On the 27th of May Paul and our volunteer (Ludo) delivered a succesful training on seed saving to 44 farmers from different villages. There was a lot of interest from the community to learn how to effectively save seeds, a very important technique for farmers to save money while in the long term also improve the quality of their crops. Paul began with an explanation on why to save seeds and the all the steps of the process, from selecting a suitable plant until replanting the saved seed. Afterwards the trainees went outside to try it out on some beans and pumpkins. Many seeds were collected and were distributed among farmers to take home. To conclude the training, Ludo presented the idea of starting a community seed bank. After some background on what a seed bank is, the trainees designed in more detail what the seed bank would look like. In groups, they discussed different aspects of a seed bank which they presented to the rest. All groups came with very good suggestions about aspects such as the required materials, compensation for work and income generation. We hope that this training will further help farmers become more self-sustaining and prosperous.  

The past days we've been working hard to take care of the centre and demo site. We have started cutting the grass at the demo site together with our volunteer and the three boys living here who often help out. Using a sickle or panga to cut grass is hard work so we spread it out over multiple days. The grass that we cut is directly used as mulch for our squash, helping to discourage weeds while also trapping more moisture in the soil. 
After clearing the branches from the fallen trees, we've restored the first keyhole garden by planting some kale seedlings. We also added some biochar on top which helps to improve nutrient availability and water retention capability of the soil. In the coming days we will restore more gardens and use the collected branches to make more biochar​.

Earlier this year a storm caused the tall trees surrounding our demo site to break and fall. This broke the plastic sheet of the greenhouse and caused two of our water tanks to fall and break. This was quite a blow for the demosite since with no greenhouse to raise seedlings and water for the garden there is a lot of work that we could no longer do. Additionally, the costs of repairing the greenhouse and the tanks are quite high and we were not able to afford them. Luckily, Ludo has come all the way from the Netherlands to help us out for 3 weeks. Yesterday we started clearning the branches which we will partly use to make biochar and for composting. There is no waste in permaculture! 

One of PermoAfrica Centre's key goals is education. It is always great to teach new students and release them back to their communities to implement improvements in their way of living. Below are some of the recent participants in a course a few weeks ago and examples of the certificates issued:

PermoAfrica Centre is raising donations to drill a bore hole to secure permanent water for thousands of people. The background, need, and project proposal information is in the funding campaign below. We'd appreciate your shares and donations - thank you as always !