The idea of the campaign is to raise enough money to put 10 members of a football team through a permaculture design course and to improve the football facilities in their village.
The organisation hosting the course, Kusamala Institute of Agriculture and Ecology (Kusamala), has recently trained its Malawian staff in permaculture. As a result they are beginning to implement permaculture around their homes and initial signs are good! They all help each other out and encourage each other, with ongoing support from Kusamala in the form of seeds, seedlings and tools. The hope is that eventually they will be independent and have a support network in their village of people doing similar things. This in turn can lead to people imitating their success, thus helping permaculture spread!
My recently founded organisation the African Moringa and Permaculture Project (AMPP), decided to do the same thing with the football team. The captain of the team, Green is his name and he's very shy, has been trained in permaculture and expressed to me that he wanted the rest of the team to be trained too. So we made this video!
All the guys involved are eager to learn and want to see permaculture spread in their village. They also want to upgrade their football facilities which desperately need it! Football is central to village life, good nutrition is central to sport and permaculture is central to good nutrition! Permaculture's standing in the village, particularly amongst village elders, will be hugely enhanced if we are seen to be investing in football too!
Watch our video and find out why permaculture is so desperately necessary in this country. The thought of it spreading makes me happy beyond belief and the thought of it not spreading makes me feel physically sick. That's as honestly as I can describe it.
From Green, myself and everyone else, thanks for your time and for your generosity! Zicomo!!