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Thamarai, when founded, established its first centre in Edayanchavadi – the nearest village to Auroville as a playgroup, after-school and healing centre for 11 years. In 2017 due to issues with the premises, the programmes relocated to other premises and another village which was in urgent need.

Many of the youth, who were once the children of Thamarai after-school from this village joined the team to facilitate the programmes. This participation showed how the changes that Thamarai wished to establish through their programmes were quite evidently accomplished – making the youth self-sufficient, educated and responsible to take in-charge. 

Last year, when Bridget and Muthu were approached by one of the alumni of Thamarai from this village that he has been tutoring children in his village, the need to go back to the village with an after-school programme seemed necessary, and equally inspiring.

 Before Thamarai, I have been part of the Joy of Impermanence – Anitya, an Auroville community based out of this village. The land, a small hut, (initially planned to be a kitchen), and the location that was close for the children to come after their school hours were a perfect fit, to begin with our new journey. 

This after-school will be run under Thamarai projects, led by two of our ‘then students and now facilitators’ with the help of Anitya community volunteers from 6:30 to 8:30 during the weekdays. From the beginning of project, children have been a huge part of building the centre. During the summer camp, we organised a masonry workshop where children were taught Mandala flooring – which then became the floor to the place they will study. The after-school began it’s functioning from July 29th. More extra-curricular programmes and activities will soon be initiated to support the children’s development and full potential.

The first inauguration of the school held in April where the children from Annai Nagar, Edaiyanchavadi after-school and the team of Thamarai and the Anitya community members came together to co-create a collaborative afternoon. The afternoon was filled with co-operative games, art, music, and the children also learned to make seed balls.

Followed by that, as part of the Thamarai summer camp we also organized a masonry workshop where children and youth from the village came together to learn and make a Mandala flooring in the spirit of Do it yourself  which turned out to be a beautiful piece of art and helped the children to understand the sense of place and getting involve in creating their own learning space.

On March 16th, Thamarai in association with Yatra Arts Media organised a film screening event in Annai Nagar village, where we have one of our after-school centres. Yatra Arts Media for 6 months taught Thamarai after-school children how to film, write scripts and let them explore this field of creativity (Click here to read more about this program). The event was conducted to mark the end of this beautiful program, and showcase of what our children learnt over these months. On this occasion, all members of the village and guests were present to encourage the children’s work.

In the afternoon, we had activities like collective art, painting the village that the children dream to see, Palmera leaf craft, Wellpaper creations, an activity where they expressed what they would like to be on an old CD, silambam class for other children and guests, ending the activity session with a drum concert.

Our children had set up the after-school and designed the ground to welcome artists, guests and students from Reunion Island, who also gave a presentation on their country to our children. In the evening, parents and guests joined our event to appreciate the movies children made. Each one had prepared a speech in English and Tamil and gave front of all the them.

A huge thanks to Srini Anna and his team who guided our children during the 6-month movie programme. This helped our children to believe in their abilities and realise their love for drama, care for their environment and curiosity towards direction.

To the artists and intervenant who came to provide creative work and generous activity to our children: Krupa and her art kart, Mathilde and her wonderful fresque, Melina and her magical argile village; Manoj and his traditional palmera leaf treasure, Wellpaper team and their upcycled paper activities, Gajemdiran, father of one of the children and potter of the village, Reunion Island who brought wonderful toys and gifts for our children and our amazing Thamarai team.

-Ines

Thamarai Educational Projects work towards empowering children, youth and women of villages surrounding Auroville. Through the Portrait Series, we will be featuring the youth that have been working in Thamarai, who’ll narrate their stories and experiences about their life, work and passion towards what they do for their communities.

Jagdeshwari is a full-time employee of Thamarai, working on administration duties and as a facilitator in the after-school program in her village, Annai Nagar.

Being one of the important pillars of the after-school program, Jagdeshwari shares about her journey in the first episode of Portrait series.

Shot and Edited by Ines Dahmani, Thamarai Volunteer

In today’s time, if we compare our lives to ones we lived a decade ago, we can easily notice tremendous difference, changes that occurred due to the pollution of air, water, food, soil, and so on. Adding to the list, technology has made human’s into an instrument, barely moving, much less exercising. Being part of health programs past 12 years, I noticed the change in living practices and how the traditional remedies once largely used are now completely replaced by medical support from Hospitals and Clinics.
Even though such solutions are practical and effective at present, I felt the need to educate the villages by bringing a system change and educating them on the lost traditions that are actually much healthy and sustainable.

In past years, the programs designed mainly focussed on empowering women and changing their lifestyles for their own betterment. Many women go through many physical complications due to work load and psychological complicarions due to stress at home, like partner’s alcohol addiction, which unfortunately is very commonly seen. To overcome these issues, our program helped women realise the benefits of healthy living and how few minutes of Yoga a day can help them improve their mental and physical health.

For the past year, the health program mainly focussed educating women in Auroville units, and we reached some more through the Mobile Health Program that was conducted for a short duration of time. This coming year, we aim on focussing and designing a program for government school children and some of the Auroville Outreach schools. As conducting these programs last year in few of the government schools helped us realise even better how starting and making this as a habit since an early age can be a huge step towards change.

Muthukumari