
in the school, and our ideas of linking the project to Sadhana
Forest’s Children’s Land. We are sure we’ll all have lots of fun
getting to know each other and swapping language lessons as we work
together. The meeting was a huge success and it quickly emerged that
the biggest priority was the addition of a garden for the children.
With a list of edible plants for the children in mind, we marked out a
space at the entrance of the school and ordered the materials needed
to erect a fence to protect the tasty plants from our friendly
neighbors… the cows!
As a Sadhana Forest project, the garden will be constructed from local
recycled materials as much as possible, and will be entirely organic
with no chemicals used. With help from the Sadhana Forest garden team,
we will learn along with the children about how to mulch, make compost
tea, and construct raised beds among many other permaculture
techniques. With so many ideas to plan and implement excitement is
growing about the project and we can’t wait to start work next week!