Training Permaculture Teachers Course with Focus on Refugees, Catalunya, Spain

Описание: Crowdfunding campaign:
https://chuffed.org/project/tpt4r

Two courses:
https://12pdesign.net/2022/03/11/tpt4...

https://12pdesign.net/2022/10/08/tpt4...

“I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I have a lot to learn from other people.” ― Eduardo Galeano (literary giant of Latin America)

Galeano’s quote reflects the spirit of the two Training Permaculture Teachers with Focus on Refugees (TPT4R) courses we are organising in Catalunya, Spain, where from the first day, we are all teachers and learners. 

Today we are witnessing the biggest wave of mass migration in our species’ history. It is a time of intersectional patterns of injustice, but also of growing international networks of solidarity.

Here’s what we’re doing about it

The invasion of the Ukraine and the hundreds of thousands of refugees seeking asylum in the European Union has focused attention on the issue of mass migration. There is now a much greater opportunity to support displaced people by training refugees to train each other. 

Developed by the highly respected and beloved educator Rosemary (Rowe) Morrow, TPT4R draws on her decades of permaculture teaching experience. After years of teaching permaculture design courses, she realised that a teacher training course could have a powerful multiplier effect in giving confidence and practical teaching tools to permaculturalists who wanted to teach but lacked the confidence and skills to start. 

So far the nationalities of the participants and facilitators attending the two trainings include Iraq, The Gambia, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Syria, Finland, Denmark,  Portugal, Uganda, France, Portugal, Lebanon, Hong Kong, United States, Belgium, Poland, Britain, Netherlands, Israel, and Italy. This will be the first time that the TPT will have the "4R", the focus on Refugees. Following Permaculture For Refugees' (P4R) definition, we use the term ‘refugee’ “interchangeably with asylum seekers, forced migrants, internally displaced peoples (IDPs), refugees and stateless person.” 

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is a holistic framework for designing human settlements. It is modeled on the functioning of natural ecosystems, with a view to providing for all human needs through cooperative relationships in healthy ecosystems. It includes restoring damage to the land caused by human activity. It recognises limits to consumption, and emphasises self-responsibility and collaboration rather than competition. Read more HERE.

Why is permaculture useful for refugees & migrants? 

The non-formal and empowering nature of permaculture is well-equipped to embrace an uncertain global future that includes the mass movement of people. As P4R explains, “Our aim is to support refugees in transforming the places where they live — be these refugee camps or communities in receiving countries — into productive permaculture-designed communities, and ultimately to equip them for integration into society for the collective benefit of all.” 

More info on permaculture and refugees HERE, and read an inspiring story about Ernest Gibba, a permaculture educator and refugee from The Gambia, who is one of our scholarship recipients HERE. 

"The idea is to engender hope and confidence that no matter where they find themselves, displaced peoples will be able to organise, feed themselves and create solutions." —Permaculture designer working in a Greek refugee camp, 2017

You can join us

This crowdfunding campaign will raise money to cover scholarships and travel expenses for permaculture educators who are also refugees, and who go on to share their practical experience and knowledge with others. Help us train the trainers!

We are asking for 8000€ to fund 16 refugee scholarships and travel costs split between two TPT4R trainings, the first in November, 2022 and the second in May, 2023.

Budget

The TPT4R fees paid by non-scholarship participants are on a sliding scale which recognises the differences in economic reality depending on what country a participant comes from, as well as their individual circumstances, so this is a practical way that people with more resources can act in solidarity. These fees are helping to offset some of the scholarship costs. What is left to cover is an average of 500€ per refugee scholarship recipient: 300€ for the course (food, lodging, space rental, teaching and administation fees, materials) and 200€ for travel costs. The work on this crowdfunding campaign was all volunteer. 

More Information

If you'd like more information on the specifics of these trainings, please contact me at alfred [at] 12pdesign.net and I'll be more than happy to share with you in greater detail :)