Ethos & Community

 

At Purple Valley Yoga Retreat in Goa, we are constantly working towards an eco-friendly future, in harmony with local the local environment and community.

 

We believe that education is the best way to benefit the community, so we work closely with the local school to ensure that the next generation of local children can speak good English, thereby improving their prospects immeasurably

 

We have investigated the implications of growing our own food, but have decided that this would be taking away the livelihood of local farmers - instead, we buy local organic produce wherever possible. This includes our bread, yoghurt, jams and peanut butters, as well as fruit, vegetables, rice and other pulses.

 

Our commitment to the community means that:

 

  • Purple Valley supports the local high school, Assagao Union with a percentage of our profits and all of the funds raised or donated by guests throughout our season. These funds provide schoolbooks, shoes, uniforms for students and urgently required maintenance for the school itself.
  • When we have spare labour at Purple Valley we send our workmen to the Assagao Union High School to undertake maintenance jobs with the materials that we have provided. So far this has meant a new water tank, pump and taps so that the children now have safe water to drink.
  • We use standard European good employment practices such as providing sick pay and widows pensions, these are not common in India.
  • We have a health care plan for our workers and their families, which includes free dental care and check-ups and free medical care.

 

Purple Valley Yoga Retreat in Goa is concerned about replenishing the local natural resources wherever possible and to this end:

 

  • We have a reciprocal arrangement with our farming neighbours whereby we give them our kitchen food waste and they give us natural waste from their cattle, which we use on the gardens.
  • Our new building has solar panels to heat the water for the guest rooms.
  • We aim to conserve as much monsoon rain water as possible, and use it on the gardens.
  • We plan to reuse the water from showers and use it on the gardens, rather than have it only used once and then wasted.

 

If you have any suggestions about how we can extend and improve our commitment to the community and our eco-strategies please contact us.