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The Earth Trust (ET) Sustaining the Earth was established (i) to give tools to tribals & villagers to farm their land in a sustainable way using organic methods and re-forestation; (ii) to develop Primary Health solutions with traditional answers, using herbal plants for medicinal purposes; (iii) to support tribal women with income generation options, i.e. kitchen herbal gardens; (iv) to give rural children inspiration & skills for revitalising their communities and land.

Main activities include:

• Organic farming: ET has received Rs2.61 cr from Hans Foundation in FY14 to set up a model resource farm & nursery. Rs35 lacs of this has been used during FY14 to buy 3 acres of land to develop into an organic environment and two vans to collect the organic produce. ET provided trainings and seminars to 320 villagers in FY14 to build awareness of the benefits of organic & biodynamic agriculture and made visits to ET & demo nurseries.
• BiOGAiN project: ET has used a substantial quantum of its corpus to establish a Biogain retail store in Ooty for organic foods & materials to build an innovative and stable pricing system, related to a reasonable profit. Products are sold within an ethical marketing system to buyers who share the same vision.
• Village Women Health programme: A basic Health programme runs consisting of 12 modules which give information to women about the sources of illness, hygiene, childcare and nutrition. Awareness and health camps have altogether impacted over 200 villages to date and 250 children have benefitted from the health programmes. So far 35 organic kitchen gardens for growing vegetables and herbs have been established.
• Eco-clubs: To date, middle school children in 16 rural government schools have been formed into Eco-clubs. They learn to grow organic vegetables and herbs – first to contribute to their school Midday Meals Scheme, and then to develop their home gardens, to develop social responsibility, and reduce the dropout rate.
• Income generation programmes: Tribal women are provided with three month craft training for weaving, embroidery, etc. This has been completed in 20 villages with 300 women.