http://www.permies.com/forums/forums/f-40/africa JForum - http://www.jforum.net Bayouda Village, Jordan
1st to 15th June, 2012
Instructor: Rico Zook and Local presenters www.i-permaculture.org

For brochure go to www.thegreenplatform
Contact: jo@thegreenplatform.com

This village of a hundred families lies about 200km northwest of Amman, Jordan’s capital. It is near the town of Salt on a gorgeous and fertile plateau of olive groves surrounded by highland hills covered in an ancient oak forest. It is a small holder farming community that has been the focus of a 2 year permaculture project by CARE international from 2008 to 2010, which trained many local families in permaculture techniques such as water harvesting, composting and chicken tractors.

This course is both for those who want a general but comprehensive introduction to sustainability and how to create it, as well as those wishing to get a complete and in depth introduction to permaculture, all its component elements, and the process and methodologies for creating a holistic permaculture design.
Using a variety of learning techniques and strategies this course presents Permaculture as an integrated design approach to create sustainable human habitat. Course time will consist of traditional lectures, guest presentations, group discussions, games, exercises, hands-on projects, photos, movies and site visits. While we will focus on land systems, many discussions and examples will be explored of applications in the 'Invisible Structures'. These are the social, cultural, political, and economic structures we create as humans that powerfully shape much of our world today.
Not only will the course be about Permaculture, but it will also model it by its structure and the environment we create together during the course.


For brochure go to www.thegreenplatform
Contact: jo@thegreenplatform.com
]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/14150/126276 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/14150/126276
Facilitators: Tichafa Makovere and Alex McCausland
Dates: February 13th – 25th, 2011
Location: Konso, South Ethiopia
Venue: Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge
Cost: US$650 ($500 for Ethiopians)
Includes: course fees, food and accommodation for the period of the course
Excludes: Transport, accommodation in Addis, travel insurance etc.

The Course
This PDC will be lead by Alex McCausland, Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge’s founder and director, and Tichafa Makovere, a veteran consultant and trainer of the Schools and Colleges Outreach Permaculture Program (SCOPE), with 17 years experience working and training in Permaculture around southern and eastern Africa. This PDC is of particular relevance for those interested in rural development and indigenous communities in Africa and the wider 3rd world. The focus is on appropriate technology, soil and water harvesting, indigenous knowledge systems and Permaculture in schools. Schools are a key focus point for the communities and a chance to influence the coming generation to shift away from the mentality of dependence on aid towards self sufficiency and sustainable resource use.
The Facilitators
Tichafa Makovere
Tichafa grew up in a marginalised farming community in Shurugwe, Zimbabwe. He has developed a career in education over 30 years, including 20 years as a successful headmaster in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana. In June 1994 he took a PDC at the Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre in Zimbabwe sponsored by the SCOPE (Permaculture in Schools and Colleges Outreach) Program. He went on to take first prize for best implementing school nationally, in 1995. He sat as secretary of the Permaculture Association of Zimbabwe (PAZ) for 2 years from 1994 – 1996 and subsequently as chair person from 1996 – 1998. He took the Training of Trainers Course and become the official lead facilitator for the SCOPE Program in 2001. His activities as a SCOPE, and more latterly ReSCOPE, have included: Drawing up 1-week and 2-week programs for SCOPE have included facilitating at both 1-week and 2-week workshops; producing training materials and handouts, making follow-up visits to schools; participation on the curriculum, training and fundraising committees for the advancement of Permaculture in Zimbabwean schools; attending and contributing to Permaculture planning workshops, reviewing and monitoring workshops for expansion of Permaculture in schools in 66 districts of Zimbabwe, representing SCOPE at international fora e.g. Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) and reviewing books on Permaculture before they were published e.g. SCOPE Learners Book [on Permaculture for primary and secondary schools].

