Here's an inspiring example from Zimbabwe. http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/aln46/lancaster.html
Four things that I can think of that would help before you go would be to 1)take a permaculture workshop, read the major permaculture books, and look at some of the videos. This will help with figuring out a sustainable dryland system. Also see what you can find out about the plants and farming systems there before you go, and who to connect with for info when you get there. See http://www.permacultureactivist.net for details. Asking this question on the international permaculture list would also likely get you lots of helpful replies. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture Generally people are most willing to switch to something new that incorporates lots of foods they already like. And check out what the cultural issues are about teaching and getting the use of land. Sometimes the head of a village decides who gets garden plots and where. Sometimes people of one gender are only culturally allowed to teach people of their own gender. Sometimes people of one gender do most of the gardening and not the other gender. Pretty much it always helps though if you can get one of the people who is highly respected in the community to do a small demonstration garden on their own land. Unless there is a big piece of land that's unneeded currently, it's best to do a small experimental garden to see what works in the area. 2)Take the beginning biointensive gardening workshop and read the biointensive books. http://www.growbiointensive.org http://www.bountifulgardens.org This system is being done in over 100 countries. It only needs a shovel(preferably flat bladed) to do it. And it can created dramatic changes. One person working in South America with this pointed out that you can change people's lives in only three weeks with this as that is when they get their first radishes. Over time it can have major effects. A person from Scotland collected data from an implementation in Kenya. They found that within four years of learning how to grow gardens biointensively, that something like 85% of the people could grow all of their own vegetables. 3)Do an internship at Aprovecho to help give you some of the appropriate technology skills that would be helpful there. http://www.efn.org/~apro/ 4)Get some lessons in self medical care and equipment and medications for the area. Many places are still reusing needles which is causing all sorts of continuing medical problems there. Also you can begin the program of whatever vacinations are needed for the area at the appropriate time (some need to be given over several months). Consider also what you would like to focus on. One particular need that seems to be occuring frequently is that there are many orphaned children left to raise themselves in Africa due to the AIDS epidemic. Children as young as four can do the biointensive gardening successively (they need smaller shovels though). So if you are especially drawn to this problem, you might want to look into how things are adapted for children of various ages. Another thing to look into whatever age you work with is teaching the program to people who may not have learned to read. I know that in biointensive you can teach people how to make a correct width growing bed by having two people facing each other as if they are going to weed with an arm outstretched. The space in between their pairs of feet is the width of the bed. Hopefully other people can help you with more specifics. Sharon [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
