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Kripa (26, born in
Auroville) and Jean-Francois (32, born in France), are both trained
social workers and counselors, and Mark (30, born in the Netherlands),
have instigated an interesting project stemming from the strong urging
of some of Auroville's youth. They tell you here about the experiment. |
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Dreaming
The Kailash project was born on the 22nd September
1998 when a group of Auroville teenagers were dreaming of having a place
to live on their own, away from their parents, to learn how to be
responsible for their own actions and lives. They came over to our
house, and asked us to help them make this dream into a reality. Ever
since then, we've been working very hard to make it happen, and today, a
bit more than two years later, the second floor of their dreamed home is
about to be completed.
Kailash is to be a residency for Aurovilian youth
from the age of 14 to 21. It can host up to sixteen people, as there
will be twelve single rooms and two double rooms. The entire ground
floor is collective space (kitchen, dining, TV/video, study and library
room), and the two top floors are individual rooms with a small terrace,
but with common bathrooms and toilets.
Condition
The condition for living in Kailash is to be
involved in an educational process in Auroville, meaning either through
work, at school or in an apprenticeship. This will not just be a place
for the youth to 'hang out'; on the contrary, it will be a place for
them to live in, to make it their home, to work out agreements among
themselves, to organise their own lives. There will be no adults living
on the spot, but there will be adults daily involved, very much alert
and responsible for the project in its entirety (youth, building, work,
and continuity).
February 2001
With the financial help of friends who saw the
value of this experiment, we were able to start (who knows, maybe the
youth will find THE formula for living together in harmony? We laid the
foundation stone on the 28th of February 2000, and had an Open Day in
the building for the community at large on 28th February 2001. From the original ten
dreaming teenagers, six are still with us, having taken part in all the
different stages of the process - the planning, the lobbying and the
fundraising, while also participating in the construction process
itself. More kids have joined, others are interested and follow the
development from a close distance. Next season the kids will move in.
No imposed or meaningless rules
What is original or experimental in this project?
Well, there is no precedent for such a residency in Auroville, as yet!
The approach to the work and the collaboration with the youth in this
place, where no adults are actually living, are quite experimental, even
for Auroville. The adults working in Kailash have the responsibility not
to impose any rules or arrangements without explanation and/or agreement
with the kids. They are to be only facilitators, indirectly channeling
and 'steering' the collective life of this youthful community. This is
done so as to make it possible for the teenagers to have an opportunity
to integrate the meaning and relation of cause and effect between
things, and to learn the consequences of what they put forward. They
don't just simply accept or refuse an outside 'imposed and meaningless'
rule, but are enabled to make their own 'meaningful' rules regarding
their personal lives in a collective context.
Space for research in living
There should be space for research and
experimentation amongst these young participants, a space to juggle from
personal/inner to collective/outward experiencing. That's why the
building has been designed in a way that permits both individual and
collective aspects of the being to be fulfilled. This is also the reason
why it is crucial that there won't be adults around during all 24 hours
of the day. In a group that varies from 14 to 21 years of age, a sort of
family set-up may emerge, where the older ones have responsibility
towards the younger.
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