Strategy Update on Permaculture Aid Yolanda initiative. I am also in the team, and leaving to Philippines on the 23rd Nov. Send us your prayers, good vibes, networks, connections and support. Here is a short summary: A bit of background info We are a collaborative effort comprising of people and related organisations in the Philippines and around the world. Base Camp Maia Earth Village will be our convergence base camp as we analyse the situation on the ground, strategise, build capacity, gather resources, collaborators and aid workers. Approach Who are we targeting to provide assistance to: Those most affected by the typhoon and with least help, and have requested for our assistance (we will not go anywhere uninvited) Our objective is: - To come into a deep understanding of the problems integratively, beyond just basic concerns in food and shelter, and to apply this wisdom integrally - By integrally, we mean holistic, sustainable, empowering and resilient systems - We plan to go about doing the above using frameworks such as Permaculture, Earthships Biotecture, Ecovillage Design (from the Global Ecovillage Network, GEN), Transition Towns, Raw Food, Alternative Health and Medicine to name a few . The various components are already in conversation, and in the midst of planning a concerted, broad scaled effort. Our Action Plan As this is a concerted effort across a broad range of people and organisations with differing approaches towards a similar goal, our action plan is constantly evolving and being refined, based on new data, info, understanding, connections gathered from our network of local Filipinos and international experts. Through our Filipino partners, we have many connections and inroads to local organisation and population centres in the Philippines. Already, we are in the midst of acquiring a large tract of land in one of the areas affected, and the plan is to transform it into a best practice physical rescue village model that creates free natural hospitals,schools and child care centers, kitchens, sanitation and waste management systems using natural building methods and cooperative work such as that being proposed by the Earthship project and Permaculture. By using permaculture process that involves the communities themselves in restoring the natural ecosystem, we hope to build the capacity of the people to build food security, and climate change resilience. We will also be using an ecovillage process that allows people to raise the collective spirit, guiding communities in ways of unleashing the innate gifts and spirit of the people themselves, such as the processes available through the Ecovillage Design Education delivered by Gaia Trust and the Global Ecovillage Network. What is happening in first few weeks after Typhoon Yolanda hit in November and what we are planning in December 2014 so far ... a)Our local partners are already deploying first response aid on the ground, and gathering insights b)Maia and their partners have already started collecting and creating resources and materials,including thousands of seedlings to give away b)Nov 28 - Dec 6 : First Reconnaissance team goes out to areas most affected - Tacloban, Leyte and Coron to asses and document the situation on the ground. This 5 person team will be led by Steve Cran, ex-army guy, and experienced Permaculture Aid Worker who has led initiatives in Post Tsunami Aceh, East Timor and Uganda c) Nov 20 onwards - Aid workers and experts will start to trickle into Maia to converge insights, ideas and solutions and lay the ground for supporting up to 100 volunteers at a time. d) In the Philippines, there is a strong culture of giving gifts during Christmas. Everyone gives gifts no matter how poor they are. This year will be a very difficult year indeed as many have nothing to give away as gifts. We will be giving away sapling, seeds, seedlings, aid during this time. What do you think makes the best gift? Give us your support and ideas. Thats all for now. Well keep you updated.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 03:32:48 +0000
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