Connie hoots

Hi Robert! This is such a late reply, but I just wanted to say that your post was super super helpful.

My family have only just made a start on the garden this last month. Obviously COVID hit and I was not able to travel back Home to Papua New Guinea.

here is a link to some photos of our progress:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9Htjvc8Pjm2kZqYX8

I will be definitely be needing more advice.
I will probably seek government funding, as I have opportunity to claim a large amount of land ( it is customary clan land, and I am a member of the clan) There is potential for this to be a large-scale community development project and I will need all the help I can get!

@Angela Wilcox

Thank you so much for you kind words and encouragement! We are doing our best, and purchasing alot of books to help us!
I'll continue to post here as I troubleshoot and seek advice.

Hanua Umana, means 'Village Garden'

Hi guys, my name is Constance.
A few years ago I posted on this forum, stating my desire to start a community permaculture garden-farm in my mother's village in Papua New Guinea.
I did not make any headway at the time. But fast forward to this year, My family and I had the opportunity to make a start on the land.

Here's a link to some photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9Htjvc8Pjm2kZqYX8

It's small, and has only recently been initiated. But I have the potential to claim around 25 hectares of land for it (given I write a good proposal and present it to my clan members)
My main objective is to help drive sustainable change in my village back home, I have a small write up here in my go-fund me link if you'd like to read:  

https://gofund.me/d5d0b319

I have come here to seek help or to direct me to resources, and potential funding sources. I really don't know much technically about regenerative gardening, specifically permaculture, or gardening for that matter. Though much of it feels intuitive in the sense that it truly runs in the blood any Papua New Guinean. (90% of PNG's are subsistence farmers). Needless to say, I really don't have the brains to direct or run a permaculture-garden farm and this is possibly the best solution for all the problems that are manifesting back home right now.
I would love to source people to come and help, who are interested in community building, are culturally sensitive, problem solvers,  genuinely interested in learning about Papua New Guinea. There is a massive cultural breakdown in my village, post-colonisation, and due to its proximity to Port Moresby (the capital city). This has resulted in a very broken culture, not dissimilar to many other indigenous cultures around the world. There is plenty of land, but our government is very corrupt and access to education is limited.
I realise this is a massive undertaking, but as they say "It takes a village".
I am looking to collaborate and facilitate!

I am going back to PNG in a week and will continue working on the garden, you can follow the journey here at this link: https://www.instagram.com/islandbisous/?hl=en
I share an account with my 3 "sisters".

Cheers,
Connie

Hey thanks Eric!
Yes it is quite the ambitious project I do admit. Certainly a long-term goal, which in time I hope to dedicate the rest of my life to.
No not trivial at all. I have been thinking that simple raised beds is probably the best place to start.
My family already garden to some extent, but they're techniques and knowledge remain very basic. They tend to grow the staple food like taro, yam, banana
It's difficult to access materials regarding the ecological landscape of this region. I was thinking that getting to know the diversity of native plant life here would be an important foundation
I guess I am looking for similar community development projects and the sort of steps they took to set up. As I said I have very limited knowledge myself.
I think I'll keep doing research and asking specific questions. As you said, an open line of communication is wonderful!
Cheers!!

Hi everyone.
I'm new to the permaculture world, but it excites me to no end.
I've had a long-standing dream to help facilitate the development of a permaculture farm in the central province of Papua New Guinea where I was born,
my clans people have hundreds of hectares of fertile land beneath their feet, and were once subsistence farmers themselves,
however things have changed, but for worse. People primarily live off rice and tinned fish these days or go hungry. I get very emotional thinking about
the lack of nutritional needs being met, when there is such a wealth of natural resources available. Our culture was once heavily tied to the land, post-colonialism, we have lost our roots & rich identity.  
I don't have the technical skills to pull something like this off
However my thoughts are that I'd like to facilitate some sort of a skills exchange. Accomodate skilled peoples, experts to
come and design a garden/ train local villagers, and create a sustainable system for managing and maintaining the farm, and then have an ongoing stream of volunteers from overseas to come and continue to build on this. I know there are other projects like this.
I will most likely have government funding available to me, or other potential financial resources.
Please any advice or assistance on bringing this project into fruition would be so so helpful.
This is honestly for the betterment of an extremely impoverished community.
Cheers