Fri 18 Jun 2010
| Living Lightly 7 |
| Summer 2010 News |
Spreading Permaculture in the North |
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This spring saw the first ‘Introduction to Permaculture’ course at Glenhordial Permaculture Farm, Omagh in Northern Ireland. The course was facilitated by Hannah Mole and Marella Fyffe who both participated in a recent accredited Training of Teachers course (T.O.T.). |
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On the weekend of April 18/19 a small gathering of 9 relatively local people from all walks of life converged at Glenhordial. Over the two days we used creative teaching methods to explore permaculture’s ethics, principles & design processes, we also completed practical sessions on surveying (land) & creating a forest garden. At the end of the course we received valuable feedback from the group, which we aim to incorporate into future events. |
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On foot of this event we have accepted an invitation to facilitate another 2 day course in Belfast on the 25th & 26th September where we are looking forward to an even better weekend.
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Roscommon happenings |
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We are also preparing to host a similar course in Strokestown (Co. Roscommon) this autumn.
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| Please contact livingpermaculture@mail.com for further information on these events |
| Also here in Strokestown there is a very exciting new Permaculture-inspired educational project in the making. ‘Finlough Farm’ is a new venture led by Finn Murray (of the Hopsack health food store, Dublin) that will shortly play host to a number of inspiring courses, workshops & other events. |
| Keep an eye on the facebook page and check out www.hopsack.ie for updates and more information. |
| Posted by Hannah Mole, Strokestown |
| New! Permaculture Ireland Facebook Page |
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There is now a new ‘facebook‘ page up and running.
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We hope that ‘Permaculture Ireland’ will facilitate connections between people in Ireland who are Permaculturally inspired. We are also posting details of all permaculture related events in Ireland on the page. We invite you to join, and if anybody would like to post an event please email details to livingpermaculture@mail.com |
| Posted by Hannah Mole, Strokestown |
| Letters |
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Hello Ms. Moore,
How do you do? |
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So, first off, I’d like to thank you dearly for writing these books, particularly Stone Age Farming and Sensitive Permaculture. I live in the United States and recently attended a Permaculture Teacher Training Course with Dave Jacke. In this course I gave a talk on “Rewilding* Permaculture” in whice I spoke about restoring humankind to our role of a “keystone species.” One of the ways I spoke of applying this perspective to our Permaculture Designs and Teaching was through using Geomancy to dowse for sacred spots on the land to inform our Zone allocations. |
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One of my fellow students came across your books on the web and sent word of them my way. I did not know about your books beforehand and am now very curious to read from your experience, as I am a beginner in both Permaculture and Geomancy. I feel excited to learn from you and glad that another sensitive permaculturalist exists! I plan to buy both books – do you recommend getting both books or does Sensitive Permaculture cover the information provided in Stone Age Farming? |
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I wish I lived closer to attend a course and meet you, as I feel I could learn so much from being in your presence. |
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I assume you are familiar with the work of another person who inspires me: David Yarrow – http://www.onondagavesica.info/gateway_ol.htm |
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Thank you for everything you do, From the heart, Matthew Bennett USA |
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Dear Matthew, Thanks for your kind words… Those 2 books are similar but quite different too. Hoping that all my books will be available on Amazon in the new future. For now, it’s only ‘Sensitive Permaculture’ that you can order online. (It’s printed on demand in UK and USA.) |
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| Signed copies of Sensitive Permaculture can be purchased by Irish and UK readers direct from the author at a cost of €15 including postage and packing: |
| For all other places, order Sensitive Permaculture HERE |
| Hi PIE, |
| I wonder if you guys have any information on soil remineralisation? I was thinking of experimenting with the process on a small plot of land – I’ve been trying to grow a hedge and it’s very slow going – the soil is quite poor I think. Are there any organisations in Ireland (ideally Cork or Dublin) that specialise in this, sell the materials etc? |
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There is a quarry in the area – am I right in saying that ideally quarry dust from the local area would be ideal?
