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ProtoVillagean initiative of
An abundant world begins with a Prototype
We dream of an abundant world and we are working on its
prototype. We call it ProtoVillage.
Abundance is a state in which a community employs ecologically
sustainable means to ensure a resilient access to resources that are
necessary and sufficient to fulfill the basic needs of all its inhabitants
(including humans).
Being set up in 12.5 acres of land owned by a registered
non-profit, in the 2nd driest district in India (Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh),
ProtoVillage will be an intentional community of seekers
committed to practicing Abundance. It will be a center for
learning, practice, demonstration and dissemination of the
knowledge on how any community in this region can
organize itself for abundance.
ABer 2.5 years of traveling across India and 3 years of living and learning the ways of rural
life in a remote drought-‐prone village cluster, our thinking evolved from a raw
ambiGon of “wanGng to change” to an inspired pracGce of “being the change”.
Abundance
There are five essenGal components of Abundance. The outer rim
indicates a resilient capability to fulfill all basic needs in ecologically
sustainable ways. The ellipses indicate the basic needs along 9
dimensions. The red dots indicate member groups within a
community. The network of lines represents the conscious pracGce of
interdependence amongst individual members as well as groups of
members. And at the very core, is the commitment to learn and
pracGce the ways of mutuality and coexistence.
Connectivity
Disaster Management
Education
Trade Energy
Health
Clothing
Shelter
Food & Water
Security
Abundance is when:
1. All the members honor the commitment to learn and practice a way of
life that is synergistic with the ways of the natural ecosystem they
are part of.
2. Members organize themselves into several interdependent groups. Each
group takes responsibility of fulfilling one basic need for the entire
community. Collectively, they will be capable of fulfilling all the basic
needs of every inhabitant within the community. It is only when the
individual members establish and respect the traditions of
interdependence, that the community as a whole can enjoy autonomy.
a. Interdependence leads to a resource (material, energy, time) efficient
system, and therefore gifts each member an abundance of time.
3. The community provides an environment that inspires all members to
invest the abundant time in practicing whatever expresses them best!
Abundance is a decentralized, cooperative, steady state of
resilience that breaks away from the paradigm of limitless
economic growth. It requires that we adopt a lifestyle that
is more respectful of all life around us.
There will be art and there will be poetry
There will be a singing bird atop every tree
Creating an interdependence eco-system
In each of the 9 dimensions, members of ProtoVillage will setup locally
appropriate micro-enterprises that are ecologically sustainable and
economically viable. These micro-‐enterprises demonstrate alternative
livelihoods to the villagers in the region. Members of ProtoVillage run
them as free learning centers for the village SelfHelpGroups (SHGs).
Different groups in each village are trained in enterprises along
different dimensions. This has three advantages:
1. Creates Occupational diversity that leads to interdependence
within each village.
2. A SHG enterprise in a given village can expand only by partnering with
another SHG from a different village. Therefore there’s an incentive for
spreading goodness!
3. Creates an array of expanding networks of small-scale but high
quality eco-‐friendly manufacturing/service delivery operations.
ProtoVillage is not just about technologies or solutions across 9
dimensions. That’s the easier part. ProtoVillage is about how
any community can organize itself for abundance!
We invite you to be a ProtoBeliever!
ProtoVillage aims to be a dynamic flux of people with diverse skills and
perspecGves, bonding, cross-‐pollinaGng and co-‐creaGng abundance in an arid
drought-‐prone region.
ProtoBelievers are a group of pioneer believers who see the barren lands and
believe the promise of abundance... who own up and say “We will make this
happen!”
They will be the members of ProtoVillage (Some resident and others non-‐
resident). The ProtoBelievers are by invitaGon only. They become acGve
collaborators in thinking, planning and implementaGon.
We invite you to be a ProtoBeliever. It is in these barren lands that we
dream of abundance. Let’s join hands and co-‐create ProtoVillage!
To learn more about ProtoVillage, we encourage you to visit us at www.protovillage.org and like us @
www.facebook.com/protovillage, or reach us at: Kalyan Akkipeddi (on-‐field volunteer) +91 9000284794,+91
9741746478, [email protected]
ProtoVillage is an iniGaGve of InteGreater FoundaGon, a non-‐profit organizaGon based in Andhra Pradesh, India. All donaGons to InteGreater are exempt from Income Tax under sec 80g.
There are 640 districts across India. Imagine groups of co-‐learners,
each group sehng up one such demonstrative village per district
and spreading abundance within that district.
Let’s join hands and make it real!
