The curtain goes up on the 10th year anniversary of Auroville’s famed tsunamika mini doll with a coastal yatra to be taken out on Thursday.
The doll was conceptualised by Auroville’s Upasana Design Studio as a post-trauma empowerment programme for womenfolk in coastal communities battered by the 2004 tsunami. The dolls made by women as a means of livelihood were given away as gifts to people in distress around the world — an estimated six million dolls were made and distributed across 80 nations through a global network of volunteers — setting an example of gift economy.
A tsunamika storybook also received UNESCO recognition and was translated into German, Russian, Danish, French, Tamil and Spanish. The story also got into the school curriculum of the Tamil Nadu State School Board and the project itself became the basis for a case study in the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), New Delhi.
The rally, co-hosted by PondyCAN, sets out from Satyalam school after about an hour-long show of skits prepared by school children as well as the Komali group from Auroville on the tsunamika story and her symbolism of hope.
The rally will also visit NKC school in Kuruchikuppam and a few other schools along coastal villages before concluding at the Bharat Nivas in Auroville.