In November 2008 Tichafa travelled to Ethiopia and took up the role of Resident PC Facilitator and Farm Manager for Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge in Konso, where he has to date facilitated a total of 17 PDCs. He subsequently went on to spear-head the formation of the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project working in partnership with various NGOs as well as SFEL itself. In June 2010 Tichafa formed his own independent consultancy, Shumba Integrated Eco Designs (SIED) and handed management of the model farm at Strawberry Fields over to Alex McCausland, SFEL’s Director.
Alex McCausland
Alex an ecologist by background and has been developing as a Permaculture practitioner and trainer over the last 5 years. His lifelong passion for ecology and the allowed him to excel academically in that area. He graduated from with a BSc in Biological Sciences in 2003 from Oxford University but by that time he had became disillusioned with reductionist science and turned his back on academia. He then spent two years to travelling the world, WOOFing, working on farms and learning about cultures and languages, during which time he became interested in development and food-security issues. In 2005 he heard about Permaculture and realised it combined holistic ecology with the practical action and community orientation that the academic approach completely lacked. He then dreamed up a plan to establish a project which would promote Permaculture as a means to achieve sustainable development in the third world. The next year he came across Ethiopia. Seeing a land of great ecological wealth and yet economic poverty and food insecurity, he resolved that this would be the location for the project. He took his first PDC later that year in Catalunya, Spain. In 2007 he returned to Ethiopia to establish a viable Permaculture–based business which would facilitate the local community to learn about and practice PC. It ended up being an Eco Lodge in the South of the country, which went on to become the site for Ethiopia's first model PC farm. The model farm has developed with input from a number of volunteers, interns and PC practitioners, such as Guy Rees, Dan Palmer and Tichafa. Working alongside these people Alex has developed and honed his skills as a PC designer and practitioner over the last 3 years. During this time the project has hosted a total of 24 PDCs to date, 2 lead by Rosemary Morrow and 19 by Tichafa, 1 by Steve Cran and 1 by Rhamis Kent and one by Alex himself. Alex has co-facilitated on many of these while maintaining his role as administrator. He took over the running of the demonstration farm in June 2010 and has designed and developed systems such as drip irrigation and terraced vegetable beds, black water, composting and compost powered water heating. Alex will explain and demonstrate some of these systems during the PDC.

The Venue: Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge (SFEL)
The venue for the PDC will be Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge, the first working PC demonstration site in Ethiopia, where a model design has been established over the last 3½ years on degraded land to incorporate elements such as drip irrigation, grey and black water re-use, composting toilets, hot composting, tree nursery and solar fridge, solar power, solar shower and much more.
SFEL integrates an Eco-Lodge, model PC farm, an organic restaurant, a PC design training facility and runs a program of trekking and community based cultural activities in Konso. SFEL’s project objectives are to promote alternative livelihoods for the Konso community through facilitating community inclusion in eco-tourism activities, and to promote food security locally and more widely in Ethiopia, through Permaculture. SFEL employs 20 permanent staff and up to 30 temporary workers seasonally.
Location: Konso, SNNPRS, Ethiopia
Konso Woreda is in the South Ethiopian Great Rift Valley (situated at 5'15' N 37'30' E). Konso’s capital, Karat-Konso, is at 1600m altitude, located 85km south of Arba Minch, and around 590km south of Addis Ababa. The Konso people have a unique culture, based on sedentary mixed agriculture, which distinguishes them from their neighbours in the lowlands to the east and west who are pastoralists. Their intensely social mode of life and love of hard physical labour is unique in Ethiopia. Their villages are remarkable for the beauty and simplicity of their workmanship, constructed entirely of natural materials, cultivated or gathered from the surroundings, and ringed by massive dry-stone walls, at least a meter thick and two meters high. Stone-lined pavements run between the housing compounds and the stones have often become polished to a shine by long years of service in the village’s transport system.
Konso’s agricultural system is renowned for its terracing, which has been constructed over large areas of the rugged landscape by centuries of communal labour. The terraces are crafted to balance maximum infiltration of rain water, with adequate drainage in times of deluge so they don’t collapse. They are planted with sorghum, intercropped with a range of other species; including trees, Moringa stenopetala (also called the cabbage tree) Terminalia birowni, and Cordia africana; shrubs such as pigeon pea, coffee and chat (Catha edulis) (a cash crop) and annuals including sunflowers, maize, millet, chick peas, various bean species, cotton and cassava. The terraces are fertilised with wastes from the villages including partially burned plant residues mixed with animal dung, which acts to keep the soil fertile.
The Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP)
Today Konso suffers increasingly frequent food insecurity due to climate change. The UNDP’s Rapid Assessment Report: Konso Special Wereda, SNNPR (1999) states that; “since the 1950s, drought induced famines have hit Konso and the immediate area almost once every ten years.” “Konso was devastated by the droughts in 1973/74 and 1983/84”. In 2008/9 Konso was again suffering food shortage due to droughts.
The PKSP seeks to preserve aspects of indigenous (agri)culture which benefit the local ecology, but fill gaps in the traditional system by incorporating new practises, ideas and resources such as rain-water harvesting, small scale irrigation, nutrition gardens, tree nurseries, small livestock, appropriate labour-saving design-technology, alternative energy and nutrients based on locally available resources.

