Description of organisation

ISKCON Almvik in Järna is an eco-village community established in 1981 and part of the Hare Krishna movement. It is located at the beautiful Lake Ogan and surrounded by picturesque forests, while at the same time close to the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. In our village live approximately 24 children/youth and 30 adults with different ethnic backgrounds such as Swedish, Finnish, German or Latvian. Our aim is that we together develop an eco-village community with environmental, social, cultural and economic sustainability, where solidarity, inclusion, education, healthy lifestyle, and care for people, animals and nature are in focus.

The organisation receives a few hundred local, national and international visitors every year, and serves the guests and the local community as an example of eco-rural life with spiritual values based on the Vedic culture and philosophy. This ancient tradition of India includes a deep respect for mother Earth and mother cow, as well as solidarity with all living beings. For this spiritual as well as for ethical and environmental reasons, our community follows a lacto-vegetarian/vegan diet and an alcohol and intoxicant-free healthy lifestyle. We wish to request our volunteers to kindly also follow this etiquette during their stay in our eco-village community. So far, we have hosted many national and international volunteers who have appreciated this lifestyle.

Our community owns a huge forest and a sawmill, is growing organic vegetables, fruits and flowers, has ethical animal husbandry with 12 cows and oxen, facilitates international yoga, mindfulness and meditation retreats, has an organic bakery delivering goods to shops in the area. It also has a small boutique, an art studio, several examples of rural entrepreneurship, a guesthouse, organises regular music evenings, and has a temple room with daily ceremonies open for both the community and the public. On Sundays we hold public services which include a free vegetarian feast.

We have two dynamic youth groups, one from age 13-16 with about 12 members, and the other one from age 17-30, with about 20 members. The plentiful facilities and diverse talents in our community give young people ample opportunities for fun-filled activities as well as informal and non-formal learning opportunities.

Examples of regular activities for our ESC volunteers are sustainable agriculture, food processing, ethical animal husbandry, sustainable forestry and construction work, waste-management, arts and crafts, yoga and meditation, community services, small-scale management and digitalisation/Media.

In addition to a wealth of practical, concrete knowledge volunteers, members and visitors can learn to develop inner peace and contentment, attain and maintain both physical and mental health, live in harmony with nature, and develop inclusion and solidarity towards one another.