PRI Australia accredited PDC with Warren Brush in Greece
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Call for volunteers from Portugal and Spain for two months this Autumn
16 August 2018
PRI Australia accredited PDC with Warren Brush in Greece
15 February 2018
Call for volunteers from Portugal and Spain for two months this Autumn
16 August 2018
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Opening of the Mediterranean Permaschool at the Nea Guinea Farm

 

This spring we have designed a new Permaculture course focusing on applications relevant to the Mediterranean climate. This course consists of 10 full day workshops that run on a weekly basis for a 3 months period (March to May 2018) at the Nea Guinea farm and aim at introducing a group of 40 young people to Permaculture design and empower them to make positive changes that will benefit both their communities and the natural ecosystems that surround them. During this course we are studying and experimenting with different Permaculture concepts and practices, aiming at proposing solutions to sustainability issues related to the arrangement of human activity and the management of natural resources on a farm scale. The educational activities consist of both theoretical and practical workshops and are co-facilitated by the Nea Guinea team and 8 more Greek Permaculture teachers, that are traveling to our farm from different places around the country to share their extensive knowledge and enthusiasm with the participants. The course will be concluded with an open Permaculture Day on the farm, where the participants will present their design work. During the day there will be open informative events and workshops, activities for kids, music, dance and awesome organic food form our gardens! This course has been partially funded by a crowd funding campaign and partially by the participants on a free donation basis. This funding scheme has made the course accessible to young local people with limited financial resources – that largely consist our target group.

Below you can read the course program, as well as some information about our group of teachers (as they appear on the program).

 

Course Program:

Sunday 04/03/18

10:30 – 12:00 Introduction to Permaculture Design and its practical applications

12:30 – 14:00 Permaculture’s ethics and principles

15:00 – 16:30 Guided tour of the Nea Guinea Farm and observation exercises at already established systems

(instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

Sunday 11/03/18

10:30 – 12:00 Major climatic zones and Microclimates – Introduction to the Mediterranean climate (instructor: Peter Antonyadis)

12:30 – 14:00 Introduction to topografy – Sector analysis (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

15:00 -16:30 Design exercise (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

Sunday 18/03/18

10:30 – 12:00 Zones (instructor: Yiorgos Psihas)

12:30 – 14:00 Design process and methodologies (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

15:00 – 16:30 Design exercise (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

Sunday 25/03/18

10:30 – 12:00 Dryland water management – Water retention landscapes (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

12:30 – 14:00 Earthworks (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

15:00 – 16:30 Gray water treatment (instructor: Nikolas Bedau)

Sunday 01/04/18

10:30 – 12:00 Soil ecology

12:30 – 14:00 Compost: processes and techniques

15:00 – 16:30 Hot compost piles, compost extracts and compost teas

(instructor: Andreas Zikos)

Sunday 15/04/18

10:30 – 12:00 Sustainable food production systems : Vegetable gardens (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

12:30 – 14:00 Seed production and preservation – Restoration of agricultural biodiversity

15:00 – 16:30 Seed production and preservation – Restoration of agricultural biodiversity

(instructor: Antonis Breskas)

Sunday 22/04/18

10:30 – 12:00 Off-grid renewable energy production systems

12:30 – 14:00 Presentation of the construction and operation of wind and hydro turbines and solar panels

15:00 – 16:30 Presentation of the construction and operation of wind and hydro turbines and solar panels

(instructor Kostas Latoufis)

Sunday 29/04/18

10:30 – 12:00 Sustainable food production systems: Orchards and forest gardens (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

12:30 – 14:00 Regenerating olive grooves from a Permaculture perspective (instructor: Andreas Zikos)

15:00 – 16:30 Design exercise (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

Sunday 06/05/18

10:30 – 12:00 Natural building

12:30 – 14:00 Natural building (instructor: Christos Alexiou)

15:00 – 16:30 Design exercise (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