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| Hope you can help, |
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Best Wishes, Michael Cosgrave |
| Hi Michael, |
| My book Stone Age Farming is all about using the rock dust in the garden or farm. It’s best to use the volcanic basalt! So many minerals and trace elements! |
| There are relatively few quarries in Ireland with the basalt. One is (or was) the Dan Morrissey Quarry in Rathdrum, Wicklow. There are 3 quarries in Rathdrum, make sure you have the basalt one. Up in the North it’s easier to find and there are plenty of basalt quarries in Co. Antrim – the whole county is mainly basalt! |
| If you are really stuck you can access the rock dust that probably comes from the SEER centre in Perthshire, Scotland (they have an amazing garden running on the rock dust and do a lot of good promotion on soil remineralisation, have a website too). The Chase Organics people in the UK (used to be called the Henry Doubleday Research Association – what a mouthful! – is a charity for organic growing) sell off their website – www.organiccatalogue.com – bags of basalt dust, 20kg to spread over 40sq. m., are sold for £13.25, but postage must be a horrendous price! |
| Let us know how you go! |
| Alanna |
| Articles |
| What is Sensitive Permaculture? |
| This is a sneak preview of the outline of Alanna Moore’s presentation for the 10th Australian Permaculture Convergence being held near Cairns, Queensland, September 24 – 28th 2010 |
| For over 25 years permaculture farmer, geomancer and author Alanna Moore has been a specialist in discovering the subtle energies that pulse throughout landscapes and how they affect plants, animals and people. Her work provides a point of connection between ancient European cultural mindsets and the continuing geomantic perceptions of Aboriginal people in Australia and elsewhere. |
| The concept of sacred stewardship of the land stems from a sensitive appreciation of place. It engages our emotions as well as our senses, and deep connection to Country places us in a position of responsibility for its protection. The industrial mindset that swept away the tenets of sacred custodianship, regarding it as being at odds with monotheistic religion and the new Capitalist regime, has unfortunately held sway. Thus today, western geomancers are usually ignored, trivialized, or tormented. |
| But what if their authority was restored and local councils employed a geomancer to work with environmental and heritage officers in assessing development proposals? Could we not then foster a more harmonious environment? This is a dream that Alanna Moore holds firm to. |
| “When we recognize, honour and care for the energetically special places, the sacred sites in particular, we help to maintain the holistic integrity of the landscape”, she suggests. “With a geomancy survey we can identify the local power centres and the vibrant connections between such places, and avoid severing them, just as the Chinese traditionally avoid cutting the limbs of the Dragon, a personification of the Earth’s subtle forces. |
| “In a powering-down world a geomantically informed view calls for ‘new eyes’. It ushers in the re-assessment of the value of a locale, helps us find the magic in the landscape around us. We won’t need to fly off to some remote location for our holidays when we discover that sacred places are all around, waiting for us to discover them. And when we visit them on a regular basis, we can begin a beautiful relationship with Country, one that refreshes, informs and nurtures us, just as we can nurture it. |
| “We may also incorporate geomantic principles into our permaculture gardening for enhanced plant growth. Improving the energy (feng shui) in our garden means we can enjoy being there so much more, and be energised ourselves in the process,” she enthuses. |
| Alanna Moore has introduced thousands of people to this energetic approach to farming and gardening and for many this gentle ‘wow!’ factor has re-inspired them in their working with the land, often through times of great struggle (such as the 14 year drought in southern Australia). Her own gardens have often been spectacular (if not neglected from too much world travel), as the accompanying photo of Alanna admiring Big Max, her giant cabbage, will attest. |
| Alanna’s latest book – ‘Sensitive Permaculture – cultivating the way of the sacred Earth’ focusses on practical ideas to help us develop greater sensitivity in working with the land. Listening to the land, finding out what is its greatest possible potential is far wiser than rolling out a rigid set of ideas onto it and hoping it’ll work out, she believes. |
| “Loosening up one’s thinking and freeing oneself from the predominant mindset of a colonial culture is an initial imperative. This is very important for permaculturists who plan to help out in tribal communities, where discovering and honouring local geomantic lore will greatly assist in the strategic planning of their designs. To not address the local geomancy is to fall into the same trap that brings so much shame on Australia’s colonial past. As permaculturists, we would not want to be accused of a colonial mentality, foistering inappropriate ideas onto others, those who also might have so much of value to be teaching us! |
