Spreading Permaculture and Touching Lives in East Africa

With your help, Warren Brush, International Permaculture Designer and Educator, will be offering educational programs and permaculture design consultation for various orphanages and villages in East Africa over the next six months.

We need to raise $9,000 in the next three months to meet a challenge grant that will match the funds dollar for dollar. The amazing projects will have a broad concentric ring of impact in the people, mostly orphans, in this developing region of the world.

The projects include:

I. Nyumbani Village – Kenya

We have a Permaculture Certification Course scheduled at this village, which will include doing an integrated design and completing some projects relating to rainwater harvesting, compost toilets, greywater systems, wildlife habitat creation and intensive food production. Nyumbani Village stands on one thousand acres of land donated by the Kitui District County Council.

The Village is located 3 hours East of Nairobi. The site is within the poorest division in the Kitui District and has a high incidence of HIV and a high number of HIV orphans. When complete, the Village will accommodate approximately 1000 orphans and 100 grandparents living in 100 dwelling units each with a grandparent and 8 – 10 children.

II. Badilisha Village – Kenya

We have a Permaculture Certification Course scheduled at this village in March of 2011, which will include doing an integrated design and completing some projects relating to rainwater harvesting, compost toilets, greywater systems, wildlife habitat creation and intensive food production.

Badilisha EcoVillage has been organized to make a valuable contribution to the social, economic, emotional, mental, spiritual and physical health of Rusinga Island, Kenya. It is our vision to achieve this through the following projects:

III. Amrita Children’s Home – Kenya

I have been asked to do the first permaculture design for one of Amma’s worldwide orphanages. Amma is known as the hugging saint from India and is interested in involving Permaculture in all her orphanages worldwide. This first permaculture design at her orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya will be a prototype for many others around the world.

Amrita Children’s Home is spread over 11 acres on the banks of the Athi River in Nairobi, Keny, this orphanage is home to 108 children, providing them with shelter, food, education and healthcare.Amongst the problems that the poor face in Kenya, Amrita Centre Kenya has been particularly concerned with the tribulations that afflict children who are deprived of proper shelter, parental care and schooling. Without correct upbringing, such children’s lives become a challenging existence, ever dependent on others for their survival.

IV. Mercy School – Suba District, Kenya

I have been asked to help design a food production system using permaculture techniques to help feed the orphans who attend Mercy School. Mercy School is a project of the Victoria Agricultural and Environmental Conservation Organization (VIAGENCO) which was found in the year 1997. It’s mission is to address the environmental degradation issues that are affecting the Suba District of Kenya. VIAGENCO eventually diversified its operations to issues of health and more specifically to HIV AIDS. This was necessitated by the increase in adult mortality due to the scourge.

V. Project Focus – Lyantonde, Uganda

Lyantonde is a newly formed district in Southwestern Uganda. Before 2007, Lyantonde was located in Rakai district, the epicenter of Uganda’s HIV/AIDS epidemic. Since the first recorded cases of AIDS in 1982, the disease has spread throughout communities in the district with recent reports citing a 12%-18% prevalence rate. Mortality associated with AIDS has depleted the adult population – devastating the local economy and precipitating an orphan crisis without historical precedent. HIV/AIDS, the loss of parents, and a generation of orphans struggling to survive on their own continues to perpetuate a cycle of disease, economic desperation, and sexual exploitation. Project Focus is working with farming co-ops in the area to create truly sustainable solutions for their soil rejuvenation and eventual food security.

There are also other projects that work with orphans and villages in need that are hoping to have permaculture come to them. Please help us bring permaculture to Kenya and Uganda… it will be money well spent!

Invest in Sustainability, Stability and Resilience for many children in a region of the world that is in especially great need. The amount of funding needed for all five of these projects is relatively little compared to the outcomes that will be realized through the lives touched and the land that is healed.

We have kept our expenses very low so we could ensure that these projects will come to fruition in a good way using local ingenuity and the generosity of a few good souls. Please Donate Now!

Thank you, Warren Brush