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Remembering our dear friend, Swetha Soundararajan, a few of us are raising funds for a cause that was close to her heart. It has been a few months since Swetha passed away, yet many of us are trying hard to process her loss. She was many things to us - a friend, companion, mentor, fellow traveler, fellow trekker, caretaker, sister, stand-up comic, saviour, a force of nature. Nothing we do can capture her strength, kindness, and infinite energy. But as a way of keeping her alive in her element, backed by her family’s support, we wanted to contribute to a space that Swetha would have loved to relax at.
For this, we have decided to support Ms Parvathi Nagarajan (affectionately addressed as Parvathi akka), who works with Pitchandikulam Forest, an environmental organization and community based in the green belt of Auroville in coastal Tamil Nadu, South India.
For this, we have decided to support Ms Parvathi Nagarajan (affectionately addressed as Parvathi akka), who works with Pitchandikulam Forest, an environmental organization and community based in the green belt of Auroville in coastal Tamil Nadu, South India.
She hails from a family of traditional healers and also runs a store in Auroville, Sri Siddha Ayurvedic & Forest Herbs Shop, that sells herbal medicines and products made by women under her training and guidance. She has been on a mission to conserve and revive various traditional herbs in the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest zone of Tamil Nadu and has successfully documented over 400 traditional herbal remedies. Parvathi akka has won many accolades and being recognised as a Bhoomi senior fellow in 2019 is one of them. Her work has been featured on multiple news outlets regionally, nationally, and globally. Watch this video by scroll to know more about her work.In her pursuit to further this movement, Parvathi akka is working on starting a training and wellness center in her hometown, Irumbai, a village situated next to Auroville. We remember Swetha being enamoured with Parvathi akka’s work when she met her in early 2021 and was keen on working with her at some point in time. This along with her deep love for nature drove us to organize funds for this project. Through this campaign, we hope to raise 10 lakhs and support Parvathi akka in building the center and running her programs from the center.
Parvathi akka envisions this center to
- Be a one-stop space that grows herbs and showcases people on how to grow, use and conserve medicinal plants.
- Support Training of Trainers (ToT) model, in which participants from across the country who are interested to begin similar work in their localities can get trained paving way to establish multiple herbal enterprises
- Develop it into a wellness center that conducts workshops on “herbs for health”, cooking, yoga and meditation.
The good news is that construction work for the center is 75% done. Funds raised from this campaign will be utilized to
Thank you and warmly,
Swetha’s friends and family
(Radhika, Kavya, Sandhya, Karthik)- Complete rest of the construction
- Hire a web designer and communications officer to run the wellness center
- Build a herb garden to facilitate the classes
- Kickstart training operations
- Buy the equipment required for workshops
- Install a plaque inside the wellness centre with Swetha’s name engraved on it
Thank you and warmly,
Swetha’s friends and family
