Tag Archives: community

Sustainable Dentistry with ADCERRA

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ADCERRA is a 25-year-old dental clinic that serves the Auroville community and several regions around it. Founded by a French dentist named Jacques, it is a public health center designed to promote basic dental health in order to reduce the need for serious dental procedures. It centers around the “0 Concept” which will be explained in more depth below. Jacques, his friend (and sometimes coworker) Jean-Claude, and his team of exceptional women warmly welcomed us.

The clinic aims to provide basic dental treatment for the general population using 10 sub-centers in areas around Auroville. It seeks to promote general health and well being, mostly to children in schools. The clinic aims to empower women, which they see as a key to a better functioning society (I agree). As such, all hygienists working in the sub-centers are women. He believes female hygienists help demystify dental care and make it less scary so young children won’t be as intimidated by dental practices. The idea is that the vast majority of dental procedures (up to 75%) can be taken care of with a basic level of training and at a reasonable cost and Jacques provides a 3-month hygienist training course after which these women are fully ready.

In India it is estimated that 250,000,000 children have no access to dental care. It is said that 2% of dentists are available for 72% of the population. As such dental hygiene is a huge public health issue and one that this clinic seeks to provide a treatment framework for, which can be exported on a national level.

Examining ADCERRA through the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goals I think we could argue that his clinic provides good health and well being (goal 3), gender equality (goal 4), and decent work and economic growth (goal 8). The atmosphere in the clinic was really wonderful and quite unique.

As mentioned earlier, the clinic operates on the “0 Concept,” based on an ancient Indian theory from Vedic times. “0” is both a number and a symbol representing both “nothing” and “all” and as it applies to health care, the “0” represents a perfect state of health and also the absence of care. It is with this theory that this clinic aims to promote basic dental health so that people don’t have to come to the dentist office except for more serious procedures.

Jacques’ methodology is certainly unique as it flies in the face of a typical business. His aim is not to make as much profit as possible. Naturally he needs to sustain the business so it can continue, but the traditional view of profit is upended here. As a management student who views traditional business practices with skepticism, it was wonderful to witness something so novel.

Eternal Divers Presentation

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cropped-logo-eternal.jpg Eternal Divers

https://eternaldivers.com/

Eternal Divers is based just outside of the Auroville on the Bay of Bengal. The first thing we noticed as we approached the location is the beauty of the house, Eternity. Situated on the beach and surrounded by bush and sand, Eternity features a large, open patio that connects to the home and office of Jonas and Tracy of Eternal Drivers. Zeus, their grand Rottweiler greeted us with kisses and just a little bit of fur and slobber. The dog lovers amongst us were thrilled to meet him but we get situated quickly and open our hearts and ears to listen to “Joni” explain the mission of Eternal Divers and the issues that his team, Tracy and he are passionate about.

When Eternal divers first began, it was just another diving company and they wondered how to set themselves apart and make better use of their skills, talents and location. How to be a sustainable business and spread environmental concern and solutions is paramount for them. Yoni discussed something that caught his attention called “ghost nets” which are extremely concerning. A ghost net is a fishing net that has (most likely) become caught on something which makes it impossible for a fisherman to free it or has escaped the control of the fisherman and can’t be reeled back on to the boat. It is left behind, unattended and unchecked forever as it collects, catches and kills without consideration. In addition to the ghost nets, sewage, overfishing and erosion are all concerns for Joni and Tracy and their team. Joni told us that there is a visible line of sewage and ocean water and to help us understand just how detrimental ghost nets can be, he explained that ghost nets cause about 20, 000 US dollars loss per year. Nearby, a ghost net was discovered that had over 30 sharks caught in it and had been floating for what an estimated three years. Of course, nothing in a ghost net can be salvaged for food. It is just a true waste of resources.

Eternal Divers was enraged at the finding and asked us to consider what a tragedy this is when we reflect on the beauty and majesty of all the sea has to offer us. The pointless loss of life and the pollution caused by humans is unacceptable. Naturally, Eternal Divers found a way to expand the teaching and education of scuba and diving to the fisherman and villagers themselves to help them understand how precious their resources were and how carelessness could hurt their livelihood more than they had ever comprehend before.

We learned from them that what they are most proud of and would really like to continue, improve upon and increase the reach of is the education of the fisherman and villagers. Too many humans take the sea and all she has to offer for granted. What lies below the surface… or more importantly what is being harmed and killed off below the surface is unknown until we dive down and see for ourselves. All the incredible colorful life, both flora and fauna, are unseen, under-appreciated and unprotected. It is only through the education and the collaboration with locals that behavior change can occur. Seeing the deep for oneself may be the only way for many to understand what is at risk.

Within global communications, behavior change is the most challenging of all the goals. Behavior change, as in this instance, little to no money can be gained through the education of the locals. In fact, Eternal Divers may find that time and money are lost in their efforts; however, they feel that what India and the earth may gain is far more important if the sea and its life can be preserved through this tactic. The benefits of behavior change are often long-term rewards that seem less important in the moment. For example, a fisherman may be more concerned with how much money he can earn this week, as opposed to the concept that he may not be able to earn any money in a few years if the fish are either overfished or die off because of pollution.

Eternal Divers needs funding to help support the education of the locals, a strategic creative plan and social media revamping/attention, as well as social media viral campaign. I felt very strongly about joining their team and helping. The ocean and all the life in it and that it gives is incredibly important to me. Choosing my NGO was tough when I had to compare Eternal Divers to Marc’s Café, where I had so many ideas from the start, but I’ve loved hearing all about it from my classmate, Beatrice.

 

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Mason listens to the Eternal Divers presentation.

Internal economy of Auroville

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eco economy

Auroville attempts to distance itself from the conventional sense of economics by having implemented their own debit card system. The Aurocard, as it is named, serves to eliminate the use of cash in everyday life transactions. The philosophy behind it seems to be that by eliminating the use of cash and thereby reducing the negative visual/psychological impacts that money can bring. The way it works is that you visit Auroville’s financial center to charge your card whenever you need it. This money can then be used at any of the enterprises that are a part of Auroville. For the Indian people I am sure that this has it’s positive impacts. But for me as a foreigner visiting Auroville, the use of the Aurocard essentially just replaces the card I use back home.

To further distance itself from the conventional economy, Auroville has a few cooperatives to encourage a deeper sense of community. One is in the form of a sort of supermarket store where people who want to be a part of parallel/alternative economic system contributes a certain amount on a monthly. This enables members to shop entirely for free without ever seeing a price tag on anything. It works by encouraging and building on a recognition of needs before greeds/desires,. This means that people that are a part of the cooperation shifts their thinking more towards a needs based economy. People are also encouraged to contribute by donating excess products for others to consume.

It is an interesting social experiment of sorts where conventional consumerism is questioned by actually initiating reflection on the origin for the different products that comes from your own community. It makes one think more carefully about the production process and that you actually contribute your money towards your own community. This was a very interesting initiative that contrasts with the intense consumerism culture back at home where most people don’t think that much about the origin of the things that they buy. Perhaps there will bemore similar initiatives all over the world to bring us back to a point where we no longer over-use the resources which are far from contributing to a sustainable future.

//Joel Hellström

Linnaeus University Sweden