Each Saturday evening six Thamarai children and a number of village youth can be found gathered around a table with maps, drawings and budget sheets eagerly planning for their new sports ground. For many years a big open piece of Auroville land within Annai Nagar village has been used by village youth and children to play on. In 2018, Thamarai applied to Auroville Town development Council for stewardship of this land for the development of a sports ground for the village. Six months later funding has been secured with student partners in Kedge university in France and upgrading the ground has begun with 95 lorry loads of Matrimandir soil filling up the ground and leveling it to the road. The children and youth are now busy getting quotations from the local welder and sports suppliers to make cricket practice wickets, goal posts, badminton and volleyball courts and sourcing options for fencing. The project started with the children’s enthusiasm for sports and a number of children picking up the topic of well being through sports development as a project as part of their leadership training. We hope to have the new ground up and running for both Auroville and Thamarai’s birthdays Feb 28th and March 1st this year and to start a daily program of sports training that will be mentored by village and Auroville youth. For now it’s sleeves rolled up and full steam ahead getting ready….
