Stand By Us

For you who haven't read my earlier texts, at the moment I'm volunteering in Sadhana Forest which is a reforestation and environmental regeneration project. Sadhana Forest has its biggest project here in Southern India, in Pondycherry, Auroville, but it has also started projects in for example Kenya and Haiti.

We grow forest in rural areas where most of the land have been desertificated (it will say eroded and arid) to help the local communities to sustain their future. Since the poor land here in the outskirts of Auroville have been taken care of the water table has risen 6 meters from where it was 2003 when Sadhana Forest started. Now the locals have more water in their wells and the flora and fauna of the tropical dry evergreen forest has returned. Read more about the project where I'm staying at the moment here.

Haiti is one of the most deforested countries in the world. One of the reasons to this is the charcoal industry, which is also the only source of income for many locals. Sadhana Forest introduced food bearing trees to the local people, in this way the trees won't be cut down for charcoal since the people can benefit from the trees. Read more about the project in Haiti here.

The Samburu tribe in Kenya is suffering of food insecurity. Unpredictable rainfall, local problems and desertification of the land are some of the reasons for this. Sadhana Forest trains and helps the locals to grow a food forest and to become more self sustainable. Read more about the project in Kenya here.

Sadhana Forest relies entirely on voluntary work. One of Sadhana Forests guidelines is Gift Economy, meaning selfless giving. We grow forests and try to help the locals without asking anything in return. The same principles are also applied in the community between the people working here. Nobody makes profit in  a sense of money, not the individuals and not the organisation either.

Until now Sadhana Forest has been economically relying on individual donations. The problem with these are that you never now when they are coming, if they are coming, so it is hard to plan the future projects when you don't know if the support will come or not. That is why Sadhana Forest has resently launched the Sustaining Member program in which the donor agrees to contribute a certain amount of money every month. It doesn't have to be big amounts, even a couple of euros are helping a lot if many people are doing it. So if you would like to support this project, which I've really seen working in real life and which is trying to practise selfless giving and helping around the world check out the links below.

 Become a SUSTAINING MEMBER or donate one time!

Help sharing the youtube video and let all your friends now about this project. New volunteers are also very welcome in all the different projects. Being a volunteer in Sadhana Forest is so much fun, meeting new people, working together and living sustainable and eco-friendly.

To Volunteer in India

To Volunteer in Haiti

To Volunteer in Kenya

Thank You!