By Mari Marcel Thekaekara, New Internationalist, March 19, 2012
The organization I work with, ACCORD – which aims to improve the human rights of adivasi people in India – arranged a fund raiser cycle trip from Bangalore to Gudalur last week to raise funds for an amazing school for adivasi kids. In addition to the basics, the school, Vidyodya, tries to keep the culture and values of these indigenous children alive, unlike the mainstream schools around us. […]
The women invited us into a traditional house. In areas where summers get really hot, the houses have an inner courtyard through which natural breezes constantly flow, cooling it. Tiled roofs help. They also showed us the jaggery making operation, starting with the crushed sugar cane, the boiling of the juice, right up to the finished product. Traditional hospitality demanded the farmer insisted on us tasting the delicious sugar cane as well as the freshly made jaggery– it would have been rude to decline!
At night we listened to the story of the farmers’ movement: the struggles for survival, against globalization and damaging agricultural policies. It could have been an all-night session, but everyone was overwhelmed by the physical fatigue of having cycled 80 kilometres in very hot sun. The second night, we visited the RLHP (Rural Literacy and Health Programme) slum dwellers’ federation project and a local school. And the third night, some people slept under a magnificent peepul tree, under an enchanting moonlit sky, in the middle of the Bandipur forest. […]
