New Season of Service Learning Programmes
Bir (HP), India — After an unprecedented four-and-a-half-month monsoon, the Dharmalaya Institute is reopening its brand-new (and still-to-be-varnished) doors to volunteers, students, and interns, with a series of volunteer, service-learning, and retreat programmes spanning the next eight months.
All of these programs are open to the public and most are offered on a donation basis.
1-30 November, 2013: Sustainable Living in the Himalayas, a one-month service-learning program providing hands-on training in eco-friendly earthen building (adobe, stone, and bamboo), organic gardening, natural landscaping, and an optional meditation program.
1 December, 2013, through 15 March, 2014: Open Volunteer Period, offering informal volunteer opportunities to both residential and non-residential participants.
17-24 March, 2014: Silent meditation retreat led by Zohar Lavie and Nathan Glyde of SanghaSeva. Simple accommodation in tents/dormitory in a beautiful Himalayan setting.
25 March to 4 April, 2014: Sustainable Living Work Retreat with SanghaSeva and the Dharmalaya faculty. Residential service-learning retreat program combining meditation with volunteer work doing green building, organic gardening, and other forms of karma yoga.
5-19 April, 2014: Open Volunteer Period, offering informal volunteer opportunities to both residential and non-residential participants.
20-29 April, 2014: Yoga & Sustainable Living retreat, an integrated learning and practice retreat combining an intensive hatha yoga course with a service-learning programme in sustainable living, including green building, organic gardening and more.
1-10 May, 2014: Vernacular Eco-Architecture workshop, a unique volunteer and service-learning programme with diverse activities related to green building, organic gardening, natural landscaping, and an optional meditation programme (must attend from the beginning, but leaving early is permitted).
11 May to 30 June, 2014: Open Volunteer Period, offering informal volunteer opportunities to both residential and non-residential participants.
1 July to 14 October, 2014: Monsoon Volunteer Period — informal, unstructured volunteer opportunities doing various kinds of physical work related to green building, organic gardening, and natural landscaping. Details TBA.
In addition to these programmes, Dharmalaya’s ongoing Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture will continue throughout the year.