Sunday 13/05/18

10:30 – 12:00 Social Permaculture

12:30 – 14:00 Social Permaculture (instructor: Alexandros Kostis)

15:00 – 16:30 Design exercise (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

Sunday 20/05/18

Open Permaculture day

10:30 – 12:30 Design presentations (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

13:00 – 14:30 Guided tour of the Nea Guinea Farm (instructor: Fotini Georgousi)

15:00 – 18:00 Sustainable fun time: Music, dance and organic food from our gardens

Meanwhile at other venues at the farm:

11:00 – 12:30 Introduction to Permaculture Design and its practical applications (instructor: Peter Antonyadis)

13:00 – 14:30 Where to from Here? (instructor: Tina Lymberis)

15:00 – 16:30 Compostopia – Theater play for kids (Tina Lymberis)

Teachers’ bios:

Fotini Georgousi

Fotini is a biologist specialised in organic farming and herbal medicine. She has been trained widely in Permaculture Design,focusing mainly on sustainable food production systems and dryland water management. She has an extensive experience in the fields of small scale farming and community activism. Over the last 12 years she has been involved in community gardening projects, self-organized educational activities and other grassroots initiatives related to natural health and food production. She is the co-founder of the Nea Guinea project, where she is coordinating different activities related to Permaculure and Food Sovereignty. She is working on the farm, building and maintaining different food production systems while focusing on the development and adaptation of different techniques on the Mediterranean climate. She conducts educational activities, open informative events and she produces designs for small farms, households and school gardens.

Peter Antonyadis

Peter has been formally trained in Finance and Tourism. He is an amateur linguist and an outdoor athlete. He has worked in various fields and specialized as a consultant with a gradual shift of focus from economics to sustainability. When he discovered Permaculture, through studies on marine ecosystems, he realized very quickly that he had been hooked for good! He spent half a year at Zaytuna Farm, which hosts Australia’s Permaculture Research Institute, and was trained as a designer and facilitator. In Greece, he collaborates with local activists and projects in the spread of Permaculture, consults, designs and enjoys sustainable systems and landscapes. He is sure that all the challenges we face can be solved in a garden!

 

Yiorgos Psychas

Yiorgos is a graduate of Agricultural University of Athens with a Masters in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. He is studying Permaculture Design as a tool for integrating human activity in natural ecosystems. Through this study he has contributed to various projects in Greece and abroad. He is currently working as a ceramist.

 

 

 

Nikolas Bedau

Nikolas originates from Berlin, with a German-Greek family background. Over the years he became more and more involved in Greece. Since his first winter holiday in Tinos he became fascinated with the island, its nature and the rural society. With a background in Landscape architecture, he decided that there should be a better mix in life than just sitting in front of the computer designing urban nature. So he started working together with different NGOs for the protection of natural sites and mainly in the field of environmental design and education. He always liked the combination of theoretical approaches and direct practical output that can be touched, smelled and seen. So he decided that it would be the perfect playground to establish a group of people with similar interests and find a nice piece of land to put it together. So the next steps are evolving… For more information: http://www.tinosecolodge.gr/el/

 

Andreas Zikos

Andreas has studied biology in Athens and Horticulture in Berlin and Vienna. He is working as a researcher on Mediterranean ecosystems and Greek flora. His first contact with permaculture was in 2011 when he attended a Permaculture Design Course with Darren J. Doherty. Since then he has participated in the design, implementation and management of gardens and farms as well as in related educational activities. He has been particularly concerned with olive and olive groves, and his great passion is the soil and how it can be regenerated with simple and readily available means. In 2016, he attended a series of seminars in Turkey with Molly Haviland, regarding soil, compost and its applications (“The Art of Microherding for Regenerative Agriculture”). He wishes to adapt the principles of Permaculture to the Mediterranean climate and to disseminate them.

