I recently visited Mfangano Island, which is in Lake Victoria in Kenya, to work on a permaculture project. I was lucky enough to meet a man named Bernard, who is a headteacher and has started a permaculture garden to feed the students, and hopes to expand into a centre to run classes and share the knowledge with the wider community. It's really needed there, as the weather becomes more unpredictable, rains are getting shorter some years and causing floods in others. Most people survive on fish from the overfished lake.
Bernard started the project as an experiment. He had only just been introduced to permaculture by another resident on the island, who started a network of permies from different parts of the world. They use Whatsapp to communicate and help each other with ideas, solutions, sharing photos of progress etc. So already the garden is already producing lots of food - loads of greens, medicinal herbs, some grains, brassicas, fruits and other veggies, some of which the locals had never seen before, so it's adding diversity to their diet!
I was so inspired by what they've achieved, the school doesn't get any government funding, it's all been built gradually and it was amazing to look around. The students really love the garden and it's really encouraging that they have an opportunity to learn about alternative methods of farming so that they can help their family, whose crops often fail. So I've set up a crowdfunder to try and raise money for what they really need next, which is a rainwater catchment system. Currently the (polluted) lake water is used for everything - bathing, washing clothes, cooking, drinking - so the new system will provide clean drinking water, and water the garden. At the moment the students carry water every day from the lake.
The potential is so exciting - quite a lot of people I met on the island have heard of permaculture and were keen to learn more about it. The school is already such a shining example of what's possible, and the garden only started last year. So with the water system, the next steps can happen more quickly, and of course the garden can expand and feed more people.
I hope this inspires you as much as it has me, and if you would like to help on the crowdfunder it will make a real difference! Any donation is really appreciated, and equally sharing will really help. If any of you have a website/blog/Facebook group where you can spread the word that would be fantastic.
JustGiving crowdfunding page:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/permaculture-kenya
I also met a teacher from another school whose dream is to plant lots of trees in the school and teach about their importance. Since I'd like to get involved with helping these projects get off the ground, I'd love to know if anyone have any experience with setting up ways to support these projects? Eg what's effective, how to share knowledge between people with similar aims, where to fundraise...?
