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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] permaculture Digest, Vol 32, Issue 24

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  • From: "Chuck Learned" <clearned@bminet.com>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] permaculture Digest, Vol 32, Issue 24
  • Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005 07:24:36 -0500


antonr@webmail.co.za wrote:
>> >My question is this: How do you educate a rural
community
>who believe in cattle and goat raising and a bit of
primary
>agriculture - mielies (Corn, I believe to most of
you) to

Climbing out of lurk: I don't know how serious you are about doing something about what you have written, however if you are; I would suggest you contact an organization I used to be involved with. The Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA). I worked with the ICA in the 80's and was most impressed with their community development/human development tools/models. At one point when I was working in Kenya with many of the same dynamics you describe they were working with several hundred villages. We would go into a village by invitation under the blessing of the chief and its leaders, two facilitators from other villages who had been trained by the ICA were among the staff who worked with the village. Initially we came in for a solid two weeks and worked with the whole village to have them articulate their hopes and dreams in a brainstorm fashion, then the obsticles to their vision, then proposals were generated to overcome them and then specific goals were set to implement the proposals. The goals and objectives were plotted on a five year timeline, then a one month timeline was created and with specific people signed up to work on specific tasks. All the while this was happening we had the historians in the community weaving a historical story of their past, bringing it to the present and then extending the story into the future. Songs of the past and present were articulated and new songs created to honor their new and exciting journey together into the future. Symbols were created that honored their stories and embodied their vision. So they had Song, Story, Symbol and a well thought out plan to bring about change. Then they began their work and we circulated around every two weeks to further train the leaders in these methods so they could use them to bring forward their vision. We also asked them for two young leaders who would like to come and work with other villages in this manner for a period of two years. This model worked: Schools for children and adults were created, community wells were dug, roads were improved, health care centers were created, small businesses and markets were created that honored the skills of the people. Trees were planted, health care workers circulated among the homes educating the women about self protection and self care. The people sang at their meetings, danced and celebrated their victories. I highly reccomend their methods. I believe they are based out of Chicago.
Good luck in defining your future actions.
Chuck Learned



  • Re: [permaculture] permaculture Digest, Vol 32, Issue 24, Chuck Learned, 09/17/2005

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