 

Antonis Breskas

After studying at the Agronomic University of Athens, Antonis tried to explore fields beyond industrial agriculture. He started with a postgraduate degree in Environmental Agriculture and then, through seminars, came in contact with various alternative cultivation methods. In the last few years, he has visited / volunteered / worked in various agro-ecological projects in Greece and abroad, thus enriching his experience. He has worked professionally with the conservation of rural biodiversity and more specifically with local varieties of edible species, as well as with the collection and management of seeds. He is happy whenever he is given the opportunity to share what he knows.

 

Kostas Latoufis

Kostas Latoufis is an electrical engineer with a specialization in off-grid renewable energy systems. He works as a researcher in the Smart Grids Research Unit (SmartRUE) of the National Technical University of Athens and is currently pursuing a PhD on locally manufactured small wind turbines in the Rural Electrification Research Group (RurERG), an interdisciplinary research group which aims to provide open source technical solutions on small wind and pico-hydro systems for rural energy access. He has co-founded the Nea Guinea project, with which he has organised more than 40 design and practical courses in renewable energy systems, such small wind turbine, pico-hydro and solar panel construction courses, and has carried out several off-grid renewable energy installations in permaculture farms in Greece and in rural development projects in Central America, South Asia and East Africa. He collaborates with international organizations and projects such as the Wind Empowerment association and the Open Building Institute.

 

Christos Alexiou

Christos is the co-founderof Re-Green and today one of the directors and a member of the Re-Green circle. Together with his partner Flery he moved to Seliana in 2011 for a life changing experience. He grew up in the city of Athens, studied as an electrical engineer and computer science and got his Masters in Computer engineering in the US. He worked in the telecommunications sector for a decade, then as a data engineer in an international Formula3 race team. At this point together with Flery they decided to move out of the big city and reconnect with nature. The combination of permaculture and engineering led Christos to find his new passion, natural building. Having built his first little brick and wood house at the age of 10, it did not take him long to get involved, learn and apply the techniques of bio-construction, passive solar house and natural/low-energy materials, to start building and renovating old and new structures. He is now a consultant and coordinator of the new structures in the the emerging community of good neighbours, a coordinator of the volunteering program and a key member in the decision making of Re-Green. For more information: http://re-green.gr/

 

Alexandros Kostis

Alexandros participated for the first time at a Permaculture seminar in 2013. Since then, he has been working as a designer and consultant for farms as well as coordinator of community projects in Attica. Through his work experience and self awareness, his vision is to combine social Permaculture alongside other tools to highlight how human qualities and creativity can come to light, and be shared and strengthened through food production, physical rehabilitation and community building. He facilitates through the heart, offering depth, humor and unity to the team. He is currently working on his diploma in Applied Permaculture with the Permaculture Association of UK.

 

Tina Lymberis

Tina quotes Krishnamurti saying that “It is not a health symptom to be well adapted to a deeply sick society.” She writes educational articles, organizes events, children’s interactive performances and co-ordinates seminars of Permaculture all over Greece. She has translated a Permaculture guide in Greek and she has been recognized by the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute in Australia (Rosemary Morrow) for her contribution to Permaculture in Greece, with diploma in Education and Community Development. At the same time, she studies, trains and transmits tools of personal and social development, such as Communication with Empathy (inspired by Marshall Rosenberg’s non-violent communication), Transition, Art of Participatory Leadership, Social Cross Culture, and more primitive methods of social bonding: dance and singing! Together with her partner Elias, furniture maker and craftsman, they run an upcycling project called “A hole in the field” in the lowlands of Korinthia, where everything is built step by step with creativity, reusing everything and redefining the use of objects. They experiment with various Permaculture techniques (eg natural gray water filtering system), moon calendar, food processing (drainage, pickles, vinegar, etc.), composting (including urine and stools) and much more. They are open to those who want to get to know practical ways to make a transition to a sustainable way of life and especially to children! Ultimate goal: to create societies of abundance and finally to do what we love! More information: http://www.kangouro.gr/