To date teachers from 10 schools have been trained in Permaculture and produced PC designs for their school compounds. From those, three schools have produced impressive model PC sites under the pilot phase of the project. The PKSP is eventually looking to expand to all 70 schools in Konso with likely support from the UK-based Ethiopia Permaculture Foundation. Visits to the school model sites will be included as part of the PDC.


]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/11784/107454 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/11784/107454 100% Bio-Organic farming methods course, Rustenburg, South Africa
Unbelievable results, minimal inputs



When: 3 - 5 January 2012
Three day courses at Doornlaagte, Rustenburg, North West, South Africa.
These courses will run weekly up until April 2012.

Cost: R6,800 per person
Food & accommodation included or adapted if staying nearby. Max. 6 persons per course.

BIO-ORGANICS
By Nico Snyman. B.Sc.Agric. (Agron) Pret. Cell: (071) 547-9814

Course Programme

Soil microbiology - Humus, organic material, carbon analysis.

Pioneer plants and Climax plants, weeds and maize evolution.

Biological soil restoration for increased production and maintenance of fertility.

Residue free production of fruit and vegetables and tastefulness.

Production of Humus, soil structure and water absorption.

Centre pivot irrigation inputs.

Application to cattle-, game-, sheep- and chicken farming.

The sun, the moon and the climate.

The operation of a bio-bank for own purpose.

Advantages: Profitable with minimal inputs, higher production.

See Plan Africa for more details here...

]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/11577/105707 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/11577/105707
We’d like to invite yourself and/or your organization to join and connect with others on the Plan Africa Network (involving sustainable practices, organic farming, permaculture & more in Africa).

What is Plan Africa and why get involved?
•assessing the current sustainable living situation in Africa
•a forum for discussion of issues regarding sustainable development in Africa
•connecting Permaculture practitioners & sustainable farmers throughout Africa
•establishing what practicing Permaculturists need in order for them to increase their productivity
•developing a plan for creating food & nutrition security & food sovereignty in Africa
•mobilise funding & resources to meet these aims


How do I go about it?

You can do so by doing the following:

1. Join the Plan Africa Network and be put onto the map
2. Have your say, connect and discuss on the Plan Africa discussion boards
3. Do you have an event (ie. course, demonstration etc.) taking place? Let us know by emailing the event details to
niki (at) planafrica.net
4. Sign up for our Newsletter on our website (top right).
5. Join the gallery group to display your images (http://www.flickr.com/groups/plan-africa/)
6. Would you like to submit your writing and images to be featured on the website? Send us your articles, papers, images etc; basically anything of interest to niki (at) planafrica.net
Ideas: projects you’re working on, how tos eg. Creating a pond, your views on permaculture in Africa, seedsaving, soils, economic situations, business side of permaculture, the list goes on.

What else can I see on the website?

