Teaching permaculture
to long term refugees and those returning home
ROWE MORROW |
NEW SOUTH WALES REGIONAL MEETING
THE AUSTRALIAN FRIEND | JUNE 2018 5
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
knowledge.
----------
The students identify the wind direction, and where
they need windbreaks. They learn about the types of trees, how to plant them,
and what benefits they can bring, such as shade, timber, fruits, flowers, bee
fodder and a multitiude of other uses.
they need windbreaks. They learn about the types of trees, how to plant them,
and what benefits they can bring, such as shade, timber, fruits, flowers, bee
fodder and a multitiude of other uses.
As the course continues students develop their own
initiatives. Turning to water collection, they calculate how much rainwater
they can collect from the roofs of sheds, storerooms, and the mosque and
identify where it can be distributed to community gardens during the dry
season. They plan community gardens and small economic land-based incomes.
initiatives. Turning to water collection, they calculate how much rainwater
they can collect from the roofs of sheds, storerooms, and the mosque and
identify where it can be distributed to community gardens during the dry
season. They plan community gardens and small economic land-based incomes.
These were actions taken from a theoretical class.
They captured the vision to transform camp. The students also took the seeds we
gave them, and gave them to others who hadn’t attended the class, and told them
how to plant it. We didn’t ask them to do that.
They captured the vision to transform camp. The students also took the seeds we
gave them, and gave them to others who hadn’t attended the class, and told them
how to plant it. We didn’t ask them to do that.
This year, some of the first new permaculturists will
talk to Internally Displaced People (IDPs) from Mosul who have been in camps
for months and who, before returning to Mosul, will have a permaculture course.
Before these Iraqis return home to their blitzed villages they will meet and
talk with students about the experience of learning permaculture, and what they
can expect to learn.
talk to Internally Displaced People (IDPs) from Mosul who have been in camps
for months and who, before returning to Mosul, will have a permaculture course.
Before these Iraqis return home to their blitzed villages they will meet and
talk with students about the experience of learning permaculture, and what they
can expect to learn.
This is a World Vision, Kurdistan, initiative. It is
the beginning of a project which is the ultimate goal of Permaculture For
Refugees (P4R) and will become refugee-to-refugee taught and refugee managed.
the beginning of a project which is the ultimate goal of Permaculture For
Refugees (P4R) and will become refugee-to-refugee taught and refugee managed.
Teaching permaculture
A Kurdistan refugee camp is where this
work, inititated by World Vision International, took Paula Paananen and me in
2017. I made a pledge to myself early on in my career, that I would take
permaculture to places that aren’t easily accessed by permaculture teachers or
work, inititated by World Vision International, took Paula Paananen and me in
2017. I made a pledge to myself early on in my career, that I would take
permaculture to places that aren’t easily accessed by permaculture teachers or
 |
The plan
Ethiopia. From a small base in the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute (BMPI)
in
--------------
I
n a refugee camp in Iraq, people are
preparing to return to their home
city of Mosul which they fled when
it was heavily bombed last year. With
them, after a Permaculture Design
Course (PDC) they will be taking new
skills in permaculture. When they look
at grey water running through streets,
or need a way to protect themselves
against the harsh summer sun, the
permaculture lessons they have learnt
will provide some answers to these
problems.
Transforming a refugee camp
At the beginning of their permaculture
journey, as their teacher I ask them to
start by working on designs for their
homes in the camp. These camps have
broad, dusty bare roads along which
people live in tents or small cement
buildings enclosed by high walls. The
challenge is to make their surroundings
softer, greener, and cooler, and provide
some fresh food to supplement the
World Food Project rations. Summer
temperatures can go to 50º+C and
winter, drop to -15ºC. Winds are
savage. The residents usually live with
enforced inactivity.
Learning is a positive and critical
opportunity often neglected in camps.
The refugee’s ‘home’ is
the priority for design and
activity
The students are set tasks. They must
think about
• where to create shade
• how to block the savage, dusty
winds
• how to collect water and how to
reuse grey water
• what food they can grow in small
spaces.
With limited and boring food
rations, a path towards better nutrition
is a good place to start. The students
begin with simple crops like tomatoes,
parsley, and beans, with a pumpkin
or two to cover the roofs in summer.
Soon, vegetables like aubergines and
courgettes are added to the mix. These
crops grow fast, produce prolifically, and
assist in creating much needed shade
and nutrition. Then they add fruits such
as grapes.
Moving outwards to the
street and the whole camp –
with initiative
With inspiration the learners turn
towards greening the streets outside
their homes.
Here, people started with technical
knowledge. First they deal with the
problematic greywater which runs
down the gutters and treat it to water
new fruit trees which also give shade in
summer when the temperature rockets.
