Be part of a village's regeneration

Volunteers sit in a circle under a tree before the outreach.

Taranya, our farm in the village, showed that this land can come back. Now we want to take what worked there to the families around it, and first we listen. What we hear decides the first small steps that we take with the village.

If you speak or understand Kannada, that is enough. You need no experience of this work.

What we ask

We think that almost no one in the village grows their own food, that the soil is poor, and that there is no hospital near. The visits check this, and find what we do not know yet. With a host from Samam, you sit with a family and talk about:

Food. What do they grow, and how much of what they eat comes from their own land?
Land and water. How is the soil, and where does the water come from?
Health. Where do they go when someone is ill, and how far is it?
Work. How do they earn a living, and what makes it hard?
Hopes. What would they change in the village? Would they want to learn new ways to farm?

We write down what we hear. We listen, and we do not sell or promise anything at the door. Taranya is one answer, but only if the village tells us that it needs one.

The weekend

Visit families in the evening, from 8 to 9 pm.
See Taranya in the day, and walk the farm.
Learn the basics of permaculture in a short session.

Practical

Days. Come for all three, or for some of them. We are back in Bangalore on Monday morning.
Cost. The camp is free, and we give you food.
Stay. Basic: a room with mats. Bring a bedsheet and a pillow cover. Bring a tent if you prefer one.
Hosts. Neelima and Rakshith from the Samam team host the camp. Women and men lead the visits together.

Getting there

With us. The Samam team goes from Bangalore by car. If your days are the same as ours, come with us.
Own car or carpool. For other days, we help volunteers share a car.
Train. A local train from Bangalore Cantonment or Baiyappanahalli towards Dharmavaram or Sri Sathya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam. Get down at Odrahalli railway station.
Bus. Any bus to Doddaballapura, then a bus or a share auto towards Ghati Subramanya. Get down at the Hadonahalli Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

Tell us your train or bus when we call you, and someone from the Samam team picks you up.

Samam begins with the soil: healthy soil grows forests, food and the life around them. We repair land, and we teach what it takes. Samam is an initiative of Mahadev Foundation that runs on donations and on the time of its volunteers. More about Samam

Taranya

Taranya is a permaculture farm in Subraya Nagenahalli, Doddaballapur. Eucalyptus plantations exhausted the land. Nothing grew on it. We, the members and volunteers of Samam, adopted it four years ago.

Today the same ground is green and it makes food.

A drone view of Taranya before the work, bare ground and no crop. — before Taranya before the work, from the air.

Two people crouched over a design drawn on the ground in mud. — planning The design, drawn in mud.

A person builds a water structure by hand in red soil. — implementation A water structure, built by hand.

A group of children plant tree saplings in a field. — planting Children plant trees.

Women sit on a veranda and process a tamarind harvest. — harvest Women process tamarind.

A drone view of Taranya today, green and planted. — after Taranya today, from the air.

Come with us

Places are few. We call each applicant before we confirm a place. Questions first? Talk to Shreshth, +91 85271 16035 or Neelima, +91 82776 37848 on WhatsApp.

Apply to volunteer

Don't speak Kannada, but want to see how worn-out land became a food forest? Come for a day instead: the Food Forest Experience at Taranya, on 17 or 18 October.