| “It is sensitivity, not science, that will save the environment. We need to engage our minds and our hearts in this work. We need positive energy to counteract the negativity and gloom that abounds. We have infinite power to make the world a better place. Each individual needs to act now and together we can all make a huge difference, despite what our government gets up to! People can lead the way and eventually governments will have to follow. |
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“But first we need to develop a deep awareness of and love for our environment, be touched by its magic, such that we would go to its defense if necessary. And, in the process, we’ll be counteracting the sea of deadly apathy that has crept up, threatening to engulf us.” |
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| Signed copies of Sensitive Permaculture can be purchased by Irish and UK readers direct from the author at a cost of €15 including postage and packing: |
| For all other places, order Sensitive Permaculture HERE |
| Will Humanity Awaken and Give Generously to the Earth in Time? |
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By Don Weaver • earthdon@yahoo.com • www.remineralize.org November 24, 2009 |
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This beautiful November day in Northern California found me in the vegetable garden, spreading mineral rich rock dust and compost teeming with microbial life. Together, they nourish exceptionally fertile soil. The new seedlings of lettuce, kale and arugula will thrive in such soil. It was a simple, conscious act of generosity by a human being, and Nature’s response will be generous in kind, following powerful laws of reciprocity and abundance. I learned of these natural laws from studying ecology and working with the soil, and from others who had immense respect for Nature, such as Alan Chadwick and John Hamaker. |
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Chadwick said that giving back to Nature at least as much as we borrow is the fundamental guideline of the wise gardener or Earth steward. I co-authored The Survival of Civilization with Hamaker, who implored us all to stop fighting each other and give more to the soils and tree cover than we take, until we’ve repaid our debt to a depleted Earth. He warned us of what to expect if we did not succeed in doing so: increasing soil depletion and erosion, malnutrition and disease, weather and climate extremes, forest insect/disease epidemics and fires, CO2 build-up to increasingly dangerous levels, and every form of social and economic degeneration that can be expected when the foundations of health, sanity and peace on Earth are allowed to crumble. |
| Walking from the garden back to my cottage, I felt admiring gratitude for the many hundreds of fruits turning to bright orange on the Fuyu and Hachiya persimmon trees. Recalling the permaculture video with Bill Mollison, “In Danger of Falling Food,” I strategically harvested to prevent another big branch from breaking under the weight of so much fruit. |
| What Happens When We Take More Than We Give? |
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At this writing, I’m reviewing a range of recent papers on the state of the world, and reading of the worsening droughts in Africa, one of the major global climate changes successfully predicted by Hamaker from the early 1970s until his passing in 1994, and which I further documented in my book To Love And Regenerate The Earth (published in 2002). Millions need emergency food aid in 30 countries, including 20 in Africa. Soils there are mostly dry and depleted from natural demineralization since the last glacial period. |
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The other primary cause is human neglect and abuse, including soil over-cropping with minimal replenishment, over-grazing and deforestation. Extractive chemical agriculture has accelerated the depletion and erosion, and famine rides the wind, grimly reaping children, women, men, and animals. More warning signs for all humanity. According to the U.N., a record one billion people go hungry worldwide. How many more of our 6.8 billion population are malnourished or have “hidden hunger” because of soil demineralization and unnatural food choices? We should find out and take the right actions to eliminate our malnutrition “from soil to psyche.” Desperate people, apparently lacking the knowledge and means to replenish the land and their lives, further strip the land of trees and grass for building and cooking, and burn even more trees to make and sell charcoal. |
| A Call for Heroic Earth Regenerators |
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Scattered across Africa and the world are people making heroic efforts to reverse the tide of soil depletion, deforestation and climate change, but millions today and billions tomorrow need a real, collective commitment to remineralize, re-green and regenerate the Earth. If there is no will, there is no way! Even now, malnutrition, disease and famine are more common than high-level health, and we find it much harder to generate the will for positive change, and to encourage it in others. However, when we see a downward degenerative spiral, we must use our intelligence, wisdom and strength to nourish the forces of regeneration within the soil, the Earth, ourselves and each other.
