Learning from S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S, a training course focusing on Social Permaculture as a Resource for Regenerative Open and Welcoming Societies.

Photo by Márton Orosz

By Marguerite Kahrl

This Erasmus + training course brought together youth workers from 11 countries, including Italy, Croatia, Spain, France, Greece, Slovenia, Portugal, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, and Serbia. The course was supported by P4R and held at the Ecovillage Torri Superiore, Italy. It was facilitated by Massimo Candela, Dražen Šimleša, Marguerite Kahrl, Lucilla  Borio, and Silvia Corna, with guest speakers Morag Gamble, Rosemary Morrow, and Vincenzo Santiglia.

Participants found the course a transformative learning experience that used participatory methods to explore topics and observe and reflect on group dynamics. Both theoretical and practical sessions were dedicated to sharing and raising awareness of migratory flows. The first began with cleaning a stretch of the Roia riverbed in Ventimiglia marked by migrants’ passage, followed by a meeting to reflect on how social structures and natural forces influence human behavior and what changes can be made to achieve lasting change. One of the participants, Salim Al Bunni, gave a report from the field, sharing his experience as a refugee from Syria applying permaculture to Symphonia, the eco-community and agricultural project he is involved with in Akrata, Greece.

My experience during the Erasmus + Learning from SPARROWS Training

by Clémentine Duclos

When a friend talked to me about the chance to spend a week in an Italian eco-village as part of an Erasmus + training on social permaculture, I jumped at the opportunity. After being selected, I set off to enlarge my horizons and discover a new way for organizations to function. I came back having realized that social permaculture is another way to see the world and our society.

This training, which gathered around 25 participants from all over the European Union, deeply transformed me professionally at first, but most surprisingly, personally, spiritually, and in my approach to relationships with people and nature at large. One of the facilitators rightly told me this is precisely what social permaculture is: a more sustainable and inclusive way of understanding and positioning oneself in the world.

This training called Learning from S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S – Social Permaculture As a Resource for Regenerative Open and Welcoming Societies – provided us with many viewpoints and tools to grasp this broad concept. With more than 15 teaching modules discussing Rank & Privilege, Decolonizing Permaculture, and including interventions from permaculture leaders such as Rosemary Morrow (Permaculture for Refugees), Morag Gamble (Permaculture Education Institute), and meetings with local social and environmental activists, we were introduced to a variety of topics covered by social permaculture. The whole program made us realize how omnipresent the movement is.

The team of 5 trainers and facilitators also shared precious community management tools based on their experiences, notably in Torri Superiore, and organized the week with numerous individual and group workshops. Those steps improved self-knowledge and empathy and streamlined the group’s functioning, improving its resilience in the long run. This is the cornerstone of any social permaculture project, primarily based on individual energies gathered around one project. This experience was very intense, as a laboratory where we experienced accelerated community building, explored personal issues (e.g., ego, limits), and were confronted with various social and environmental injustices, especially the refugee situation in Ventimiglia. This training shows that the sum of our initiatives and energies contributes to inventing another way to work as a society. Disseminating this conviction to more people eventually generates momentum towards a more sustainable and inclusive world.

I return from this experience full of energy and gratitude, poised to continue spreading the change and collaborating with my dear fellow sparrows.

MAKE REAL CHANGE! is the message from the Erasmus+ training course Learning from S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. to the COP28 in Dubai. We met on the same days as the world leaders to talk about social permaculture, and we touched the effects of climate change on migrations with our hands. We cleaned the river banks in Ventimiglia from plastic to make a small change for a more resilient, open, and welcoming society. We realized we can make small changes but need systemic changes!

@3symphonia

#PermacultureForRefugees #Erasmus+ #SocialPermaculture #PermacultureEducationInstitute #TorriSuperiore #Permaculture #Sustainability

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