We all walk around the camp
looking at the slimy, black water in
which children are playing. By using
nature’s techniques, this water will
be cleaned. A delicate mix of plants,
oxygen, and sunshine can sterilise water
– a welcome skill in a place with little
fresh water and stifling heat.
The students identify the wind
direction, and where they need
windbreaks. They learn about the types
of trees, how to plant them, and what
benefits they can bring, such as shade,
timber, fruits, flowers, bee fodder and a
multitiude of other uses.
As the course continues students
develop their own initiatives. Turning
to water collection, they calculate
how much rainwater they can collect
from the roofs of sheds, storerooms,
and the mosque and identify where
it can be distributed to community
gardens during the dry season. They
plan community gardens and small
economic land-based incomes.
These were actions taken from a
theoretical class. They captured the
vision to transform camp. The students
also took the seeds we gave them,
and gave them to others who hadn’t
attended the class, and told them how
to plant it. We didn’t ask them to do
that.
This year, some of the first new
permaculturists will talk to Internally
Displaced People (IDPs) from Mosul
who have been in camps for months
and who, before returning to Mosul,
will have a permaculture course. Before
these Iraqis return home to their
blitzed villages they will meet and talk
with students about the experience of
learning permaculture, and what they
can expect to learn.
This is a World Vision, Kurdistan,
initiative. It is the beginning of a
project which is the ultimate goal of
Permaculture For Refugees (P4R) and
will become refugee-to-refugee taught
and refugee managed.
Teaching permaculture
A Kurdistan refugee camp is where
this work, inititated by World Vision
International, took Paula Paananen and
me in 2017. I made a pledge to myself
early on in my career, that I would take
permaculture to places that aren’t easily
accessed by permaculture teachers or
-----------------
knowledge.
As in the past, that could
be anywhere from Vietnam to rural
Ethiopia.
From a small base in the Blue
Mountains Permaculture Institute
(BMPI) in Katoomba and active
permaculturists from Philippines,
Spain, Greece, Italy and a support
group working in camps and new
settlements P4R by Skype. We work
with displaced people across the world,
and I have strong feelings about how
Australia is treating asylum seekers and
describe the practice of sending people
to Pacific islands instead of mainland
Australia as humiliating, shameful and
unconscionable.
I’ve seen what causes mass migration
of people, seen the needless suffering, and
so I have a profound, deep repugnance
and loathing for war and violence. After
seeing the conditions refugees often
live in, and after working in Southern
Europe during the economic crisis, my
thoughts crystalised: ‘There is a better
way, and it is permaculture.’
We needed to transform refugee
camps from places of profound suffering
and injustice into eco-villages. And this
is possible and makes perfect sense
without wasting any human potential
while restoring ecosystems.
The first impact of the work in
refugee camps is to improve people’s
immediate living conditions. Camps
can be regreened, refugees skilled up,
and wellbeing improved. Permaculture
gives people something to think about
and skills they can all do, and they feel
like people again with skills, purpose,
hope and a future.
Challenges to assumptions
Getting to the point where the students
can design the camp for themselves
is challenging. Often courses must to
be translated into multiple languages
and there are cultural differences to
overcome, and many students are
confronted when offered new ways of
learner-centred learning; many of them
are not used to actively participating in
class. There are innumerable challenges.
When I talk about forests, perennial
systems, rehydrating landscapes and
sustainability, I hit another stumbling
block because some students have never
seen a forest. Long wars destroy forests
e.g. in Kurdistan and Afghanistan. For
me, reforesting as quickly as possible is
vital. Once the trees come back, so will
water.
The future: ambitious goals
I want refugees to take over the teaching,
and for them to go into other camps
to share their knowledge. For this to
happen, there needs to be more support
and facilitation from NGOs and camp
managers. And beyond facilitation, they
need to ‘want’ the refugees to succeed
in permaculture and to transform the
camps and settlements.
Everything happens faster when
refugees teach each other. We constantly
keep our focus on refugees and their
abilities and potential. But we need to
train more trainers.
I have recently had a breakthrough,
and it came from Kabul. I was able
to fund the Afghan Peace Volunteers
from small personal donations and
LUSH, to translate some key texts
from the permaculture design course
into Dari, a language of Afghanistan.
The translations that the Afghan Peace
------------
As in the past, that could
be anywhere from Vietnam to rural
Ethiopia.
From a small base in the Blue
Mountains Permaculture Institute
(BMPI) in Katoomba and active
permaculturists from Philippines,
Spain, Greece, Italy and a support
group working in camps and new
settlements P4R by Skype. We work
with displaced people across the world,
and I have strong feelings about how
Australia is treating asylum seekers and
describe the practice of sending people
to Pacific islands instead of mainland
Australia as humiliating, shameful and
unconscionable.
I’ve seen what causes mass migration
of people, seen the needless suffering, and
so I have a profound, deep repugnance
and loathing for war and violence. After
seeing the conditions refugees often
live in, and after working in Southern
Europe during the economic crisis, my
thoughts crystalised: ‘There is a better
way, and it is permaculture.’
