Youth in Permaculture – It’s Our Future

Ananda Kalyani Master Unit is working with an international project called Youth in Permaculture (YiP), whose mission is to support and empower youths and young adults to lead fulfilling and healthy lives inspired by permaculture through events organised by and for the youth, who plan to share information and practical tools through online platforms and through collaborating with other organisations and institutes. You can find out more about the YiP-project at: www.youthinpermaculture.org.

In permaculture we use nature as our guide. It is a holistic, solution-based design system and way of thinking that follows the three principles: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share, as well as what we generally call “common sense”. One of the goals is to take the negative impacts of human behaviour towards nature and not only neutralize but turn them into positive ones. Cooperation and connections are important for the practical implementation of permaculture.

We had our first event as a partner of Youth in Permaculture. It was a youth exchange with the title “It’s Our Future” in December 2017 near Torino in Italy. The event was supported by the Erasmus+ programme of European Commission. This project was part of the GAIA Education programme and gave us training and certificates of the GAIA Youth Programme. We spend 8 days together with people aged 18 to 30 from seven different organisations in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Macedonia, UK and Slovenia.

During the intensive programme there were interactive workshops about permaculture, sociocracy, a sustainable lifestyle and nature awareness. The permaculture workshops covered different aspects of permaculture such as: Bio-construction and upcycling, renewable energy sources, food cultivation & composting, and economy. We also went deeper into the social aspects of permaculture under the topics of self-care, communication and relationships. We learned practical tools to help us design projects and started to implement these new skills in practice in small groups. We came up with a variety of ideas and plans for projects from online-tools and platforms to concrete permaculture centre projects.

” In the youth exchange in Torino from 8th to 16th of December 2017, I experienced an amazing week with inspiring and extraordinary people with a lot of knowledge to share. The programme was full of interesting subjects very well facilitated, great conditions and food. This youth exchange was a good opportunity to improve my knowledge about permaculture and cultures of different countries, to make good friends and to help me deciding what to do next. I’m very glad for this experience. Thank you YIP! “

Nelson 21, Portugal.

We had several Open Space sessions, where the participants could host meetings and discussion groups on topics of their choice. (The idea of an Open Space is that there can be many sessions going on at the same time in different spaces, and people can choose to stay in one, or mingle around and join different sessions.) This activity gave the participants an opportunity to take the initiative and the courage to facilitate a talk/meeting about a topic they felt passionate about. The participants held many interesting spaces from self-care to Capoeira classes, from singing circle to permaculture theory and feminism.

The youth exchange proved to be extremely empowering both for the participants and the facilitators. It offered us an environment where we could meet people who share our passion for permaculture and sustainable living and where we could create partnerships and lifelong friendships. Together we can make this world a better place, step by step! This was the first of many such events that will follow. Work is actively being carried out to develop YiP and the use of permaculture across Europe. So stay tuned for more!!

With Love, Amrita // amrita@amurt.pt

ps. If you feel inspired to learn more or if you wish to join this project in one way or another (we are very open to new ideas and suggestions!),

please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Youth In Permaculture // www.youthinpermaculture.org / youthinpermaculture@gmail.com // Facebook: Youth in Permaculture