Tuesday | July 10, 2007

Lagoswatta Eco-Village

My friend, Kapila, organized our visit to the Lagoswatta Eco-village which was built for the people affected by the tsunami. In this village developed by a charity organization called “Sarvodaya,” 55 houses are occupied by the individuals with various backgrounds. The village consists of residential houses, children’s playground, a multi-purpose community center including a small medical facility.

This village incorporates the ideas of:

  • Developing strong community ties among residents
  • Creating a sustainable living environment
Lagoswatta was built with the community's participation. Skilled workers, such as carpenters or masons provided their talents and new homeowners as well as people from the surrounding community contributed to build the houses. In order to develop the sense of community and help residents to be financially independent, Sarvodaya provides raw materials to start an organic farm and grow mushrooms and other crop. The harvested produce would be sold at the Friday's community market and the profit could be used to start small businesses such as bakery, general store, hair salon, etc…at the tsunami victims' s houses. Portion of the income from the businesses would be stored in the villagers’ association to help other villagers in need. This is how people are involved in the community and take ownership in governing their community.

This village also encourages the idea of sustainable lifestyle. Technologies, such as solar panel and water system were installed to provide resources, and each household utilize compost for managing their waist as well as for fertilizing organically grown products.

According to the executive director of Sarvodaya, he had concerns in two areas, creating an integrated community among the people from four different communities, and educating new homeowners who have never cultivated anything to buy into the new ecological life style. In order to solve these concerns, staff members were sent to the tsunami camp to educate and train the new homeowners before they moved in. New homeowners’ participation in the construction process was also strategically planned.

We have spent several hours for talking to people and walking around the community. While we were there, there were so many activities happening; children were running around on the street, elders were cleaning houses, and women were doing laundry. Many were willing to show their houses to us--these were small two bedroom houses usually occupied by 5 -7 people in three generations.

When I saw the smile in their face next to their small houses, I was puzzled by comparing what I saw to the current life style in developed countries. Do I see smiles in people’s face on the street next to the beautiful houses in suburban areas? Do I even see people walking on the street there? Do big houses make us happy?

….Can we purchase a sense of community?

It is something for us to really think about in our modern society.

 

Posted by Emichan at 05:52:24 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |
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