Bringing Permaculture to Refugee Camps
The Co-op is proud to support Permaculture for Refugees and Permafund.
In March 2020 the spread of Covid-19 put a stop to face-to-face teaching programs Permaculture for Refugees (P4R) were delivering in refugee camps. Members of the P4R team in the Asia-West Pacific region decided to investigate the needs of host partners working in countries with refugees. They identified a need for suitable materials and curriculum to support courses so P4R held a workshop in the Blue Mountains to develop visual training resources. Highlights of the workshop, attended by Rowe Morrow, Jed Walker, Rebekah Norton, Ruth Harvey, Sarah Boulle, Ivan Blacket, Thomas Kern, Kym Blechynden, Rob Allsop and Greta Carroll, included sessions with P4R members in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Malaysia. To read a full report on the workshop click here.
About Permafund
Permafund provides seed grants of up to $2000 to support permaculture projects in Australia and overseas. We accept applications for small grants which are assessed on need; alignment with permaculture principles and ethics, and project sustainability.
A volunteer run committee comprised of experienced permaculture practitioners and international aid experts assess and allocate the grant amounts.
In the last round grants were provided to:
IRDS (Integrated Rural Development), Salem District, Tamil Nadu, India Enabling 50 tribal farmers in 3 villages to cultivate indigenous millets, and vegetables through intercrops using permaculture and indigenous farm practices.
Kiini Sustainable Initiative Kenya. Establishment and management of a Permaculture integrated land use design model in the Nyeri farm school. Education about greywater recycling, water harvesting and composting is also being conducted.
Nepal Permaculture Group, Kathmandu. Rooftop gardening systems and 10 permaculture farms will be developed with three major aims: food production, research and demonstration using ecological technologies related to permaculture and climate resilient farming practices.
OTEPIC Kenya Educating children about permaculture gardening at Tabasamu Orphanage Children’s home and Biddi primary school with the purchase of teaching materials, gardening tools and equipment, seeds and fencing.
Permaculture for Sustainable Communities – Kenya providing essential materials to all supported households to implement permaculture practices to produce food, work and income in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Turkana County, North West Kenya.
(WORD) Women’s Organisation for Development, Tamil Nadu Promotion of Indigenous millets cultivation through the creation of seed banks for 15 villages and involving 75 farmers.