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| Jacques Diouf, director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, says more “aid” to agriculture for greater food production is essential. $44 billion annually is what they suggest. That could do a lot if wisely used for remineralizing the soils and creating vital farms and orchards producing superior quality produce, even though it is only a small fraction of the money spent by the world’s militaries on “defense.” |
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If wisdom prevails, and the world makes the commitment to Biosphere regeneration, CO2 withdrawal and climate stabilization, hundreds of billions of dollars should be shifted from “killingry to livingry,” as Buckminster Fuller put it in his book Critical Path. For a more in-depth view, read my article entitled “Restoring Our Earth to Vibrant Health” (Vibrance no. 1) and my open letter to the Obamas and everyone, titled “Earth Regeneration for Climate Balance and a Healthy World.” |
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While it is somewhat inspiring to see an accelerating movement toward a “green” economy and society around the world, we should be seriously concerned about the limited time Nature can grant us to wake up and become active co-creators of a truly green and fertile, healthy, regenerating world. Hamaker and I documented the dying of the trees throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and as long as soil demineralization and acidification continues, trees weakened by malnutrition will increasingly die from climate extremes, insect/ disease epidemics and worsening fires sending trees up in smoke and CO2. This worsens our “climate chaos” and the degeneration of our interdependent global ecosystems. Here is just one example illustrating why we need to become pro-active Earth regenerators, remineralizing and re-planting the agricultural and forest lands before they become terminally ill:
“From Colorado to Washington state, an unprecedented, years-long epidemic of mountain pine beetle has killed 2.6 million hectares (6.5 million acres) of forest. The insect has struck even more devastatingly to the north, in British Columbia, where clouds of beetles have laid waste to 14 million hectares (35 million acres)—twice the area of Ireland. It is expected to kill 80 percent of the Canadian province’s lodgepole pines before it’s finished.” (from “Beetles, Wildfires: Double Threat to Warming World” by Charles J. Hanley, 8/24/09 AP article at http://www.commondreams.org/print/46171) |
| Since You Are the World, What Will You Do? |
| What can you, as someone who cares about human and whole Earth health, do about a world in ecological crisis and too often failing to focus on building health and preventing and solving problems? There is much you can do! You can educate yourself, share what you learn, and start now to contribute more to the regeneration of the soil and the natural foods of your garden and orchard and thus the whole Earth. |
| Remineralize the soil. Compost. Plant. Tend. Observe and learn. Enjoy the miracle of life and growth. Savor the harvest. Regenerate yourself and your family. Regenerate the Earth. Celebrate the opportunity, for it may have an expiration date! We can all wisely and generously do this. Thank you for playing your uniquely important part! |
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Don Weaver is co-author with John Hamaker of The Survival of Civilization, author of To Love And Regenerate The Earth, and a regular contributor to Living Nutrition/Vibrance magazine. Both books are free to download in the Agriculture section of the Soil and Health Library: www.soilandhealth.org.
Don also assists the non-profit Remineralize the Earth, Inc. and helps people start organic gardens, orchards, and Earth Regeneration Centers. Don gardens on the San Francisco Peninsula and has enjoyed 32 years of ecological living and vibrant health on a 100% raw vegan diet. He welcomes feedback on his writings and ideas for cooperative projects to nourish personal-and-planetary health:
or Don Weaver, POB 620478, Woodside CA 94062.
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| Permaculture Project in Southern Ethiopia |
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My name is Alex McCausland. I have set up a Permaculture project in Southern Ethiopia in the last 3 years. This is our website www.permalodge.org I am originally from Derry, family have a house in West Cork (Beara Peninsula) where I spent much of my childhood and still go there most of the time when in the region (ie to avoid London). I gave a talk in Kinsale to Graham Strout’s group on our project in Ethiopia in January last year. Here’s an article on our project in Ethiopia.
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It was a moment of fulfillment for us at Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge (SFEL). The head of the Konso Woreda Education Bureau, Mr. Geyeto Gedeno, stood in front of those gathered, his fumbling speech soon beginning to gather momentum:
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| We now want to see this program expanded to all the schools in Konso, making us an example to the whole society and the rest of Ethiopia! Permaculture shows us how to achieve food security and environmental preservation, how to improve our nutrition and benefit our ecology, all through direct community action!” We all clapped and cheered heartily. |
| Gathered around the training room were teachers, parents and children from the three schools where the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP), pilot project, had been underway since May 2009, when it began with training of teachers at SFEL, in a PDC that was part funded by a former volunteer (and a good friend of ours, Sarah Davis from Austin Texas) and part funded by Save the Children Finland (STCF). |
| Tichafa Makovere, our lead trainer, who had lead the pilot project, now stood before that selection of people from around Konso, and repeated The Parable of the Sparrows, his own analogy for inspiring community empowerment and breaking the mentality of aid-dependence, which has become so deeply ingrained in southern Ethiopia that it seems as much of an obstacle to the development of food sovereignty as climate change or population growth. |
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God feeds the birds of the air! But he does not let them sit in their nests while he comes and puts food in their mouths. Unless they fly out of their nests to scratch the ground in search of their food, they will go hungry.
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| The analogy sums up Tichafa’s approach to the development of food security in Africa. As opposed to the (mostly) well-intentioned, but counter-productive, habit of most westerners, individuals and organisations alike, of splashing around hand-outs to “the poor starving Ethiopians”. Tichafa, a Zimbabwean of the Shona ethnic group, knows better about what will benefit Africans in the long-run. |
| Empowering communities is about getting them to provide for their own needs, not just giving them whatever they ask you for so they become dependent on you. |
| It was when he had visited his first Konso school, in early 2009, with an Italian NGO Director, that he had first confronted the Konso community with The Parable of the Sparrows. The school principal had been complaining to the Italian that he had not delivered them the furniture that he had been promising (not delivering on promises was a habit of this particular Italian), but Tichafa stepped in to his rescue: |
| Don’t embarrass me! I am an African like you. We are not beggars! Look at all these Eucalyptus trees you have here, they are destroying your soils. You should cut these down and sell them, then use the money to buy your own furniture. And plant better trees at the same time! |
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At this the Italian pricked up his ears.
