Sristi Village 2 newsletter

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Sristi Foundation Empowering people with disabilities

Newsletter – 2, September 2014

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Sristi Foundation Empowering people with disabilities

Thazhuthali, Tindivanam T.K.

Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu -604 304 INDIA

[email protected] www.sristivillage.org

Newsletter – 2, September 2014

Dear Friends,

Hearty Greetings from Sristi Foundation!

It is our great pleasure to put forward the second issue of Sristi Foundation Newsletter. We

are delighted to share with you some of the recent successes, challenges, and developments

at Sristi Foundation. We hope you find the newsletter both informative and a pleasure to

read.

The main objective of the organization is “to

establish “Sristi Village”, a self-sustaining,

inclusive and eco-friendly village, which

provides a family atmosphere where

everyone can reach their full potential

regardless of disability, race, gender, etc.

Further, people with intellectual disabilities

and the marginalized will be equally active

contributors”.

At Sristi Foundation, we have been working hard to make this dream come true. With

the support of friends from around the world, we purchased nine acres of land, and are now

well on our way to establishing our Sristi Village community. In fact, our first community

members have arrived! Please continue reading to learn about our inaugural community

celebration, our first cultivation, the launch of our website, and other exciting news.

Sristi Village Journal

July 14th, 2014: Preparing the Land

Today we started preparing our land for organic

cultivation. Necessary preparation includes land

levelling, summer ploughing, contour bunding, and

mixing natural manure with the soil. This is our first

cultivation, so it is a moment of reflection as we dig

and prepare for what is to come. What will grow

from this land? What will grow from this vision?

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.sristivillage.org/

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July 20th, 2014: Young, Energetic, Innovators at Sristi Village

Today a team of young people from

Blossom Foundation paid a visit to Sristi

Village. Blossom Foundation is lead by Mr.

Arun, a final year engineering student at

Manakular Vinayagar Engineering College,

Puducherry. Mr. Arun and his team shared

with us their innovative ideas for technology solutions to solve everyday problems. We are

highly impressed with their creative ideas.

July 26th, 2014: First Community Meeting

News is spreading about Sristi Village; at present 40

people with disabilities have come forward to say

that they wish to join the community. Today is the

big day for a community meeting of potential

members. At this stage, we must choose the right

beneficiaries. Our plan is to invite a maximum of 10

people into our first community group. Once this

group of 10 residents is finalized, they will join us in

Sristi Village and begin contributing to all our activities, including cultivation and designing

and building the village.

August 3rd, 2014: Visit from UnLtd Tamil Nadu

Today we received a visit from Mr. Gijs Spoor and his

wonderful family. Mr. Gijs Spoor is the founder of

UnLtd Tamil Nadu, a start-up incubator that is

providing Sristi Foundation with invaluable guidance

and support. Mr. Gijs Spoor shared his precious time

with us to discuss how we might enhance our activities

and improve efficiency. We are grateful for his

support.

August 20th, 2014: Inaugural Community Celebration

This is a very proud moment in the history of

our organization. Yes, our first community

members have arrived! This is the moment we

have long awaited. Our first group of 10

community members includes people with

disabilities and non-disabled. Today they

formally join Sristi Village, bringing to life the

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dream of a community where diversity is celebrated and dignity assured. We are thrilled to

welcome our first community!

We celebrate today with a big event,

overseen by chief guest Sri-La-Sri

Sivagnana Balaya Swamigal, 20th

Pontiff, Mailam – Bommapura Adheenam.

Also in attendance at the inaugural

celebration are the Village Counsellor,

the presidents of Thazhuthali and

neighbouring villages, teachers, parents,

children, and members of the public. It

is certainly a day to remember.

August 27th, 2014: First Cultivation

Another historic moment for Sristi Village: With

the help of our first community members, we

begin our organic and traditional South Indian

cultivation. The land is prepared with natural

manure, and today we begin – it is time to plant!

Our crops this season will be minor millets (foxtail

millet – tinai, little millet – samai, kodo millet –

varagu, corn, and red gram). Our community

members are involved in each and every activity of cultivation. We are very proud and

impressed with their involvement. We hope our first farming venture will be a success. We

anticipate that it will be, thanks to the expert guidance and assistance of Ms. Kumari and

Care Society.

September 12th, 2014: Happy First Birthday

Whose birthday is it? The birthday of Sristi Foundation! Yes, it is hard to believe, but

exactly one year ago today we registered our organization and officially initiated the project.

So much can happen in a year. The journey of the past twelve months included big challenges,

many fascinating moments, and sweet, sweet,

successes. People are responding to the vision of

Sristi Village, and together, with tremendous,

heartfelt, work, we are making the dream come

true.

We celebrated today with parents, local leaders,

and friends from the wider community. Sristi

Village community members served a delicious dinner, and organized a lively, inclusive, dance

party. It was a wonderful event. Our chief guest was Mr. Sathish, past president of Rotary

Club Pondicherry, Beach Town, who attended with his family.

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We, the Sristi Village community, take this opportunity to thank each and every person who

has offered encouragement and moral support during the past year. In particular we would

like to acknowledge:

1. Leon, Brigitte, and Kinderlachen (Germany) for their tireless support.

2. Mr. Nicolas Jogel from France, for his crucial help purchasing the land and kick-starting

the project.

