Learning to Teach Permaculture During Wartime

By Permaculture in Ukraine

https://www.permaculture.in.ua

In May 2024, Alfred Decker of Permaculture For Refugees teamed up with the organization Permaculture in Ukraine to deliver a permaculture teacher training at the beautiful Ukrainian ecovillage “Zeleni Kruchi.” For the past two years, while organizing courses, we have been asking ourselves this question: how can we make the course as safe as possible from a physical and emotional point of view? After all, many of our students saw the horrors of war with their own eyes and lost their homes and loved ones. Everyone is undoubtedly traumatized by the war in one way or another. Concerned about the plight of the least protected population in warring countries, P4R members Rosemary Morrow and Alfred Decker have been holding permaculture teacher trainings for refugees. They wanted to help where it was most needed!

Last year, Alfred held two courses in Spain, where students from different countries, including Ukraine, gathered. The courses were so amazingly transformative that I wanted to have one in Ukraine. Alfred himself offered to come and be there with the students. And our teachers agreed to assist him with this. And so, the dream did come true! Students from all corners of Ukraine, each with their own history, gathered near Kyiv, in Zeleni Kruchy, to learn how to teach permaculture in wartime conditions. Those who have attended such courses know how difficult it is to put into words what you will learn and what touched your heart the most. Usually, theory is in the background here, and the interaction of the teacher/facilitator with students, the atmosphere in the group, and the energy of the venue itself come to the fore. The stories of others, often sad and painful, sink into your soul the most, and you understand that you are not alone in your pain. But also openness, respect for otherness and a different point of view, and support when you are listened to. Real active listening. This course for teachers was healing and transformative. In any case, teaching people is not easy, but how can we teach people traumatized by war, refugees, and groups of students from different cultures and countries? We believe that we have succeeded.

16 graduates, future teachers and advocates of permaculture shared their impressions of the course in this video (mostly in Ukrainian, but some English): https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=852977616876542&rdid=7x1gFqJicb1ANqMT. Look carefully at these faces, maybe these are your future teachers!


Here are comments from a couple of the students: 


Kurinska 

Yuhu I moved to a new step on the way to goals and dreams. Now I am a permaculture teacher

This is not my first non-formal education. In 2019, I finished the permaculture design course with Permaculture in Ukraine. I have been waiting for this course for 4 years; I still realize that now I am a teacher!

Our group consisted of 16 people and 4 teachers: Vera Rodionova, Iryna Kazakova, Anastasia Volkova and Alfred Decker, who teaches this course all over the world. Therefore, our training was based on an international model.

Rosemary Morrow created the training. She dedicated her life to helping refugees, telling them about permaculture as a tool for adaptation and its further use in life. We had zoom calls with Rosemary where we asked her questions.

 The organization of the training was at a great level: a transfer from Kyiv, a hostel with conditions, delicious food, comfortable conditions for studying, a lake… Even the weather and nature were pleasing: the singing of birds and crickets, blooming bushes, beautiful views.

The training was rich and intensive, immediately including mini-teaching in groups of 4 and final project presentations. I learned about different teaching methods and tools, which I will now use in my teaching.

I could feel the care and love of the teachers and everyone who took part in the organization of the training, as well as a lot of communication with colleagues. I didn’t want to go back

 The main task of the training, after receiving the certificates, is to organize your own training in co-facilitation with another teacher in the near future.

I am very grateful for this training, for the opportunity to be part of the team; I am very happy about my movement in permaculture and my new colleagues

Svetolada 

Wonderful views, delicious food, a warm circle and interesting learning… And in between all this, Lena, who suddenly cried when she told that she had to leave everything first in Donetsk, then in Gostomel. Sasha, who remembers life in her native Crimea and who moved for the second time and now lives in another country, and is unable to see her relatives. Roman, who brought us all the wheat Chornobrova of Ukrainian selection and told us that Yura, who popularized this wheat and who was his friend, died a week ago. And then it turns out that Yura was family friends with our Sasha, and the three of us are already talking about Yura and what a wonderful person he was. Maria, who does not want to turn off the phone during the lecture, because her husband is in the army and anything can happen, and she is also persistently developing in a new profession, because she may have to feed the children herself. Ira, who came from Kharkiv and has all scanned documents and family albums, just in case. Kiwi, who is about to give birth and whose husband is in the airborne assault brigade. My friend is Lena from Luhansk, who has a whole story of how to find yourself and start over, and raise children at the same time.

Everyone has new circumstances in their lives brought by the war. We laugh, we learn, and life and death are very close. From time to time, the sirens on the phones are activated. Every morning we check whether the whole family is alive and well. We have adapted, but the horror of what is happening is present in everyone. From time to time someone may cry and someone else may join them. Alfred Decker says that when he decided to go to Ukraine to do the training, he was considered crazy. Rosemary (the author of the course), who communicated with us via video link at the beginning of the course and at the end, said “I am with Ukraine” and tears fell in my eyes, which I could not stop for some time. Humanity touches the very heart.

 A course for teachers of permaculture, during the war, when deadly rockets are flying and it is hot near Kharkov. Permaculture is about balance and imitation of nature, about creating harmony on the site and in life. It’s not easy for everyone, but we choose life. We choose the availability of tomorrow for our Motherland. Difficult times open the heart and transform the personality. Such transformations cannot be achieved in any training. Life itself becomes a spiritual practice, a tool that gives us the opportunity to develop. Like a loving birth, it happens through pain and difficulties and it prompts us to do the great work of the Soul, to search for answers and find the only way that leads to the light, because it is impossible to live in darkness.

We have all changed in these 2 plus years. Happiness for Ukrainians is now not apartments and cars.

Help us, God, to go through these difficult times, to preserve humanity and light in our Soul, to see the Victory of our people in this war and to save life. Let it be so..

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