We will document progress as best we can here as a public record and as evidence for our funders at NRC and of other interested parties. It has been a remarkable experience so far and I am also very proud of our Sector39 team who have been supporting the settlers in the field.
First up here are a few thoughts and images from the initial 2 week training session at the Vocational Skills Training centre at Nyumanzi, Northern Uganda. This took place in June 2018.
Two support teams, each of three people have spent the last week in the field working along side the course graduates, helping them put into place their own permaculture plans developed on the course. Distances are far, the settlements are spread out and remote, so it has been difficult work to co-ordinate but we are very pleased with the feedback and progress so far
Hello Steve. good morning. I am grateful for the opportunity you gave me to be part of the support action team in the refugee settlement in Adjumani.
We ended week one with such a vast experience in actively working with the settlers there. Most of the had started with their work as they had planed.
Above are some of Mzee Pauls’ activities he has so far put in place. Our last day was designing a keyhole garden using local resources. The group was so inquisitive to learn and practice it.
During swale excavation with one of settlers. He has in place raised beds, chicken shelter, compost heap and plans to do circle gardens generally most of the participants are practicing what they learnt. They only need continuous action support and follow for them adapt the permaculture technologies
Here is a series of photo taken from the week one Action Support Phase.
Each participant from the intensive training has written their own permaculture action plan to set them goals and targets to continue the momentum of the course once they return to their settlements.
Permaculture is not a set of techniques, it is more a way of thinking and planning but all of the activities undertaken fit into this wider ethos. The longer term objective is that each one of the 40 who completed the part 1 training will go on and train at least 5 people in turn. We hope to create a community informed by permaculture design not just a lot of circle beds and guild plantings!
This has been a great start, its hard to keep track of everything going on but I hope the video below captures much of what has been going on.