In Growing Abundance,
Warren Brush

I am taking a masters degree in Sustainable Energy Development in Canada, and am looking to do my final research project on permaculture. I was thinking of doing it along the lines of how it could be used in places such as Liberia, as an alternative to traditional international aid and developmental programs. I would therefore be very interested to read the article you are preparing, as I am finding it hard to somewhat difficult to find references which provide more than just an overview of a project. Any other information or suggestions for references that you, or anyone else, could post would be very helpful and much appreciated.

There is a possibility that I will be in Liberia next month to co-teach a course with one of my Liberian colleagues who is training to become a teacher. His name is Ayouba. We will be doing a training and developing an urban demonstration site in Monrovia. Let me know if you see ways in which we could weave together our work in a synergetic manner. I look forward to hearing from you.

Warren Brush
w@quailsprings.org

I’m one of the directors at Robertsport Community Works, the organization mentioned by Magnus, in the comment above.

We are, indeed, very interested in helping the people of Robertsport to benefit from permaculture training and practices. This is one of our organizational priorities for 2010 and onward.

My partner and I are based in Monrovia; though we spend two or three days in Robertsport each week. It would be great if we could meet up sometime this month.

I’ll try to track down your contact information; but if you don’t mind contacting me directly, my email is natecalhoun at robertsportcommunityworks.org

Thanks so much,

The war ended abrubtly in late August that year. The UN came in and the rest is history. In Jan 2004 I joined the UN as IDP Advisor (IDP: internally displaced people) to assist the transitional Govt organise response for the 500,000 people still in camps around the city, then design a strategy for their return, largely to Lofa, Bong, Grand Cape Mount and so on.

Since 2006 I have been studying sustainable energy and building design, and through this I have been introduced to permaculture. Now I know what I wish I had known then! My God: how we (the aid sector / agencies) design emergency / transitional shelters and camps is as foolish as the slash and burn agriculture up country. Permaculture design could revolutionalise transitional settlement design – from emergency shelters to durable return.

Meanwhile, I remain involved in Liberia, am on the board of a community based organisation called Robertsport Community Works in the town of that name, in Grand Cape Mount county. We have some land there – well we donated it to this community organisation. It’s right on the beach, but the community land extends in land up into the hills and forested areas. Some good friends are running various projects there, and we are all really keen to get permaculture training and designs up and running. I have a fair few contacts in the renewable energy and natural building fields now, so I had envisioned design and build trainings being held there in these technologies (assuming local production and maintenance of technologies of course).

One day I also want to take on the charcoal barons of Monrovia. I have seen too many forests around the towns cleared to keep the cooking fires burning. I will be building a biogas digestor in my new home in Portugal this year and after that hope to find a way to introduce simple, safe and cheap digestors of this kind so that communities can at once deal with the chronic sanitation problem and cooking fuel at the same time (replace charcoal with the biogas). I am in touch with the Ashden Awards biogas consultant (30+ years experience with biogas) so hopefully we will get it right.

I need to introduce my colleagues in Robertsport to you, and to your PC trainers. It would be ideal if we could use your trainers rather than import more “external” folk which obviously costs more. I can’t tell you how glad I am to find an existing permaculture project in Liberia – this is great news.

Good luck
Magnus