A nice example of how to empower people – in this case by simply giving a camera to local farmers and explaning them how to use it… The photos are still being exhibited – even 5 years after the project was carried out. The resulting images (some of them of astonishing quality) naturally show the benefits & purity of traditional farming in Southern China – an area that is more and more becoming industrialized.
We are involved in an ecological housing project in Karlstad, Sweden.
Our city already has two ecovillages called Tuggelite (which was first in Sweden) and Mjölnartorpet. Since almost everyone keeps on living in their ecohouses it’s hard to move there. That is why we came up with the idea to create Ekoby3.0 (EcoVillage3.0).
So far we are 23 families who are involved. These are both single households, single families and families of all ages.
We find ourselves in the first development phase. The project team has visited the two current ecovillages in Karlstad and had a first discussion round with the municipality. Karlstad municipality is very positive towards our plans. The next step is to map all families ideas and wishes. Finding financing is tough at the moment, but by the time we will invest the situation might have changed. We have contacts with the Swedish interest free JAK member bank and the Swedish Ekobanken. Website (Swedish)
Our motivations are diverse, but all of us support the idea of ecological housing. For me personal I’d like to develop housing which provides the opportunity to live under my personal ecological footprint.
Together with Mira and four others we visited a co-housing/ecovillage project in Poncelle, Province of Luxemburg, Belgium this past weekend.
Imagine a little village in the least polluted areas of Belgium on a sunny day. You arrive around lunchtime and have lunch with Michel, who three years ago had the idea of starting up a co-housing project and acquired a piece of land with similarly minded people. He tells you about his vision and even though it is obvious that much work is still needed, you can see it: a place of happy co-housing. Everybody has their own house and income, but there is also a big common house, that can be used at any time by Lorien’s people for parties or for workshops, but can also be rented out to generate a bit more income.
Lorien’s land came with a few unfinished buildings and land of 1,5ha. The potential is plenty, but the money is not. So until more people join, i.e. buy a piece of it, finishing the houses needs to wait. In the meantime the garden can be put into place.
So this is what we helped with: we cleared an area in the garden, planted some vegetables, cleared up another area for a neighbour’s donkeys and fenced it off, so they can graze on the long grass. Soon there will be a workshop that will take the development of the garden to the next level.
The weekend was not all about work though. After a dinner which some of us prepared, we sat around a campfire until one in the morning talking over beer and wine. We all felt it was interesting to learn more about the project, but also putting up fences, etc. together with friends and others brought up interesting conversations. This combined with camping and fire made for a great weekend and I am looking forward to visit again. Would you want to come along next time? If so, please comment on this page and we will let you know the details. If you do not have a tent, there are also caravans that you can sleep in.
You can contact a WWOOF network and against a small membership fee you receive a list of organic farms in your country of choice. You can then contact farmers directly and find a place to work.
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