permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

*OAEC's Permaculture Program, Daily Acts
and the Sebastopol Grange are proud to Co-Present:***
/Julious Piti - from the Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Community Trust 
(CELUCT)
Zimbabwe, Africa

/ Thursday July 5, 6:30-8:30pm, 2012
Sebastopol Grange Hall on Hwy 12
$5 -$10 suggested donation

(feel free to forward!)

Please join the* *OAEC, Daily Acts and Sebastopol Grange on*
Thursday, July 5, as we Co-host Julious Piti,* founding member of the
*Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Community Trust (CELUCT)* in Zimbabwe,
whose ecological design work in Tanzania has recently been
featured in the award winning film */From the Mara Soil. /*

*/
/*In the communal lands of Chimanimani on the borders of Zimbabwe and 
Mozambique---in the midst of civil wars, deforestation, drought, and 
severe land degradation---a wonderful story has been unfolding for the 
last twenty years, an example to the world.

Where once the people of the Chikukwa villages in this region suffered 
hunger, malnutrition and high rates of disease, communities have 
transformed themselves with permaculture land strategies and farming 
techniques, and along the way have become masters of conflict resolution.

Julious Piti experienced the violence of war first hand as a teenager 
fleeing Mozambique to Zimbabwe during times of conflict. These 
experiences led him with other Chikukwa community members to a lifetime 
of work committed to healing both the land and the people.

Many projects flourished through the years at Chikukwa, but the success 
of these projects also led to difficulties.  Conflict and suspicion 
arose around many issues within the community, but when examined 
carefully, it was found most were based on communication breakdowns. 
 From these difficulties, the creation of an extraordinary handbook 
called /The Three Circles of Knowledge; How to Build Constructive 
Community Relations by Understanding Conflicts in Rural African 
Communities/ occurred.  The approach of the book is based on the three 
circles method, which aims to work with the areas where indigenous, 
spiritual and analytical knowledge overlap.  This method was developed 
by a core Chikukwa community group and utilized deep indigenous 
understanding.

There is much for the world to learn from Chikukwa and CELUCT, for not 
only have they managed to stay food secure and peaceful during the 
conflict ridden years of Zimbabwe, but they have done this with 
solutions that came from within the community, not imposed from the 
outside, and with very little help or funding from international aid 
agencies or NGOs.

Some 20 years ago, most were trying to survive on cash crops that caused 
deforestation and erosion, now over 80% of the population of the 
Chikukwa villages practice permaculture, growing food for themselves 
with a surplus to share, on lush and abundant mountainsides where 
springs honored by indigenous beliefs, have once again sprung to life.

Julious Piti is a permaculture teacher, designer and trainer, and 
conflict facilitator.  He is a founding member of the Chikukwa 
Ecological Land Trust (CELUCT) and the Director of PORET, an 
organization formed to support farmers in the low rainfall area of 
Chaseyama, Zimbabwe where he now lives, by replicating the strategies of 
CELUCT.

In 2009 Julious was hired by Global Resource Alliance, an NGO based in 
Ojai CA, to facilitate a permaculture design project for a village of 
5000 on the shores of Lake Victoria, Tanzania, featured in the film, 
/From the Mara Soil/.  Film producer Gillian Leahy and Terry Leahy, 
author of /Permaculture Strategy for the South African Villages 
(/University of Newcastle, Australia), are currently making a 
documentary film about Chikukwa.

He has been a presenter at the International Permaculture Convergences 
in Brazil, Africa, and Jordan.

*This evening talk takes place on:
Thursday, July 5, 6:30pm-8:30pm, 2012
At the: Sebastopol Grange Hall #306.
Address is: 6000 Sebastopol Avenue (On Hwy 12 just East of Sebastopol)
$5-$10 sliding scale donation requested.
All proceeds (minus nominal Hall fee) will go directly to support the 
efforts of CELUCT.
No reservations required.
More info: (707) 874-1557 x 106, email: brock@oaec.org

Feel free to forward to all interested parties!
*
More Web Resources:

*GRA's film, /From the Mara Soil/:
*one of five films selected by a partnership between the Sundance 
Institute and Hilton Worldwide to receive the 2012 Hilton Worldwide 
LightStay Sustainability Fund & Award.
http://www.globalresourcealliance.org/

PORET -Participatory Organic Research Extension and Training 
http://poret-zimbabwe.org
PORET Trust works with the community to address hunger, malnutrition, 
and poverty.

*Chikukwa  Ecological Land Use Community Trust (SlideShow)
*http://www.chikukwa.org/
Permaculture Successes in a Zimbabwean Community
http://permaculture.org.au/2011/10/01/permaculture-successes-in-a-zimbabwean-community/

*The Chikukwa Project (CELUCT) - short 6 minute film by Julian and Terry 
Leahy
*https://vimeo.com/36582870

*THE CHIKUKWA PROJECT 20 minute trailer for a longer 50 minute film called
*https://vimeo.com/33761246

Chikukwa-A Lesson in Self-Reliance (CELUCT) Elin Lindhagen
http://barefooteducation.wordpress.com/permaculture/applied-permaculture-tr