Fields to work on:
Together with our gardener Nilu Murmu the student is invited to work in the tribal area of Birbhum District (West Bengal, India) in selected Santal villages with the aim to introduce permaculture principles in the existing agricultural activities. Aggravating heat in summer season (May/April) combined with insecure rainfalls (from July lasting till September) cause the need to work more and more closely related with nature in a resilient systematic approach. Santal families mainly live from cultivating rice (on own, or leased land, or as daily labourers) – in the homes we have started to grow vegetable gardens to better nourish the children and other family members – 52 percent of children aged 6-36 months are chronically undernourished and 94% suffer from anaemia. The student to join our team may observe and analyse the current way of agricultural activities with the aim to develop and introduce steps to improve the quality of soil (in the kitchen gardens and potentially also rice fields), protect lands from erosion, harvest and store scarce rain water, produce natural pest controls – with trainings on topics as mulching, composting, soil qualities, and further permaculture topics. The overall aim is to improve the quality of the soil, increase yields, and nourish this way these poor tribal families well while protecting biodiversity at the same time.
Contact for interested students:
Dr. rer. soc. Silvia Golembiewski, silvia.golembiewski@gmail.com
Vice president Shining Eyes Germany
Link to the proposal: Master student to work on agriculture (permaculture) in India
Eine weitere Ausschreibung in dem selben Projekt:
Proposal: Master student to work on nutrition and health in India: healing plants
Fields to work on:
Together with our gardener Nilu Murmu the student is invited to work in the tribal area of Birbhum District (West Bengal, India) in selected Santal villages with the aim to cultivate and prepare herbal healing plants as remedies to be used in the tribal families. The effectiveness of the traditional medicines shall be analysed to treat common diseases as diarrhoea, respiratory infections and skin infections especially amongst the Adivasi children. Santal families mainly live from cultivating rice – 52 percent of children aged 6-36 months are chronically undernourished and 94% suffer from anaemia. During the COVID pandemic the anaemia rate amongst children could be decreased to less than 10 percent through provision of iron drops at household level, as well as supplement food (NutriMix). Still, the success did not sustain due to repeated infections after Covid with normal social life again… As money to buy medicines is scarce, families shall be trained to prepare traditional healing plants as remedies – so children do not fall so severely sick. The student to join our team may support the effort to cultivate herbal plants in the kitchen gardens (where mainly vegetables are grown so far) and analyse the effectiveness of the remedies focusing on 5-7 healing plants. The findings shall be documented and will serve as a basis for further programme planning – where a women self-help group may be trained to prepare herbal remedies for the village.
Contact for interested students:
Dr. rer. soc. Silvia Golembiewski, silvia.golembiewski@gmail.com
Vice president Shining Eyes Germany
Link to the proposal: Master student to work on nutrition and health in India: healing plants
