I’ve been working at Sristi foundation for more than 9 months now and having the time of my life.

My accommodation at Thazhuthali is called the ‘Pink House’ where I live with my co-LTV Louis and other volunteers to experience not only Indian culture, but also those of the volunteers from all around the world. Sometimes, there are challenges, but no matter what, it’s a lot of fun. We have nice evenings together and even cook for each other sometimes.

I cycle every morning to the work site, which is located approximately 3 kilometers away from the Pink House. It is a nice way to start my day. The idea of Sristi village is to teach people with disabilities farming and basic living skills, so they will be able to reintegrate into society. It’s still a long way to go, but since the beginning of my program, I can see a lot of improvement in the people’s behavior. Many of the members have become more calm and more engaged in the activities, as well as on the farm. Otherwise, it’s just nice to see that they are happy, because that’s what really matters.

Random fact: Lungis are the most awesome fashion attire that was ever invented.

The dream and motivation behind Sristi is simply inspiring and it fills you up with joy to be a part of this insanely beautiful project. Karthik and Muthu really live for their dream and they do everything to ensure everybody’s happiness.

Furthermore, it never gets boring. The variety of tasks to do is amazing. We do all types of farm work, prepare workshops for the members, attend workshops, help build huts, give swimming lessons and play with the members. But most importantly, we can start our own projects, so our biggest task was to find a reasonable solution to effectively use waste water. We created fertile land by irrigating big patches of land by digging channels and ponds. Unfortunately, we didn’t calculate the potential of creating nice mosquito ponds. Now, we are facing another problem we have to solve. It’s basically the perfect pre-condition for developing your personality. We get the opportunity to contribute our own ideas and start our own projects. So whenever I come back to this wonderful place, I will see my contribution to this dream.

P.S. Since there are many dogs on the premises, I pretty much lost my fear of dogs 😉