CONCENTRIC RINGS OF CHANGE - THE POWER OF A SINGLE AFRICAN PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE
Excerpts below (Full Article with photos at Permaculture Research Institute website: http://permaculture.org.au/2010/12/29/concentric-rings-of-change-the-power-o f-a-single-african-permaculture-design-course/) December 29, 2010 by Warren Brush of True Nature Design and Quail Springs Permaculture Over 700 children, orphaned by the scourge of HIV in East Africa, live here at Nyumbani Village. Nyumbani Village was founded in 2006 by the late Father Angelo D'Agostino with a dream of offering orphaned children love, guidance, and a sustainable existence. In just four short years, Nyumbani Village, located in the heart of the Akamba traditional tribal area, has become, with the help of local and international partners, an important and successful model for the care of orphaned children and elders. It has developed an impressive infrastructure that includes site-built housing using mud, cement and tin for nearly 800 people, ecological toilet composting systems, rainwater harvesting, food security, long term natural capital systems, vocational education in woodworking, sewing, metal work, and agriculture. Two years ago I was contacted by Joseph Ntunyoi, Director of the Nyumbani Village Sustainability Department, and asked to teach the first Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course at the village with the goal of inspiring and advancing stable, resilient and sustainable systems of human settlement in Kenya... Our Nyumbani Village Permaculture Design Course attracted a powerful and diverse group of students. From villagers and local Kenyans, to those from as far away as Uganda, Liberia, India, Germany, and America, people came with the goal of bringing useful knowledge and skills back to their communities. The combination of their varied backgrounds and visions brought an invaluable depth of understanding and experience to our course. This diverse group of people, their unique constituencies, and their commitment to generating concentric rings of positive change into the heart of the world is the focus of this article... ...we were able to create a leverage point for the permaculture teachings and their application to reach far and wide into the fabric of myriad constituencies, cultures and bioregions with very little overall energy expenditure. I realized that the very design of this course was working with the principle of making the "most amount of change with the least amount of energy input." A well designed and strategically attended Permaculture Design Course is a keystone in creating a worldwide network of the local application of the ethics and principles of permaculture. Let's each of us support the growing of our capacity as an international grassroots campaign by supporting a strong PDC teacher network and certification process so that millions upon millions of PDC graduates in the future will be the fruit of our efforts now. TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS: http://permaculture.org.au/2010/12/29/concentric-rings-of-change-the-power-o f-a-single-african-permaculture-design-course/ _______________________________________________ Sdpg mailing list [email protected] https://www.arashi.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/sdpg
