| Greening Botswana - one household at a time |
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The Mothers for All permaculture programme has been launched. Our Botswana national co-ordinator, Jenny Dunlop, and four of our mothers recently travelled to Tlholego Village outside Rustenburg in South Africa for a two-week permaculture course. The mothers thought they were going to learn how to grow vegetables. Instead, they were exposed to a whole new philosophy which integrates care of the earth with care of people and the notion of a 'fair share' for all.
 Over the next few years Mothers for All hopes that all of our members in Botswana will be able to develop permaculture systems in their yards and therefore achieve some form of food security, saving and even earning extra money as well as being able to feed their households with nutritious, freshly grown food. This process is already underway with the completion of four permaculture workshops in some of our mothers' villages, supervised by our newly qualified permaculture facilitators.The permaculture (permanent agriculture) concept was developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s in Australia before spreading all over the world. Permaculture is about connecting the components of a landscape with the people and animals inhabiting it to create a productive ecosystem. The basic approach is to create sustainable systems that provide for their own needs as well as recycle their waste. It is therefore about working with, rather than against, nature and therefore saving a lot of hard work without compromising productivity or causing any harm.
 The two weeks spent in Tlholego village were eye opening for all the participants but especially for our four mothers, Maipelo Tshipa, Philominah Baoleki, Dikeleko Baretseeng and Lorato Molapisane. There were 24 participants in all including people from Israel, Morocco, Malawi and Zimbabwe, as well as Botswana and South Africa. The diversity of cultures and languages, even within South Africa, came as a surprise to our mothers. So it was not only an education for them in permaculture, but also in different cultures and people. The participants also came from vastly differing educational backgrounds - some only having completed primary school - but the experienced facilitators made the material accessible to all. Concepts were taught through games, role play, videos, slide shows and practical application. All participants were given tasks to complete including a final assignment of a permaculture design incorporating all the principles learnt over the two weeks. This was to be presented on the last day to the whole group and was a huge challenge for our mothers. However, as the course progressed, their confidence also increased. The group worked together and decided to take Philominah’s yard in Palapye as the base map for their design. Most evenings in the last week were spent on this project. The group had to discuss the elements (sun, rain, wind direction etc) and then decide how they were going to manage them and create an efficient system within the yard. They also needed to address the issue of water harvesting and the differing zones. It was decided that the each mother would be responsible for designing a particular zone and Jenny would discuss the elements and water harvesting. Each mother had to draw her zone to scale and colour it in. By Friday, the Mothers for All group was ready and well prepared and therefore volunteered to present first. Dikeleko discussed Zone I, the basic kitchen garden; Maipelo discussed Zone 2, which included vegetables for income generation and a chicken tractor system; Philominah discussed Zones 3 & 4, where maize, beans and pumpkins would be planted; and Lorato discussed Zone 5, the wilderness area for relaxation and the cultivation of indigenous plants. Their presentation was very well received and everyone passed the course, receiving a certificate qualifiying them as permaculture facilitators. The whole experience was life changing for the Mothers for All group, who returned to Botswana excited about sharing their newfound knowledge with the rest of our mothers. Our four permaculture facilitators are now receiving a monthly stipend for helping each mother in their area to start a permaculture garden and run workshops in their district. The greening has begun
Note: This course followed the international permaculture curriculum (over 72 hours), providing a comprehensive introduction to permaculture design. The course covered the following topics:
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