•View the Plan Africa Network map
•View all events taking place in Africa
•View gallery images

----------------------------
Go to: www.planafrica.net
----------------------------
]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/10509/95850 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/10509/95850
Is there anyone in SA that has some Jerusalem artichoke tubers that they can post to Port Elizabeth, I can't find it anywhere.

Maybe someone knows where you can obtain it from.

Thanks,

Brian Moolman.  ]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/10056/92099 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/10056/92099 Indigenous Trees, Seeds, Plants etc.
or have any available for exchange.

I have heard of Afriflora Indigenous Nursery - in Pretoria
but I have never been there ~ Afrifloras number is 083 555 8040

]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/8514/77511 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/8514/77511
We use permaculture principles to empower Malawi in community-based food and nutrition security.

Course Dates: June 13th-June 25th, 2011

Lead facilitator Alex Kruger has 15 years of experience in practicing and teaching Permaculture which began with training at Fambidzanai of Zimbabwe in 1993. Her experience base ranges from small scale community based work to large scale systems in a number of diverse of bioregions and climates. Training and materials development are her passion, as well as creating beautiful systems with groups of people.  Alex lives in an intentional community, Berg en Dal, in the Klein Karoo, South Africa, where she currently spends her time teaching Permaculture and building her home from natural materials found on the farm.

Course Costs:
Basic Course Cost listed below include course fees, lunch and two tea breaks, and three dinners for the duration of the course. Also included are all design materials and a course manual.  Fees are payable in US$, ZAR, GBP, or MK at bank rates of exchange.

Basic Course Cost Without Accommodation: US$ 695.00 p.p.

*Camping (participant provides the tent)
  w/o meals: US$ 795
  with all (basic) meals:  US$ 1035
*Hut (basic hut with mosquito net)
    w/o meals: US$ 935
    with all (basic) meals: US$ 1170

alternative accommodation and meal arrangements are available, please inquire

PLEASE NOTE:  We aim to provide Permaculture training to anyone who wants it and do not want cost to be a prohibitive factor in participation on a PDC.  Please contact us if you wish to donate money to sponsor someone or if you need sponsorship for this course.

Please contact hope@naturesgiftpermaculture.org to register or with any questions

and please visit www.naturesgiftpermaculture.org for more information on our centre]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/7274/65576 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/7274/65576
The farmling is in the mountains of Magoebaskloof in the Limpopo Province. It is a summer rainfall region and gets very very wet. The wind can be quite brisk and good for a wind turbine. The winter can be very cold at night - goes down to -8 degrees centigrade.

My main question is about livestock and grazing per hectare. I believe 4 hectares is about 10 acres. How many AU per hectare? That is my main question. I found an Animal Units Calculator so I can work it out when I know how many per hectare or acre. I would like to have a couple of dexter cows, 2 sheep ( a ram and a ewe), 12 chickens and a rooster and perhaps some geese for security, and a horse. We plan to build a small dam for fish as well. How many fish to how many litres ? of water?

At the moment there is very little on the land but natural grasses and black wattle which we are slowly using up and we will keep a small controlled wood lot for the "donkey" to heat our water. We are going to use quite a lot of wood to build  cordwood walls for the garage and workshop shed.

There were 4 horses on the farm for about 6 years and now that they are gone (about 2 years now) and the grasses are tall and all the pathways are covered. The land has not been ploughed for at least 6 to 10 years. There are small red ticks and fat grey ones as well. Where do I go to read what to do with this land before I start grazing livestock, what to grow for fodder, how to use paddocks for grazing and what to send in first etc. 

Any recommendations on books and websites will be most welcome.

