We love sharing our space with volunteers! If you are moved to come and share time, love and energy with us, we’d love to hear from you!
Our owe a lot to our volunteers!
Nahid Azad (Khan): July 2011 – Feb 2012
Some info on Nahid
Dear Friends,
I’d like to inform you that Nahid was caught stealing approximately €2000 from guests’ lockers at Joy GH. She joined us as a volunteer in July 2011 and was a charming young woman. I met her during an NVC training in Pune and invited her to visit Auroville, imagining she could grow and develop here in ways previously not available to her. Coming from a challenging background and a difficult childhood, she flourished in many ways here, and many of us were hopeful of her progress. However, I regret that the temptations that came along with the amount of freedom she was given at Joy were too strong… She’s now caught in a web of complex lies, and I imagine that confused parts of her personality are trying desperately to keep her life from crumbling apart. We asked Nahid to leave Auroville on Sunday, Feb 12. At present, she’s staying in Pondy and getting some support from Kousum (from Senteurs, Sri Aurobindo Ashram), with whom she had a previous connection. I wish her all the best on her journey and send love her way…
Regards,
L’aura for Joy Guest House
Shammi Nanda: Oct – Dec 2011
Sara Luig: April – June 2011
Sara is our first “official” volunteer, organized by a German association. She will be here for 3 months and is likely to support us in developing our NVC products… Check out Sara’s monthly contribution to Auroville’s News & Notes, where she posts NVC-related articles.
Gaby Jaime-Duran: March – April 2011
As Gaby researched different guest houses in Auroville, she chose College because of the NVC-connection. She informally began to contribute in different ways – planting tomato seedlings, sprouting corn, making flower arrangements for the dining area, creating recycled dolls, co-designing our new College “guidelines” booklet, and supporting Sara with NVC product ideas. Never a dull moment… Yay, way to go, Gaby!
Karthikeyan: Jan 2009 – April 2010
Karthik showed up one day in Dec ’08 to help build our new bamboo hut. Clayton had met him at Buddha Garden (where they were both doing volunteer farm work), and he shared some NVC ideas with Karthik and invited him to come and support our NVC Camp preparations. With Karthik’s growing interest in NVC and our community, we gave him one of our Camp scholarships (funded by a friend in the US).
I will never forgot what happened a day or two after the Camp was over. Karthik had returned home to Koot Road (a few kilometers from Auroville), but then showed up again and asked if he could move here “permanently.” Wow! Now Karthik is a Joy Community member and a Newcomer to Auroville. His contributions have been priceless – a permaculture vegetable garden, a fruit orchard and loads of support running the guest house and connecting with guests from all over the world.
SGLA (Sustainable Global Leadership Alliance) students: Summer 2009
A group of SGLA students visited Auroville and stayed at College (because of Clayton’s connection). They spent a few days helping Karthik expand our vegetable garden.
Clayton Barker: Dec 2008 – Feb 2009
Clayton was sharing NVC in Ladakh when he found us by chance while googling for NVC in India. Clayton ended up staying with us for a few months and contributed to organizing and running our 3-week NVC Camp in Dec ’08 – Jan ’09. Check out his site: Co-Creating Connection
Ana and Tiago, with Living Routes students: Dec 2008
Our first-ever volunteers! And our first-ever vegetable beds…! A group of Living Routes students worked with then Newcomers (and now Aurovilians) Ana and Tiago. They want to eco-up College GH a bit, so they designed a new soak-pit system, which meant the washing-machine water could “feed” bananas tubers, instead of going into the ground. They also built an herb garden and prepared our first raised vegetable beds.
