Newsletter 1/2011

AVAG's quarterly newsletter

auroville
village
action
group

Auroville Village Action Group

Irumbai & P.O. (Opp. To EB) / Villupuram Dist. – 605 111 / Tamil Nadu, India
 From the
Menstruation –
It s for example proble-
matic to dry the menstrual editor
cloth outside in the sun
breaking the silence because many women
believe, that they won't be It has been
able to get children when a long time
Menstrual survey the cloth is touched by a since our last news-letter
lizard or when eagles fly and there are many things
Every women knows it. … Once a month there are over it. that happened during the
these special days when emotions go crazy, previous months.
cramps make her sick or shame prevents her from Many other beliefs suggest
going outside. Shame? In rural India: Yes! that women are “impure” We are preparing to launch
during their period, so they social enterprises, we have
should for example not completed a research
touch plants, because project and found out more
otherwise the plants would about the everyday-
die. problems of village women.
This concept of impurity Sharing AVAG's efforts and
often creates shame in the successes with our friends
women and they don't talk and supporters is the
to anybody about this purpose of this little
women's issue, even if newsletter. We hope you'll
91% connect their period enjoy the snapshot of Indian
with some physical or village actions and stay in
emotional problem. touch with us!
Also, many women do not
Every women knows it, but menstruation is still a know where their
taboo issue in the rural Tamil society and girls and With love, Arina
menstrual blood comes
women are often left alone with problems, from. Most of them believe,
questions and fears related to this natural and that it is just the “bad blood
special aspect of being female. coming out”. Because of all these issues, AVAG
This is why Auroville Village Action Group took its wants to create a unique educational program
first steps to break this silence during the last that will not only concentrate on biological
months. knowledge- there is plenty of them out there
already- but also on deep-rooted emotional
But where to start? We found it the best approach aspects.
to get an overview about the every-month
practices, mindsets and problems that women
have to face in Indian villages before starting any Eco femme
projects. And there is also some business going on! Indian
So our first step was to conduct a survey with 300 women have so far the choice between an old
women, which revealed certain surprises, as well piece of cloth and a disposable pad, which is
as shocks. either difficult to
handle or creates
To maintain their hygiene, about half of the women environmental
use “normal” disposable pads, while the other half pollution
uses large pieces of old cloth that are folded (remember: most
several times and are mostly washed and reused, villages haven't got
like a cloth diaper. a sufficient waste-
We could not find any evidence that this traditional infrastructure).
practice is physically harmful but it is a huge
challenge for the women to manage their
menstruation in this way, since nearly all of them
follow some traditional or religious rules that can
make a healthy menstrual hygiene really difficult.