We needed to transform refugee
camps from places of profound suffering
and injustice into eco-villages. And this
is possible and makes perfect sense
without wasting any human potential
while restoring ecosystems.
The first impact of the work in
refugee camps is to improve people’s
immediate living conditions. Camps
can be regreened, refugees skilled up,
and wellbeing improved. Permaculture
gives people something to think about
and skills they can all do, and they feel
like people again with skills, purpose,
hope and a future.
Challenges to assumptions
Getting to the point where the students
can design the camp for themselves
is challenging. Often courses must to
be translated into multiple languages
and there are cultural differences to
overcome, and many students are
confronted when offered new ways of
learner-centred learning; many of them
are not used to actively participating in
class. There are innumerable challenges.
When I talk about forests, perennial
systems, rehydrating landscapes and
sustainability, I hit another stumbling
block because some students have never
seen a forest. Long wars destroy forests
e.g. in Kurdistan and Afghanistan. For
me, reforesting as quickly as possible is
vital. Once the trees come back, so will
water.
The future: ambitious goals
I want refugees to take over the teaching,
and for them to go into other camps
to share their knowledge. For this to
happen, there needs to be more support
and facilitation from NGOs and camp
managers. And beyond facilitation, they
need to ‘want’ the refugees to succeed
in permaculture and to transform the
camps and settlements.
Everything happens faster when
refugees teach each other. We constantly
keep our focus on refugees and their
abilities and potential. But we need to
train more trainers.
I have recently had a breakthrough,
and it came from Kabul. I was able
to fund the Afghan Peace Volunteers
from small personal donations and
LUSH, to translate some key texts
from the permaculture design course
into Dari, a language of Afghanistan.
The translations that the Afghan Peace
The plan
THE AUSTRALIAN FRIEND 6 | JUNE 2018
PERMACULTURE – CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
Volunteers provide will be taken into a
refugee camp in Greece. I am keen for
translation work to continue, and for
the refugees to be the translators.
In 2018, I ran a second Permaculture
Design Course in Kabul organised by
the Afghan Peace Volunteers. This
was against a backdrop of 40 years of
war resulting in millions of internally
displaced people. There were tanks in
the street, terrorist bombing down the
road, and I was told by local people
that in one village the bombing was so
intense that the people had no land left
to bury their dead.
Permaculture for the future
I am very clear about one thing – this
is much more than just a gardening
project, it is a holistic sustainability project. The work goes far beyond
regreening refugee camps.
The nature of a refugee camp is that
its inhabitants are likely to leave one
day. When that happens, permaculture
students will leave behind a healthy
piece of land, well stocked with fruit
trees, grapes, olives, and shade trees.
This will be of huge benefit to the
local communities which BMPI and
P4R also want to integrate into the
permaculture learning and applications.
Once a permaculture camp has started,
the gates need to open and villagers,
farmers, and other locals also need to
be able to learn permaculture and work
with the refugees. This is a long way
from becoming a reality.
The final element to our work
involves the future of the IDPs, and
what happens when they return home.
Permaculture can provide relevant
solutions; ways to bring life back into
war-torn cities, and better ways of
rebuilding better than originally.
As yet, I don’t know anyone who
has gone back to their home with
permaculture skills, but we are full of
hope for the initiative. We may soon
have answers after some of our students
from a camp in Iraq return to Mosul.
What is so exciting about this
work, is that it not only creates a better
environment in the short term, it is also
provides long term solutions. There are
undoubtedly some wounds that can’t
be healed. But if our vision is realised,
permaculture could offer some startling
opportunities for people returning
to cities ravaged by war. It can give
people the skills to take control of their
surroundings, and show them how to
harness the processes and beauty of the
natural world in order to create a more
sustainable future.
