Warren Brush, co-founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm, is seeking support for permaculture training in East Africa in 2011, following on the success of his work there last year. Warren was co-teacher of the PDC with Robyn Francis followed by her Sustainable Aid course at Quail Springs in 2009  and is a valued member of Permaculture College Australia's international network of permaculture colleagues and activists.

Hello Friends and Colleagues,

I am writing to you to kindly ask for your financial support to continue our vital Permaculture work in Kenya and Uganda over the coming months and to share an article I recently wrote about the incredible success of my first trip to Kenya a few weeks back in December of 2010. During this past trip, I taught a Permaculture Design Course at a village where over 700 children live who have been orphaned by AIDS and certified students from all over Kenya and the world and began design work on an orphanage outside of Nairobi. It was highly a successful endeavor and will have a significant impact on Kenya and other places around the globe over the coming years. It would be an honor to have you read about it in an article I wrote: Read Article and see extract below

I will be heading back to Kenya in March 2011 to hold another course on the opposite side of the country in the Lake Victoria region and to do sustainability designs for two other orphanages and a short course in Uganda for a farmer coop. Thanks to a local Santa Barbara Family Foundation, we have a matching grant for up to $9,000 that helped us with the first course and with this next journey. Every penny you donate TODAY up to this amount will double its value. Please read more and contribute by going to the following link: Learn and Donate Now .

With your generous heart, we will be able to bring hope and peace through permaculture to these deserving people in East Africa. Thank you for your generous consideration!

In Growing Peace,
Warren Brush

Extracts from Concentric Rings of Change – the Power of a Single African Permaculture Design Course by Warren Brush, Dec 2010

In just four short years, Nyumbani Village, located in the heart of the Akamba traditional tribal area, has become, with the help of local and international partners, an important and successful model for the care of orphaned children and elders. It has developed an impressive infrastructure that includes site-built housing using mud, cement and tin for nearly 800 people, ecological toilet composting systems, rainwater harvesting, food security, long term natural capital systems, vocational education in woodworking, sewing, metal work, and agriculture.

Two years ago I was contacted by Joseph Ntunyoi, Director of the Nyumbani Village Sustainability Department, and asked to teach the first Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course at the village with the goal of inspiring and advancing stable, resilient and sustainable systems of human settlement in Kenya. As my bumpy ride up a rutted, red dirt road ended just through the entrance to Nyumbani Village on a warm day in early December 2010, the dream of bringing permaculture to this extraordinary place finally came to fruition.

I was welcomed with open arms by staff, interns from around the world, visiting consultants, supporters, and especially by the elders and children. When the elders address you they say, "Wasja," which means "How are you my child?" and you answer back with a deep sigh that sounds like, "Aaaaahhhhhhh" which means, "I am well Grandmother/Grandfather". In this place where so many people have lost family and have seen so much pain and death, there exists a humility and underlying hope that speaks to the language of unconditional love, and years of good and fruitful work.

Our Nyumbani Village Permaculture Design Course attracted a powerful and diverse group of students. From villagers and local Kenyans, to those from as far away as Uganda, Liberia, India, Germany, and America, people came with the goal of bringing useful knowledge and skills back to their communities. The combination of their varied backgrounds and visions brought an invaluable depth of understanding and experience to our course. This diverse group of people, their unique constituencies, and their commitment to generating concentric rings of positive change into the heart of the world is the focus of this article.

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