Aviram Rozin
Aviram joined Auroville in 2002 with his wife Yorit and daughter Osher. In 2003 they started Sadhana Forest, a reforestation project on 70 acres of degraded land. Sadhana Forest is dedicated to sustainable living in all its aspects, from construction with local and natural materials, to solar and human powered energy, a vegan organic diet, dry composting toilets etc. Over the years Sadhana Forest has grown to be an international, volunteer-based project focused on creating long-term food security through environmental restoration. Globally, there are 133 million malnourished people living in arid areas who have private land but are not using it to grow food due to lack of water and agricultural knowledge. Sadhana Forest trains local people in India, Haiti and Kenya in the use of water-saving irrigation techniques and provides them with free seedlings to plant drought-resistant, indigenous, food-bearing trees around their homes. These indigenous food forests are well protected from cutting and animal grazing by their owners. Sadhana Forest won third prize at The Humanitarian Water and Food Awards in Denmark, 2010. Every year the organization's India, Haiti and Kenya centers host and train a total of over 1,500 volunteers, students, and interns from around 50 countries. Since 2016 Aviram is a member of the Global Restoration Council an international committee on land restoration issues constituted by the World Resources Institute, Washington, DC. And since 2017 he is a member of the board of the Foundation for World Education and the Advisory Board of the Sustainable Living Lab, Lausanne, Switzerland.