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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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