Culture

Adivasi Academy

India

The Adivasi – an umbrella term for the tribal groups considered to be the aboriginal population of India – are facing powerful social and economic pressures that lead many to abandon their own language in favor of Hindi, Gujarati, or English. Adivasi Academy, based in Tejgadh, Gujarat, is working to save the many endangered languages of the linguistically diverse Indian subcontinent by seeking to show its students that their native languages and cultures are worth preserving. To learn more, read this piece about Adivasi Academy on the Vikalp Sangam website.

Photo by Sonal Baxi, Bhasha Research and Publication Centre

Babahan Subak Association

Indonesia

The Babahan Subak Association in the Tabanan province of Bali is a water-sharing farmer cooperative that upholds traditional organic farming methods and maintains an educational gathering space to share the practice, history, and spiritual and cultural significance of rice farming with locals and visitors. Learn more on the Uma Wali Facebook page (in Indonesian), and by contacting Emas Hitam Indonesia (English and Indonesian).

https://www.facebook.com/umawali.bali

Building A Local Economy (BALE)

USA

BALE engages in a number of grassroots community localization initiatives from their home base in the White River watershed of Vermont. The overarching goal of these efforts is “to build appropriately scaled solutions from the ground up, taking back, as much as possible, our economy, our culture, and our democratic instruments by re-injecting humanity and authentic relationships into all that we do.” Projects include The Commons @ BALE (a community space open to all and used most evenings of the year), a community solar initiative, a local investment club, a documentary film series, and a Locally Grown Guide to local businesses. Learn about these projects and more at https://balevt.org.

https://balevt.org/

Honey Bee Network

India

The Honey Bee Network is a collective of organizations that share information about appropriate technology, grassroots innovation, folklore, and medicinal plants, sourced from villages throughout India. Honey Bee travels to rural areas to seek out local people who have developed innovative human-scale solutions to everyday problems; so far it has documented more than 100,000 ideas and traditional practices. The network publishes this collective wisdom in an online database, and publishes a quarterly newsletter in English and seven Indian languages. Browse the database and learn about Honey Bee’s many other activities on their website.

http://honeybee.org/index.php

Indonesia Biru

Indonesia

Inspired by Gunter Pauli’s concept of the Blue Economy, Indonesia Biru (“Blue Indonesia”) is a video series documenting traditional local practices throughout the archipelago which put Blue Economy principles into action. Two journalists traveled by motorbike around the country for one year, creating 32 short videos that highlight examples of indigenous wisdom and locally-adapted innovation, covering alternative energy, farming practices, natural resource management, conservation and social justice issues, traditional village organization, governance practices, and more. Watch the video series and read this article to learn more (links in Indonesian).

Photo: Paul Hessels/Flickr

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpXudXDFSnuqPoc4xnNq2uEM4PkzITNkH

Institute of Wellbeing

Bangladesh

The Institute of Wellbeing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, promotes the economics of wellbeing by questioning economic myths and encouraging youth activism.

http://www.instituteofwellbeingbd.org/

Little Donkey Farm

China

This diversified organic farm hosts the first community supported agriculture (CSA) initiative in China. Located in a village just northwest of Beijing, Little Donkey Farm’s CSA has hundreds of members, while several hundred more families rent small plots of land from the farm – giving them a place to take a break from the city and plant their own gardens. To learn more, listen to the NPR story How Community Supported Agriculture Sprouted In China.

Photo by Edward Sanderson, (CC BY 2.0)

http://www.littledonkeyfarm.com/

NEED-Myanmar

Myanmar

NEED-Myanmar teaches ecologically-sound farming practices to young farmers at the Eco Village Farm School, which also serves as a center for community events and a model for rural resilience across the region. They also offer seed grants for model organic farms across the country started by alumni, and run an outreach program for farmers across four states in Myanmar. To learn more, visit Need-Myanmar’s website.

https://www.need-myanmar.org/en

Passa Ao Futuro

Portugal

Passa ao Futuro is a Portuguese association working to preserve the cultural heritage of Portuguese craftspeople, drawing on the wisdom of the past for a sustainable future.

https://www.passaaofuturo.com/

Sahaja Samrudha (Bountiful Nature)

India

They’re “more than just an NGO,” Sahaja Samrudha’s website explains. They represent a “People’s movement” to preserve traditional farming practices, conserve the rich biodiversity of India’s indigenous crop varieties, and revive and rejuvenate dying villages. They do so by facilitating the exchange of knowledge, seeds, support, and more through a network of farmers all around India – using publications, workshops, trainings, and melas (fairs or festivals) to get the word out. They’re also behind the brand “Sahaja Organics,” created to make it easier for organic producers to connect with those who want to purchase their products. To learn more, visit Sahaja Samrudha’s website, or read “Over 5000 Organic Farmers Are Reviving Traditional Crop Varieties. Thanks to One Organization.”

Photo by sandeepachetan.com travel photography (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

https://www.sahajasamrudha.org/