In the Heart of Palestine

From18-27 November and 03-12 December 2015, Global Campus Palestine together with The Holy Land Trust, will be offering a 128 hour EDE Course.

The aim is to train Palestinians to become knowledge carriers for sustainability: to inspire and support young Palestinians and community leaders to implement resilient solutions as an answer to the occupation. It is the first Ecovillage Design Education in Palestine. The idea is to provide an excellent standard of education, certified by GAIA Education, taught mainly by Palestinians, harvesting and supporting local knowledge and expertise. The team wants to inspire groups and individuals to set up and implement actual projects that will benefit the region. They want to enlarge the impact of the Global Campus trainings by entering into cooperation with a whole village (Farkha) and its inhabitants. One aim is that the course will be a seed for Farkha becoming the first Palestinian ecovillage.

From the curriculum:
Exploring local trade and resilient economic alternatives.
Building with locally available natural materials, and upcycling reduces costs.
With the use of permaculture the project supports the healing of the land.
Better water management, learning to use the profit of rainfall.
Through the people who participate in the training, this new information opens up opportunities and can then be transmitted to others who can be trained by them. This both reduces and helps to heal the damage that has already been done to other people’s land.
Due to the political situation and economic difficulties in the region, Palestinians have lost the organic ways of communication. In these three weeks they will feel connected again to the natural networks around them that will lessen the feeling of separation. Being connected, the Palestinian collective can be more self empowered at a political and social level, with knowledge that allows them to trust their own wisdom and skills. In the group of participants, project leaders will be able to meet other projects, farmers will be able to meet other farmers, and newly graduated students will have access to new techniques as well as getting to know those who are using them. Building with local natural materials and upcycling also reduces the exploitation of resources.

All these factors will have the benefits of bringing back the dignity of being a farmer and of having their own resources and skills to manage their land. It will also foster the feeling of being able to manifest projects and, hopefully, bring back the feeling that “we are able” to return to physical sustainability: independent of the political situation that the country experiences.
http://edepalestine.weebly.com/