[Lapg] SAVE THE DATE!/SUN July 1/Chikukwa Then & Now with Julious Piti from CELUCT Zimbabwe/6:30pm

Sun Jun 10 06:59:17 PDT 2012

Contact: Margie Bushman
Program Coordinator, SBCC Center for Sustainability
(805) 962-2571, sbpcnet at silcom.com

The SBCC Center for Sustainability Presents:
Chikukwa, Then & Now
with
Julious Piti
Emacs!

from the Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Community Trust
Zimbabwe, Africa

   Sunday July 1,  6:30-9pm, 2012
Fe Bland Auditorium, Santa Barbara City College, West Campus
$10-$5 SBCC Students

         P lease join the Santa Barbara City 
College Center for Sustainability on Sunday, July 
1, as we host Julious Piti, founding member of 
the Chikukwa Ecological Land Use Community Trust 
(CELUCT) in Zimbabwe, whose ecological design 
work in Tanzania has recently been featured in 
the award winning film From the Mara Soil.

In the communal lands of Chimanimani on the 
borders of Zimbabwe and Mozambique---in the midst 
of civil wars, deforestation, drought, and severe 
land degradation---a wonderful story has been 
unfolding for the last twenty years, an example to the world.

Where once the people of the Chikukwa villages in 
this region suffered hunger, malnutrition and 
high rates of disease, communities have 
transformed themselves with permaculture land 
strategies and farming techniques, and along the 
way have become masters of conflict resolution.

Julious Piti experienced the violence of war 
first hand as a teenager fleeing Mozambique to 
Zimbabwe during times of conflict. These 
experiences led him with other Chikukwa community 
members to a lifetime of work committed to 
healing both the land and the people.

Many projects flourished through the years at 
Chikukwa, but the success of these projects also 
led to difficulties.  Conflict and suspicion 
arose around many issues within the community, 
but when examined carefully, it was found most 
were based on communication breakdowns.  From 
these difficulties, the creation of an 
extraordinary handbook called The Three Circles 
of Knowledge; How to Build Constructive Community 
Relations by Understanding Conflicts in Rural 
African Communities occurred.  The approach of 
the book is based on the three circles method, 
which aims to work with the areas where 
indigenous, spiritual and analytical knowledge 
overlap.  This method was developed by a core 
Chikukwa community group and utilized deep indigenous understanding.

There is much for the world to learn from 
Chikukwa and CELUCT, for not only have they 
managed to stay food secure and peaceful during 
the conflict ridden years of Zimbabwe, but they 
have done this with solutions that came from 
within the community, not imposed from the 
outside, and with very little help or funding 
from international aid agencies or NGOs.

Some 20 years ago, most were trying to survive on 
cash crops that caused deforestation and erosion, 
now over 80% of the population of the Chikukwa 
villages practice permaculture, growing food for 
themselves with a surplus to share, on lush and 
abundant mountainsides where springs honored by 
indigenous beliefs, have once again sprung to life.

Julious Piti is a permaculture teacher, designer 
and trainer, and conflict facilitator.  He is a 
founding member of the Chikukwa Ecological Land 
Trust (CELUCT) and the Director of PORET, an 
organization formed to support farmers in the low 
rainfall area of Chaseyama, Zimbabwe where he now 
lives, by replicating the strategies of 
CELUCT.  In 2009 Julious was hired by Global 
Resource Alliance, an NGO based in Ojai CA, to 
facilitate a permaculture design project for a 
village of 5000 on the shores of Lake Victoria, 
Tanzania, featured in the film, From the Mara 
Soil.  Film producer Gillian Leahy and Terry 
Leahy, author of Permaculture Strategy for the 
South African Villages (University of Newcastle, 
Australia), are currently making a documentary 
film about Chikukwa.  A presenter at the 
International Permaculture Convergences in 
Brazil, Africa, and Jordan, Julious Piti has been 
invited to teach at the upcoming Permaculture 
Design Course for International Development & 
Social Entrepreneurship at Quail Springs Learning 
Oasis and Permaculture Farm in California, July 2012.

The evening talk takes place on Sunday, July 1, 
6:30pm-9pm, 2012, at the Fe Bland Auditorium, 
Santa Barbara City College West Campus, 721 Cliff 
Drive, Santa Barbara, CA, 93109. $10 general/$5 
SBCC students. No reservations required. More 
info: (805)962-2571, email: sbpcnet at silcom.com, http://sustainability.sbcc.edu/

Sponsored by:
The SBCC Center for Sustainability & Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
http://sustainability.sbcc.edu/

Co-sponsors: Global Resource Alliance, Quail 
Springs Learning Oasis & Permaculture Farm, & Antioch University

Additional Info:

Websites:

Permaculture Design Course for International 
Development and Social Entrepreneurship
Course Dates: June 18th – July 1st, 2012
<http://www.quailsprings.org/event/permaculture-design-course-for-international-development/>http://www.quailsprings.org/event/permaculture-design-course-for-international-development/ 

GRA's film, From the Mara Soil, was one of five 
films selected by a partnership between the 
Sundance Institute and Hilton Worldwide to 
receive the 2012 Hilton Worldwide LightStay Sustainability Fund & Award.
http://www.globalresourcealliance.org/

PORET -Participatory Organic Research Extension and Training
http://poret-zimbabwe.org
PORET Trust works with the community to address 
hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.

Chikukwa  Ecological Land Use Community Trust (SlideShow)
http://www.chikukwa.org/

Permaculture Successes in a Zimbabwean Community
http://permaculture.org.au/2011/10/01/permaculture-successes-in-a-zimbabwean-community/

The Chikukwa Project (CELUCT) - short 6 minute film by Julian and Terry Leahy
https://vimeo.com/36582870

20 minute trailer for a longer 50 minute film called THE CHIKUKWA PROJECT
https://vimeo.com/33761246

Chikukwa-A Lesson in Self-Reliance (CELUCT)
Elin Lindhagen
http://barefooteducation.wordpress.com/permaculture/applied-permaculture-tr

-end-

Margie Bushman
Coordinator, SBCC Center for Sustainability
http://sustainability.sbcc.edu/
PPlease consider the environment before printing this email.
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