Thank you kindly.]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/6517/57602 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/6517/57602
I'm especially thinking of
(i) living fences - bouganvillea, hibiscus or any other plants that are easy to propagate & fast growing
(ii) alternative building - rammed earth with thatched roofs seems to be ideal. Not sure about the floors

Once I have these I can start thinking of food, animals, herbs etc
I would also love to hear any btdt stories about newbies with hearts full of dreams and no real experience...]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/6312/55594 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/6312/55594
This 1100 hectare farm is perfect for a city slicker wanting to get away from the city for holidays or in semi retirement.
Imagine orchards full of nectarines, peaches and pears, olive trees, lucerne for your sheep and dairy cows...
A large farmhouse and two guest houses, a barn, a storage shed, laborers cottages, etc.
Horse rides, swimming in the dam.
Separate titles in case you need to sell parts of it or own it with your friends?
Fly to Cape Town and be fetched by your manager in your 4x4! (under 300 kms)
Owner has spent years making it beautiful but now needs to get closer to Cape Town and has found her dream place there.
Hurry before it goes onto the market and you loose it!

Come and spend a weekend with us and be blown away ;)
Western Cape Organic farm fully functioning. Owner retiring
R6million rands

karoo.live@yahoo.com for pics]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/5740/49286 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/5740/49286
During this two week course, you will gain an understanding of Permaculture theory, building your knowledge of all the necessary aspects to become fully conversant with Permaculture design. By the end of the course, you will be able to confidently create your first Permaculture design plan.

For details:
http://permacultureturkey.org/en/?page_id=80

Get course brochure in pdf format:
http://permacultureturkey.org/en/wp-content/uploads/PDC_Istanbul_en.pdf ]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/5375/46197 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/5375/46197
I'm struggling to find PC projects in North Africa states like Tunisia, Algeria and so on.. it seems many of the projects are going on in more green countries and I'd like to help out in more arid enviorments...where is the greening the desert people?
Anybody willing to start anything next winter?

cheers
Roby ]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/4573/39449 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/4573/39449 from the 22. Nov. to 04. Dez. we organize a 72h Permaculture Design Course in Agbovipe/Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria.

John Button (Australia), Christina Werdermann and Jan Georg Fischer (Germany) will be the teachers.
The course enables you to start your training as a Permaculture Designer!

For more information please contact:
Andrea    andrea@soned.de
Odubela  nigeriasolar@yahoo.com
Kipper      info@soned.de

Beside of this we can offer ore Permaculture Farm in Agbovipe for willing workers at any time.

You are welcome / Ekabo]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/4528/39009 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/4528/39009 Tichafa Makovere, lead trainer for the re-SCOPE (Regional Permaculture in Schools and Colleges) initiative and the Fimbadzanai Permaculture Centre in Zimbabwe, is to lead a 10 day residential PDC (English language medium) in Konso, South Ethiopia in August 2010. This PDC focuses on application of Permaculture to semi arid environments in rural Africa, of particular relevance to those wanting to apply PC in the rural developing world. Attention is given to appropriate technology, soil and water harvesting, indigenous knowledge systems and Permaculture in schools as a key focus point for the community, and a chance to influence the coming generation.
We use SFEL’s model PC site as the primary example for demonstration, as well visiting implementation sites on our Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP) for design examples (more info on PKSP here: http://permaculture.org.au/2010/03/08/work-of-strawberry-fields-eco-lodge-begins-snowball-effect-for-entire-region/). We also look at Konso’s renowned indigenous agricultural system and incorporating IKS (Indigenous Knowledge Systems) into Permaculture Design. We can also include day long field-trips to wet-highland Afro-montaine, wet-tropical lowland and dry agro-pastoral lowland agro-climactic zones, upon request, and can incorporate design examples from these environments into the PDC.)
Konso itself is a food in-secure area in southern Ethiopia sitting in the bowl of the Great Rift Valley. It has a semi-arid (k’olla) ecology, with sorghum, maize and sunflower as major crops. The people are well known for their hard work, complex social organisation and sophisticated agriculture, which makes extensive use of stone wall terracing for soil and water conservation.
Course Cost is $800. The fee includes transportation from Addis Ababa to Konso, as well as 2 weeks accommodation with food in the lodge.
Course Curriculum: http://www.permalodge.org:9003/Configuration/Permalodge/Downloads/documents/STRAWBERRY%20FIELDS%20ECOLODGE%20PDC%20Curriculum.doc
Tichafa Maovere Shumba (Trianer’s) CV: http://www.permalodge.org/Configuration/Permalodge/Downloads/documents/Tichafa%27s%20CV.doc
For more information see: http://www.permalodge.org/pc-and-community-schools-project/permaculture-and-our-schools-project
Enquiries: info@permalodge.org
]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/4382/37397 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/4382/37397 KwaNzira Urban Farming
KwaNzira's mission is to improve the lives of households and communities in Southern Africa by facilitating the establishment of sustainable and self-managed households. We offer households and communities the necessary skills and support to build and manage sustainable livelihoods.



