Danny Merguei Following the destruction of the 2004 Tsunami, Danny and his partner Orly created the Women Empowered by Local Livelihoods(WELL), a social enterprise using recycled materials such as newspaper, textiles, and terracottathat trains and employs villagewomen in handicraft production. Danny currently does marketing and enterprise development for WELL. Before coming toAuroville, a charter public accountant in Israel, Danny has conducted assurance work for international accounting firms, includingKPMG where he worked as a senior manager in Tel Aviv and New York servicing telecommunication and entertainment companies.
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David Neil John Storey “Dave majored in Tropical Soil Science and Plant Ecology at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne university in the UK and completed his Masters at Wageningen in the Netherlands in Ecological Agriculture. He is an experienced manager and negotiator and has led teams through all stages of the participatory project cycle, provided technical assistance in food security and livelihoods and developed and implemented participatory learning and community development. In disaster relief he has worked in response to acute food security crisis, co-authored a disaster response manual for UNDP and controlled operational issues for the Auroville Tsunami Relief Programme. In Auroville, Dave works with Convergence, an educational platform for sustainability.
David Nightingale David studied architecture at Newcastle University (UK) and the TU Darmstadt (Germany). After working in Toronto and Berlin hebecame disenchanted with the status-quo and spent a year traveling around the world with the aim of exploring alternativelifestyles and communities. He arrived in Auroville in 1997 and since then has been involved in various architecture and planningprojects within Auroville including a learning center, performing arts center, a school and an apartment complex. He is a coregroup member of the Dreamcatchers, a forum for envisioning and participatory city planning and he is in the process of founding Auroville Architectural Service Unit, a collective for architects to work together in Auroville.
Fabian OstnerÂÂÂÂ
Fabian studied architecture at the University of Applied Sciences at Bremen, Germany (from where he graduated in 1997 as an architect) and at the School of Arts Berlin-Weissensee. He has been working in Berlin, Mumbai, Bangalore and Auroville. In 2004 he started his own architecture studio which today is called White Ants Studio. His studio handles projects ranging from interior design, residential and commercial architecture to conceptualisation of institutional and cultural projects. ÂÂ Food Awareness
One of Auroville's fields of expertise is production and preparation of food that is both health and environmentally safe. Auroville produces most of its food in a number of organic farms, some of them specialize in food supplements (Spirulina, for instance) and other market their produce to the local shops, the "Solar Kitchen" (the main dining facility for Aurovillians and guests) and self use. The "Food Lab" is yet another Auroville unit that addresses the universally growing problem, food allergies and hazardous food products (genetic engineering, use of dangerous chemicals for conservation, flavors, colors , use of pesticides and hormones, antibiotics and other additives to food products). Lorenzo, who founded and runs the Lab, developed his own system of diagnosing and treating various food allergies and other dietary regimes for people suffering various health problems.
º º º º º º A visit to Auroville "Food Lab"
I met Lorenzo over a hot Idly dish in the small stand in Kuillaplayam, the Auroville neighboring village, and bugged him with some tourist questions on what to buy and what is safe to it. Lorenzo was generous with information, and went on to introduce his philosophy on food, in our age and days. Soon I forgot the Idly, for which I came, and stood there listening to a lecture on allergens, pollutants and engineered products.
A few weeks later, I stepped in Lorenzo's domain, "the Food Lab", and picked up the second half of the lecture, which was thought provoking and interesting. After that, I was ready for my diagnosis, based on the assumption that some foods are obstructing the natural processes of my body, especially the immune system.
Lorenzo can prove that our body "speaks" to us, and actually 'tells' us , which food is bad for our digestion and metabolism. Along the lines of "body awareness" philosophies of late, he combines craniosacral ideas with quantum physics and homoeopathy. To communicate with the body he uses a simple series of "yes/no" questions, while the patient is holding the suspect food component that is being testes. The body's answer comes in the form of a muscle relaxation, that indicates a spontaneous aversion to the suspect allergen. After a discussion with the body, through the fingers of the patient's hand, he comes up with the culprits, in my case dairy products, and to a lesser extent - apple.
Beside a specific individual test, Lorenzo has vast knowledge of our modern food problems, starting with the artifacts now introduced into every sort of food, and ending with genetic engineering of produce. Being a realist , he is not advocating activism, but personal responsibility with respect to how we shop, and what we ingest. He advises to stay away from any processed or canned products, in general to reduce intake of sugar, dairy and wheat and focus on fresh fruit, vegetable, and fresh meets/fish to non vegans.
I present Lorenzo with a bit of challenge, when I ask him to test radioactive residue in my body, but he does not shy from the challenge. A week later he calls me to say he has a test, and soon I let him "ask my body" what he has to say. My body, alas, sends a positive response, namely, that I am infected with some radioactive poisoning, but to offset the scare, my body communicates that it can discharge of the pollutants without medications.
The Food Lab's results appear in the form of identified forbidden foods (avoidance diet) and homeopathic recipe, to assist the process of cleansing and recovery of the natural immune systems. The Lab can also address specific known allergies which are now very common and in some case debilitating.
Hemant Lamba Hemant came to Auroville in 1991 after completing graduate studies in Economics and Small Business Entrepreneurship fromDelhi University to participate in the Auroville adventure. A passionate believer in renewable energy, he co-founded AuroRE (Auroville Renewable Energy) in 1998 to develop, train and promote small businesses supplying solar energy to rural areas asan offshoot of Auroville Center for Scientific Research. In 2004, AuroRE received the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy thatrecognizes inspirational and innovative renewable energy projects.
Joss Brooks Joss grew up in the Australian state of Tasmania, a place full of wild natural beauty and came to Auroville in 1970 after living in Europe and Africa. He joined the early pioneering efforts in land restoration at Auroville and founded the Pitchandikulam community in 1973 which is now a vibrant 60 acre forest with 800 species of plants in the grasslands, a nursery and an ethno-medicinal forest. In 2002, he embarked on environmental education to the villages by setting up Nadukuppam Environment Education Center in a village near Auroville. He also founded, Pitchandikulam Forest Consultants, a business unit to provide environmental restoration services and is currently directing the restoration bio-diversity at Adayar Ponga in Chennai.
Kireet A former school teacher, Kireet got into repairing check dams a few years after arriving in Auroville from Holland in the mid 90s.After observing the sweeping tons of topsoil into the sea, he was determined to prevent soil erosion and sea water intrusion intothe acquifer. Kireet is one of a small group of Auroville stewards who are tending to Auroville canyons and turning them into vastrain water catchment areas. Over the last two decades, his group have erected over sixty check dams across the canyons. |
GreenAcres campaign
Fundraising for expanding the Auroville Greenbelt.
Our eco-zone is under threat of rapid urbanization, this is an urgent move to reverse the trend and extend activities.