community

Common Sense Prevails...

The shortest day of the year in Chile and the rain is coming down. It is cold and wet. As we celebrate the new year and the return of the sun, thousands of people in the surrounding region are living in government supplied shacks....affectionately termed ´´Mediagua´´ or half water. Most of them are leaking with the rain, and the wind is coming in. You can find photos here.

Simple Solutions for Sustainable Living

A community of active citizens is forming in BíoBío, connecting and collaborating for the transition of the region. Over the weekend 5-6 of July they put on a show; Expostsismo 2, the second feria for sustainable reconstruction post February 27th earthquake.

Almost 600 people attended the two day event in Chillan-Viejo, content to have connected to local people with simple solutions at hand. Everyone is reminded that sustainability is not a distant goal, nor something terribly complex and difficult, but starts in humble acts of responsibility, at the centre of sustainable economies; the household. If many people can make a small contribution starting at theif own front door, a wave of change arises.

Design for Resilient Human Settlements

This is the second story from the learning process in Millenrama. You can read the first here.

The week 5-9th of May 2010 team El Manzano was hosted in Millenrama, Mantagua, 5th region to run an Applied Permaculture Design course.
As El Manzano tests ideas for assisting people and communities to engage in transition and design for resilient human settlements, the team develops competency in the delivery of catalytic learning events, in facilitation and leadership by design. As the experience is reviewed once again it is confirmed that there is no power equal to a community deciding what it will become.

Primer Taller: Introducción a la Permacultura y Construcción de una Olla Bruja Por Sofia Merino Sabado 24 de Enero

Comenzó el Proyecto “Si quieres cambiar el mundo comienza por casa. Vivienda Ecológica  Demostrativa. El Manzano” postulado al fondo de protección ambiental (FPA) de la CONAMA.

La primera clase estuvo muy entretenida, los que participaron de ella tuvieron la agradable charla de Jorge acerca de nuestro camino en transición hacia un mundo donde produzcamos nuestros propios alimentos de forma sana y de valoración por nuestro entorno y nuestra vida. Todos compartimos la visión y sabemos de la importancia de experimentar una vida en comunidad y educar con valores ecológicos a nuestros hijos.

By Sofia Merino 20/12/2008. Translated from Spanish.

Our children play run and laugh together, the neighbors greet, share smiles and glances, the conversation begins. This is the Community of the El Manzano. The faces are repeated, been those it jeopardize more, although by the field people are shameful and many think that they would not be a contribution in the meeting.

Time… that will only give security them. We were 16 in the meeting (more than 6 children). The first dynamic was to present/display and to share a positive quality of our community in El Manzano, in contrast to the first meeting where we alluded to ourselves.

Tranquillity, pure air, the heat of the people, the union, silence, the effort, the field of baby in the school and much more, constitute the reflection of the town of El Manzano in front of the eyes of their inhabitants.

We have a team of highly competent group facilitators to work with your community in developing shared vision and action plans. We are focused on supporting existing and new communities to move in transition towards being self-reliant in the long term. We recognise that it is increasingly difficult for people to create alternative communities like ecovillages, that we need to offer our services and support the transformation of already existing communities.