We provide on-site and outreach training in a variety of sustainable practices, a unique monitoring and evaluation system, and access to an international network of sustainable demonstration sites, including our own permaculture demonstration site in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Most of all, KwaNzira provides positive and sustainable solutions to each household’s unique issues.

Node Networking
Our ultimate aim is to network one thousand quality permaculture demonstration nodes in Southern Africa by 2020.  This goal will be achieved by the “Nodes Create Nodes” model where the focus of every node is to facilitate the establishment of ten more permaculture nodes and linking them together.  By forming chains of interlinked nodes, very large and complex data structures can be formed in Africa.

Our main focus is to facilitate the creation of nodes at the household level. A node is a home of sustainable living. Nodes have many faces and perform many functions.  Some nodes may be premier permaculture demonstration models, incorporating a wide variety of sustainable living practices, while other nodes may perform more specific functions.  For example, one household may showcase a renewable energy program while another could be a quality water-harvesting model.  In this way, different households with different capabilities can work together towards achieving the ultimate goal of building a sustainable community.



Come visit us in Johannesburg! Our training centre and permaculture demonstration site is located just outside of Johannesburg.  Here we practice a variety of sustainable living techniques including growing fruits, vegetables and medicinal herbs, raising livestock, honeybees and worms (apiculture and vermiculture), harvesting rainwater, and recycling graywater.

Or, come visit KwaNzira Urban Farming's website to find out more about our organisation and how you can contact us! CLICK HERE!

Happy Farming,
Ty Ty
tytyburns@gmail.com]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/2835/22259 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/2835/22259
    Me and my (half) brother grew up together in Holland, but some time ago he, who is half Ghanaian, moved back to Ghana, and started living there with family in Kumasi. As you know there are thousands of (dutch) development-aid projects all over Ghana, most of them are ineffective, and offer not much more than a responsible holliday, and adventurous experience in Ghana to young Europeans.

    A few years ago my brother started a project with not to high aims, or claiming to help change. But just offering a very great experience to young people who voluntarily make themselves useful in practical projects. Any real development work should naturally aim to in time make itself unnecessary. And should help local communities to start helping themselves (being self-sufficient for example).

    Apart from other projects he build an orphanage in Kokobeng, near Kumasi. This orphanage is going to be sustainable and self-sufficient (as much as possible). So it has solar panels, and will be designed to be energy efficient etc. it has a big piece of land around where they plan to organically grow food (thus supplying food for the staff and kids but also being a learning ground for kids in how to support yourself, rather than being learnt how to get a job in the system at an on export and monoculture focussed big plantain for slave wages). Hearing about permaculture from me he became interested. The problem is that i dont have time the coming years to go there, and i dont have any knowledge about the tropical climate and its ecology.

Right now the building is almost finished, and uilding is my brothers terrain, he lacks knowledge of food production and land management, and approaching the end of the building project the need for more knowledge on this is really reaquired.

    So we are looking for (apart from financial donations) people who have knowledge about permaculture in the tropics, and most specially in Ghana, and: who would like to help out in any way that could be possible. Even just knowing people in Ghana who know about permaculture or other projects in the region, and could occasionally advise would help a lot. but hopefully you would like to be involved or helping out. What is needed actually is somebody with knowledge op permaculture and tropical climates who would like to help (as a volunteer) build a food providing safe area for the kids of this orphanage. some international funds occasionally help financing the travel costs for intenational volunteers...