3. Mr. Arulmurugan and his family, for their dedication to Sristi Village.

4. Ms. Alison Waldman from the USA, for supporting and mentoring the project. We thank

kanthari International for connecting us with this amazing person.

Infrastructure Update

With the support of UnLtd Tamil Nadu, we

had an opportunity to meet and speak with

Mr. Paul, a landscape pioneer from the

Auroville community. Based on our need and

his suggestion, we constructed an internal

road to improve access on the Sristi Village

land. Our next step in the building process is

to meet an eco-friendly architect who will

help us design our energy efficient and eco-

friendly buildings.

In the meantime, the people of the village have

paid heed to our current situation, and have

agreed to rent us a building to lodge our first

community members at the low rate of 36 Euros

(INR 3000) per month. We highly appreciate

the cooperation and support of the village

people.

Announcements

Website launched!

We are pleased to announce the launch of the website for Sristi Foundation.

www.sristivillage.org We designed this website to provide a comprehensive overview of our

vision, mission, objectives, history, and various activities of Sristi Village. We will continue to

update the website regularly with new events, case studies, and news from the village and our

partners. Please take a moment to look through the website and share it with your friends.

We would like to thank StudioQ, Ms. Anna Reid, Ms. Gayathri, and all our friends and

supporters for their outstanding work over the past few months to transform our ideas into

this wonderful website.


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Donors Receive Tax Benefit

You can now receive a tax benefit when you donate to Sristi Foundation! The Foundation is

fully registered under the Income Tax Acts 12AA and 80G, department of Income Tax,

Puducherry. Donors may receive a 50% tax exemption from their taxable income when they

donate to Sristi Foundation.

And in further good news, Sristi Foundation has finally secured prior permission under the

Indian FCRA Act to receive foreign contributions.

Meet our first long-term volunteers

We are delighted to be joined by our

friend and supporter, and first long-

term volunteer, Ms. Elodie from

France. Ms. Elodie helped raise funds

for the purchase of our Sristi Village

land and cultivation, and is now sharing

her expertise in theatre and youth

development directly with our

community. She has extensive

experience working with special needs

children, and is involved with Sristi Special School as well as with establishing the village.

We are also excited to welcome

Ms. Charlotte, from the USA. Ms.

Charlotte is a Permaculture and natural

farming expert who brings decades of

experience to our agricultural activities.

Our third long-term volunteer, Mr. David

from Germany. Mr. David has a passion

for working with children with

disabilities, and he is helping with day-to-

day activities at Sristi Special School.

We say a big thank you in advance to our first, brave, long-term volunteers! We are so

grateful for your support, and delighted to welcome you to Sristi Village.

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Special Requests

A vehicle for Sristi Village

As you are aware, we responded to a request from the surrounding community and initiated a

Special School for children with disabilities. As of now, 10 children from nearby villages are

enrolled and receiving special education and training at the school. Requests continue to pour

in from families from remote villages who wish to admit their children into the program. It is

our earnest desire to meet this need and to offer admission to all interested students with

disabilities.

An obstacle to meeting this need is that Sristi Foundation has no vehicle to help the students

get to school. Some prospective students come from remote villages that have no public

transportation. Others live in villages that are connected by local bus, but the children with

severe disabilities cannot walk the five or six kilometers to the bus stop. In order to

accommodate these students from remote villages, Sristi Village would like to acquire a mini

school van. Any assistance towards purchasing this van would be highly appreciated.

Solar water pump

We have a small pond that is a good source for water, but we are still in need of a pump to

bring the water to the fields for irrigation. The village does not have electricity, and in any

case we hope to use sustainable energy sources, so we wish to acquire and install a solar

water pump. Can you help us with this?

A Word about our Team

A year ago I, Karthik, was the only one passionately pursuing the Sristi Village dream. Today

I share the dream with a wonderful, dedicated, team, working directly from our village.

Mr. Vaikunthan, special educator and speech therapist, is fully responsible for Sristi Special

School and the vocational training centre, where he has one trained teacher working under

him. Our gardener, Mr. Malaiyuran, is 65 years old and brings deep knowledge and experience

in local agriculture to our farming activities. Ms. Kumari, an organic farmer, has also joined

our team. She is helping design the farming curriculum and train Sristi Village community

members in organic farming techniques.

And of course we have an amazing team of supporters around the world who are helping us

raise funds, connect with potential partners, and spread the word about Sristi Village. We

hope that someday each of you can visit and spend time in the community that you are helping

create.

We are grateful to each and every one of our team members – here at Sristi Village, and

around the globe. We could not realize the dream without you.

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As always, we welcome any thoughts or support that you can offer. Every contribution will be

received with thankfulness.

Please send your contributions to:

If you need more information please do not hesitate to call or write us.

Thank you.

With warm regards

Yours gratefully,

G Karthikeyan

Director

Sristi Foundation

Contact Number: +91 90 477 87 887

[email protected]

www.sristivillage.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sristifoundation

Newsletter edited by: Anna Reid, USA

For Indian Donors

Name of the Account: Sristi Foundation

Account Number : 33435575197

Name of the Bank : State Bank of India

Branch : Ariyankuppam,

Puducherry

IFS Number : SBIN0016563

For Foreign Donors

Verein Kinderlachen

Kontonummer 190041

Sparkasse Murnau

BLZ 703 510 30

IBAN: DE61 7035 1030 0000 1900 41

Swift-Bic: BYLADEM1WHM

mailto:[email protected]


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Sristi Village 2 newsletter

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