July 17 - "Permaculture in Zimbabwe" - Stone Ridge, NY (Evening
Presentation Hudson Valley) 7/17 Ethan and Tama Contact Ethan Roland
eroland@gmail.com
/P/ lease join * 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. A presenter at the International
Permaculture Convergences in Brazil, Africa, and Jordan, Julious Piti
has been invited to teach at the upcoming Permaculture Design Course for
International Development & Social Entrepreneurship at Quail Springs
Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm in California, July 2012.
*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/