The progress at the foster home can be followed here:
http://goodworkghana.org/UK-site.html
click 'pics', then 'foster home', bottom left...


from there you can click trough to the rest of the site]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/2822/21909 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/2822/21909
Tichafa Makovere is a lead trainer for the re-SCOPE (Regional Permaculture in Schools and Colleges) initiative and the Fimbadzanai Permaculture Centre in Zimbabwe. He will lead 2 week residential PDCs for foreigners and well educated Ethiopians (English language medium) in Konso, South Ethiopia in February and April 2010. Our PDCs at Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge, are certified by Plan Africa, the newly established African Permaculture Secretariat (following IPC9 in Malawi). The PDC will have a special focus on the application of Permaculture to semi arid environments in rural Africa where the successful application of PC is more than a matter of lifestyle choice, but may mean the difference between survival and starvation.

We use SFEL’s model PC site as the primary example for demonstration, as well visiting our implementation sites on our Permaculture in Konso Schools Project for design examples. We look at Konso’s renowned indigenous agricultural system as to illustrate incorporating the IKS (Indigeous Knowledge Systems) methodology into Permaculture Design. We can also include day long field-trips to wet-highland Afro-montaine, wet-tropical lowland and dry agro-pastoral lowland agro-climactic zones, upon request, and can incorporate design examples from these environments into the PDC.)

Our PDC is of particular relevance to wanting to apply PC to rural development in indigenous communities in the rural developing world in general. We focus on appropriate technology, soil and water harvesting, indigenous knowledge systems and Permaculture in schools – a key focus point for the community, a chance to influence the coming generation to shift away from the mentality of dependence on aid towards self sufficiency and sustainable resource use.

Konso itself is a food in-secure area in southern Ethiopia sitting in the bowl of the Great Rift Valley. It has a semi-arid (k’olla) ecology, with sorghum, maize and sunflower as major crops. The people are well known for their hard work, complex social organisation and sophisticated agriculture, which makes extensive use of stone wall terracing for soil and water conservation.

Course Cost is $650 for the February PDC and for those registering with a $100 deposit before for the April PDC 01/03/2010, and $700 there-after. It includes 2 weeks accommodation with food in the lodge but excludes transport to Konso.

Course Curriculum: http://www.permalodge.org:9003/Configuration/Permalodge/Downloads/documents/STRAWBERRY%20FIELDS%20ECOLODGE%20PDC%20Curriculum.doc

Tichafa Maovere Shumba (Trianer’s) CV: http://www.permalodge.org/Configuration/Permalodge/Downloads/documents/Tichafa's%20CV.docx

For more information see: http://www.permalodge.org/what-is-permaculture/permaculture
Enquiries: info@permalodge.org
]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/2788/21547 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/2788/21547
During the 2010 World Cup, our city will be swamped with soccer fans from all around the world.  The city is expecting severe accomodation, transportation and food shortages.  Fortunately for us, our hectacre demonstration site has most the food we need and we have our own transportation around the city available.

We are willing and ready to host a number of people (preferably permies) on our site.  There will be a limited number of beds avaiable and ample room to pitch tents.  We have self-catered and catered (traditional Zimbabwean cuisine) options.  We are working on getting a large TV (plasma?!) so that all the games can be viewed on site.

Expect a uniquly African, relaxed, family-style situation.  Actual prices and availability will be available shortly.  Right now, we are assessing the demand to make sure that we can accomodate everyone who would like to stay with us!

Check us out at africanharvests.net.  The website is currently being updated, so please be patient as the layout and information changes.

E-mail us at tytyburns@gmail.com.

Thank you!
Ty Ty]]> http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/2496/18330 http://www.permies.com/forums/posts/preList/2496/18330
Read below about the 9th Annual International Permaculture Convergence, Conference and Design Course!

Cheers!
Ty Ty
tytyburns@gmail.com

KwaNzira Urban Farming
www.urbanfarming.yolasite.com

50 Pretorious St.
Midrand (Johannesburg), South Africa

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