Nirvanavan Foundation
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Advaita Garden Village
Advaita Garden is slowly developing as an oasis in this land which has many demands made upon it to sustain its inhabitants. Many trees are cut down for firewood, resulting in soil erosion and the many goatherds are constantly and strenuously searching for fresh green growth to eat. The Foundation has planted hundreds of trees in the area, robustly protected by mounds of thorny branches to protect the young saplings. The area of Advaita Garden itself will soon be surrounded by a strong fence forming the perimeter of the Advaita Garden Children’s Village. The vision for this project is developing slowly along with the growing trees.
Bodhivriksha Branch One (Pratam Shakar) at Advaita Garden
The village will have fifty inhabitants. There will be five Homes. Each Home will house eight children (male/female), one ‘mother’ and one ‘aunt’.
The Foundation comes across many children in the course of its work who are in need of such a home, many of them permanently. Ideally a child will enter the village at an early age and will grow up with us, completing their higher education, and eventually probably getting married and beginning a home of their own. Eventually the village will be supporting forty children and ten mothers/aunts.
We will start with one Home. It is envisaged that each home will have a kitchen, bathroom, dining area, bedrooms, study area etc. We are actively looking for an architect, sensitive to the local landscape and culture, who will design an ecologically sound home using local materials as much as possible. Eventually there will be five such homes, sharing the school (which is already running), a central hall / community space / auditorium, a library and a guest house.
Nirvanavan Foundation itself has been evolving slowly over the years since its inception in 2001, responding to local needs and desires as they arise. The Advaita Garden Children’s Village will be similarly flexible in its evolution, and hopefully the overall design of the architectural vision will provide for this evolution whilst at the same time providing a framework for the completed project. We envisage having a gaushala (cow-shed) providing milk and gobar gas to the village, and a nursery for plants (nourished by manure from the cows/buffaloes.)
Other possible developments include a tea house/bakery providing a place for guests and visitors to sit and an outlet to sell local arts and crafts. A gate house, an office and a common L & B sulabh sauchalaya style can be included in the design.
Such developments will cost money. The present running of the schools is funded by contributions from supporters mainly in the UK at the moment. We will need to expand this area of our work. We will be looking, eventually, for fifty sponsors willing to support the inhabitants of the village on an individual basis. We estimate this cost to be £20 per month. We are also in search of corporate sponsorship and grants for staff salaries, administrative expenses and village development. To manage the village there will be a village director, a manager, secretarial help and a gatekeeper/guard/caretaker.
A Foundation staff meeting, Feb 2007
Those of us already involved with the Foundation are very excited and very pleased to be part of this vision as it evolves. We hope to share this excitement and involvement with individual and corporate sponsors as they become involved with the development of Advaita Garden Children’s Village.