Our Vision: to collaborate with the rural communities to reveal their innate wis-
dom and ability to collectively determine and manifest their dynamic potential 1 /
 But how lucky we are, to have Kathy on board! But whatever their reactions are, in AVAG we
Since many years she is stitching colourful cloth want to offer a variety of products to the women
menstrual pads that seem to be an interesting to give them more freedom in choice rather than
solution to the challenge of menstrual hygiene in impose a product on them and help to make
an Indian environment. Inspired by this activity, these 3-7 days per month easier.
AVAG is planning to start a social enterprise and
produce this beautiful product named “Eco
femme”, which will be a symbol of women
empowerment, as well as environmental What's new
awareness. Combined with an educational
package, we hope to improve the hygiene and ◦ 4 new volunteers
self-conception of many women and also to
become more self sustaining through the Pablo from Spain, Sayana from India and Ismael &
marketing of Eco femme in urban India and Arina from Germany will support us with their skills
export-markets. and motivation for one year each
◦ Eco life is growing
Catalog and fliers for our store of environmentally
friendly products are ready and we are present on
Focus Groups Auroville's saturday-markets and an exhibit at
To find out even Villipuram for 1 month.
more about Our number of customers is growing steadily and
practices and we are able to provide more and more villagers-
feelings of Tamil with ecologically sustainable alternatives like solar
women towards lamps and CFL bulbs.
their menstruation ◦ Offspring
and to start off a
discussion among Our lovely colleague Devane has got a little baby
some of them, boy in perfect health
AVAG is conduc- ◦ Enterprise creation
ting several focus
groups right now; Supported by Indian government and Auroville
meetings with enterprises, we hope to start our SEDAB project
We liked the focus group so about 20 women of soon (Social Enterprise Development in Auroville's
much, we are not able to the same age or Bioregion) and thus give work to 530 club
express it! AVAG showed us caste group, in members. The funds which are connected to this
different products and we were which we discuss scheme would be of great help in our actual
able to learn many things. And about menstrual financial crisis
we could also learn about the knowledge,
different ways of handling ◦ Short-film about AVAG
problems and
menstruation that exist among hygiene. Thanks to Brian from the American University
us. We will share this Paris, we got a beautiful short-film ready for the
knowledge with our friends and The last part of the new year! Enjoy the film with the name “Eco
family, with our daughters in meeting is always Femme: A Women's Empowerment Project in
particular. most exciting, Rural India” on Youtube
since it is then
The ecofemme product is very when we confront ◦ Review resource mobilization
good. It doesn't create waste the women with
and it will last us for a long Over the last weeks, AVAG team have been
different menstrual participating in valuable facilitated processes to
time. It is like purchasing a products like – yes
cotton sari. It is an investment review organisational structures and generate new
-even tampons! ideas for resource mobilization
but then it lasts for many years. Most of them never
saw such a thing ◦ Updates
before and we get very different reactions to this Please visit our website on www.villageaction.in to
“shocking” product. Some women seem very open see some recent updates including the Annual
and interested “wow, what's that? Let me see!” or report 2009/2010
“is it true that you can even spread your legs when
you use this product?!”. Others seem disgusted by
the idea of putting something inside their body and
don't even want to touch the tampon.
2 /
 We already conducted 2 women's seminars on
Addiction- this topic of de-addiction and received an
overwhelming feedback to address this issue as
soon as possible. Women told us “had you done
a serious problem this program before, my son in law would still be
alive” or “ just while I attended the seminar, my
sister's husband died from alcohol”.
The possibility of curing the man's addiction in a
21-day base-camp brings hope to the women and
families, so we are all very excited about
launching this program soon and making it widely
accessible by keeping costs as low as possible.

After talking so much about this women's issue, let's

continue with a rather male problem: Alcoholism!
Yes...this dangerous drogue continues to be one of
th biggest challenges even in the remotest villages
of Tamil Nadu and creates lots of problems for
individuals, families and communities. In both, Botanical
women's and men's seminars, participants see this
as a major problem. And for sure, it is not only the
addicted who suffers, but also his family; his wife in
Gardens
When we think of medicine in Indian villages, we
particular.
often get images of ancient ayurvedic knowledge
Often, alcoholics spend nearly all of their money on
and natural remedies. How far away from reality!
alcohol and contribute very little to the household.
They fight with family members, beat their women Actually, traditional healing methods and wisdom
and destroy their own health. about alternative medicine are nearly getting lost;
But what can men and women do against the one reason, why we started our herbal garden
powerful claws of addiction? program.
To help these villagers finding it difficult to cope,
In Aurovilles botanical garden, AVAG staff
AVAG is preparing a cooperation with Bhanu and
members took part in a training and learned how
Sumati from the de-addiction clinic Concern in
to grow medicinal and kitchen herbs. This
Chennai. They offered to make a training in the
knowledge will then be passed on to Self help
villages to rehabilitate alcoholics and bring health
group members in the villages which will
and harmony back to the families in which drunken
empower them to take better care of their health
violence, craving and suffering are part of everyday-
using nature's gifts.
life.

Thank you for your support!

Unfortunately, none of our initiatives works without money. This is why
we want to express our gratitude to all of the people who help us with
their engagement and financial support.
Further contributions are most welcome, especially now in a time where
AVAG is running very short of money and has had to reduce some of
its activities due to a financial crisis.

www.villlageaction.in
avagoffice@auroville.org.in
+91 (0413) 2678871/ 2628872

3 /