First some very good news: Thanks to our main donor - the AktuarData GmbH in Cologne - we were able to purchase land for our nature school! It has a size of more than 9 acres and is located at the water tank of Mudigubba. Of course all the teachers and students should participate in the planning process because it has to be as sustainable as possible. It is important to take enough time for the sighting of alternative ecologic materials as well – because our nature school should be built for the next 100 years! I suppose that the academic year 2010/2011 starting in June will be characterized by a common creativity towards planning and developing our nature school …
Aerial photo with (green marked) land
The buildings on the area should be arranged in the form of a spiral with a Saraswathi statue in the centre (Saraswathi is the goddess of arts and of education). We selected this form because it is one of the most dynamic (development) shapes of the universe existent in nearly all organic creations and symbolizing growth and extension.
View onto the land
Since March 15th the teachings are conducted with the timings of the so called Summer School: school starts at 7.30 a.m. and ends at 12.40 am – temporarily the afternoon creativity lessons cannot be offered. These measures are prescribed by the government in Andhra Pradesh because of the heat – in moment approximately 45 degrees Celsius; in April and May we could have 50 degrees… The heat is a consequence of the deforestation and the resulting desertification. These facts of course are an important argument for the erection of our nature school with a plantation planned according to perma culture as a central agenda.
On March 29th Amar Bedi, consultant of the company Interflex (www.interflex.de) and one of our donors, came to the school the very first time and brought five laptops and a solar cooker. Now a number of seven laptops can be used in the school; and the teachers have the opportunity to teach the children how to prepare food with solar energy. Amar who is building up an eco sustainable guest house in Goa gave some precious hints concerning ecologic building materials as well.
Amar explains the functioning of a solar cooker
Amar gave helpful inspirations for the usage of the medium computer as well; he informed the teachers about an experiment of a school located in Delhi: children without any computer experience coming from difficult social circumstances were given the opportunity to act completely free with the computer using play way methods; after some weeks they were very fit with a lot of knowledge and even able to surf in the internet!
Creative laptop chaos
On February 24th a special event took place in the Shanti Ananda School: Romula, Vice president of the Karuna Society (www.karunasociety.org) – she is also guiding the eco shop of the society in Puttaparthy – and teacher with a lot of experience in foreign countries informed the elder children about animals and animal protection. On the big computer screen the students could observe a lot of fascinating animal photos and films. Romula illustrated her teachings very clearly by showing some toys interacting with the children.
Romula in action with animal protection information
On March 21st a donations‘flea market was held on Gut Ophovennear Cologne, Germany (www.Naturgut-ophoven.de) – for the benefit of the Shanti Ananda School as well. Furthermore some special “Indian” creativity lessons like mandala painting and producing friendship ribbons were offered to the younger visitors…
With cordial greetings from South India,
Yours, Helga Shanti Fründt
Newspaper clippings
Donation Accounts
Foreigners should give their donation to this FCRA account
Shanti Ananda Education Society
Andhra Bank, Mudigubba Branch
Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India
Account No: 185410100007532
IFSC: ANDB0001854
Indian persons should give their donation to the
Shanti Ananda Education Society
Geetha Nagar, Mudigubba 515511
Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank
Account No. 19073080607