Based on an article supplied f
--------------
JUNE 2018 I n a refuge
e camp in Iraq, people are preparing to return to their home city of Mosul which they fled when it was heavily bombed last year. With them, after a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) they will be taking new skills in permaculture. When they look at grey water running through streets, or need a way to protect themselves against the harsh summer sun, the permaculture lessons they have learnt will provide some answers to these problems. Transforming a refugee camp At the beginning of their permaculture journey, as their teacher I ask them to start by working on designs for their homes in the camp. These camps have broad, dusty bare roads along which people live in tents or small cement buildings enclosed by high walls. The challenge is to make their surroundings softer, greener, and cooler, and provide some fresh food to supplement the World Food Project rations. Summer temperatures can go to 50º+C and winter, drop to -15ºC. Winds are savage. The residents usually live with enforced inactivity. Learning is a positive and critical opportunity often neglected in camps. The refugee’s ‘home’ is the priority for design and activity The students are set tasks. They must think about • where to create shade • how to block the savage, dusty winds • how to collect water and how to reuse grey water • what food they can grow in small spaces. With limited and boring food rations, a path towards better nutrition is a good place to start. The students begin with simple crops like tomatoes, parsley, and beans, with a pumpkin or two to cover the roofs in summer. Soon, vegetables like aubergines and courgettes are added to the mix. These crops grow fast, produce prolifically, and assist in creating much needed shade and nutrition. Then they add fruits such as grapes. Moving outwards to the street and the whole camp – with initiative With inspiration the learners turn towards greening the streets outside their homes. Here, people started with technical knowledge. First they deal with the problematic greywater which runs down the gutters and treat it to water new fruit trees which also give shade in summer when the temperature rockets. We all walk around the camp looking at the slimy, black water in which children are playing. By using nature’s techniques, this water will be cleaned. A delicate mix of plants, oxygen, and sunshine can sterilise water – a welcome skill in a place with little fresh water and stifling heat. The students identify the wind direction, and where they need windbreaks. They learn about the types of trees, how to plant them, and what benefits they can bring, such as shade, timber, fruits, flowers, bee fodder and a multitiude of other uses. As the course continues students develop their own initiatives. Turning to water collection, they calculate how much rainwater they can collect from the roofs of sheds, storerooms, and the mosque and identify where it can be distributed to community gardens during the dry season. They plan community gardens and small economic land-based incomes. These were actions taken from a theoretical class. They captured the vision to transform camp. The students also took the seeds we gave them, and gave them to others who hadn’t attended the class, and told them how to plant it. We didn’t ask them to do that. This year, some of the first new permaculturists will talk to Internally Displaced People (IDPs) from Mosul who have been in camps for months and who, before returning to Mosul, will have a permaculture course. Before these Iraqis return home to their blitzed villages they will meet and talk with students about the experience of learning permaculture, and what they can expect to learn. This is a World Vision, Kurdistan, initiative. It is the beginning of a project which is the ultimate goal of Permaculture For Refugees (P4R) and will become refugee-to-refugee taught and refugee managed. Teaching permaculture A Kurdistan refugee camp is where this work, inititated by World Vision International, took Paula Paananen and me in 2017. I made a pledge to myself early on in my career, that I would take permaculture to places that aren’t easily accessed by permaculture teachers or Teaching permaculture to long term refugees and those returning home ROWE MORROW | NEW SOUTH WALES REGIONAL MEETING THE AUSTRALIAN FRIEND | JUNE 2018 5 CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE knowledge. As in the past, that could be anywhere from Vietnam to rural Ethiopia. From a small base in the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute (BMPI) in Katoomba and active permaculturists from Philippines, Spain, Greece, Italy and a support group working in camps and new settlements P4R by Skype. We work with displaced people across the world, and I have strong feelings about how Australia is treating asylum seekers and describe the practice of sending people to Pacific islands instead of mainland Australia as humiliating, shameful and unconscionable. I’ve seen what causes mass migration of people, seen the needless suffering, and so I have a profound, deep repugnance and loathing for war and violence. After seeing the conditions refugees often live in, and after working in Southern Europe during the economic crisis, my thoughts crystalised: ‘There is a better way, and it is permaculture.’ We needed to transform refugee camps from places of profound suffering and injustice into eco-villages. And this is possible and makes perfect sense without wasting any human potential while restoring ecosystems. The first impact of the work in refugee camps is to improve people’s immediate living conditions. Camps can be regreened, refugees skilled up, and wellbeing improved. Permaculture gives people something to think about and skills they can all do, and they feel like people again with skills, purpose, hope and a future. Challenges to assumptions Getting to the point where the students can design the camp for themselves is challenging. Often courses must to be translated into multiple languages and there are cultural differences to overcome, and many students are confronted when offered new ways of learner-centred learning; many of them are not used to actively participating in class. There are innumerable challenges. When I talk about forests, perennial systems, rehydrating landscapes and sustainability, I hit another stumbling block because some students have never seen a forest. Long wars destroy forests e.g. in Kurdistan and Afghanistan. For me, reforesting as quickly as possible is vital. Once the trees come back, so will water. The future: ambitious goals I want refugees to take over the teaching, and for them to go into other camps to share their knowledge. For this to happen, there needs to be more support and facilitation from NGOs and camp managers. And beyond facilitation, they need to ‘want’ the refugees to succeed in permaculture and to transform the camps and settlements. Everything happens faster when refugees teach each other. We constantly keep our focus on refugees and their abilities and potential. But we need to train more trainers. I have recently had a breakthrough, and it came from Kabul. I was able to fund the Afghan Peace Volunteers from small personal donations and LUSH, to translate some key texts from the permaculture design course into Dari, a language of Afghanistan. The translations that the Afghan Peace The plan
