In May 2019 Josephat Barasa travelled to Makuyuni, Tanzania to plan and scope a large Permaculture project, a Masai community, to largely benefit the children with an organic school feeding program. The people here are living in a very dry area and have no food sovereignty.
The project began on July 3rd with a Team of 3 expert permaculturists from Kenya to plan logistics for the project. On July 6th six more Kenyan permaculture experts, and on July 7th a planning meeting was held with the whole community to plan site logistics.
It was a difficult area to work due to extremely dry conditions and impacted earth. An old broken fence had to be removed, the site cleared, and a tractor brought in to work the ground which was very hard and rocky.
Swales were dug by hand on 2 acres of land designated for the initial Phase 1 gardens. New fencing had to be marked out with stakes and pegging.
In total 12 acres were fenced with over 300 metal fence posts.
Manure was brought in; the soil was tested for acidity. Water had to be trucked in from the local village for cement for the fencing.
Over 2,000 tree seedlings were planted.
Although this was a very labour intensive project involving teachers and many hired labourers in the local community, our ICO/Kenyan Team left the school site with a fenced permaculture garden, raised gardens, treated soil, manure laid, and seedlings planted….
…and, most important, it left this community with hope for the future!