Oh, I need Eucalyptus for beelding my new conference hall! |
| Such is the mentality of self reliance that SFEL’s Permaculture instills. While many NGOs are throwing around thousands and even millions of dollars into white-elephant projects (such as superfluous conference halls), there are often far simpler solutions to the chronic needs of communities on the ground that they could solve by themselves, if they were able to make more effective use of the resources. This is the key aim of the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP) the pilot phase of which culminated with Mr Geyeto Gedeno’s speech last Saturday. |
| The format of the PKSP is similar to that of the ReSCOPE and SCOPE programs, which Tichafa lead in a number of countries around southern Africa over the past 15 years with great success; two key teachers from a school are given the full 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate course, during which they produce designs for “retro-fitting” their school grounds. The follow-up then brings in the kids and parents, to implement those designs (with input from Tichafa, where necessary) on the ground. The whole community gets involved – hauling in manure from their animals, mucking in together and singing in great spirits as they do – intensive gardens, tree nurseries, soil and water harvesting infrastructure are all laid out on the ground and channels are dug to run rain-water from roofs into keyholes where banana suckers soon explode into lush thickets. Moringa, papaya and mango (the first 70 seedlings provided by SFEL) will soon close a canopy over the flourishing vegetable beds in the intensive gardens. Permaculture is included on the school curriculum, with resource materials designed for the purpose, so kids gain theoretical insight as well as being involved practically. Within a year the school can supplement its children’s diet with fresh fruit and greens and gain income from sales of vegetables and tree seedlings to the community. The skills are also taken home by the kids, so penetrate into the community for the long-run. The bare school yard soon becomes a lush and fascinating jungle for the exploration of the young mind, and these people are taking control of their own destiny, no longer sitting by the roadside waiting for UN grain convoys to roll in with hybrid wheat over-produced on the other side of the planet – the solution lies right here, in their own back yard! |
| A program of monitoring and evaluation continues over the following 24 months, with exchange visits between the schools, bi-annual refresher courses for the teachers at SFEL, visits to our own model farm to promote new ideas and improve motivation. The culmination of phase 1 (the pilot) was the competition between the schools which came in February 2010 with SFEL’s most recent international PDC, the participants of which were asked to judge between the schools for the best implementation, as part of their own PDC training. |
| The PDC had a multinational complexion with American Peace Corps sending two Ethiopian-American officers, an Ethiopian estate owner from Norway, two freelance American volunteers, a Swedish SFEL volunteer for five months, an Italian couple, a British volunteer on a mission to develop a windmill for SFEL, a Welsh lady working the Karrayou Tribe from the rift valley in East Shoa, and a veterinary surgeon – a Karrayou also working with the Welsh tribe. Criteria for the participants appraisal of the schools, included: |
| * The presence of the design map on the wall
* The presence of a tree nursery * Effective intercropping of species to reduce disease and promote companion relationships * Evidence of innovation in water harvesting * Evidence of eating the vegetables produced in the gardens * Evidence of gaining an income for the school from sales of produce
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| Overall it was decided that Sawgume (the same school where Tichafa had first embarrassed the teachers with the parable of the sparrows a year ago) deserved to win the competition, but all three schools were given prizes as an encouragement. The prizes were donated by local businessmen, such as Mr Yonas Mahetemu, the owner of Bella Abyssinia Tours, a customer of SFEL, who agreed to contribute 3000 Birr for exercise-books, pens, watering cans, spades and hoes, which were awarded to the teachers and most industrious parents and kids of the three schools. |
| And the PKSP pilot phase has been proclaimed a resounding success! The Konso Education Bureau are keen to see its expansion to all the schools in Kosno. STC Finland have agreed to include two more schools in their program in 2010, however we at SFEL are keen to go beyond that. If more NGOs, GOs or individuals will involve themselves, by adopting or sponsoring schools in various ways, we can keep Permaculture actively growing in Ethiopia in the coming years. We are ready to work with you. |
| You can also support our activities by joining our next international PDC in at SFEL in Konso: Permaculture for the Rural African Environment – Oriented towards food security development for rural communities lead by Tichafa Makovere Shumba, at Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge: April 05 – 18, 2010. |
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For more information please contact info (at) permalodge.org also visit our website www.permalodge.org and see more photos of project work here.
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