Winter and the cold didn’t stop EKO!’s activity, quite the contrary, the best way to stay warm is to keep the hands working. As a welcoming of the spring, from “our hands that are like flowers” (from the Persian expression “دست زن گل است”), the creativity sown at EKO! is in germination during this beginning of 2021. From permaculture training in the Marseille area, to a bus transformed into a school in Lesbos, you can stop in Briançon to make “departure kits”. Our three branches reveal hidden talents that we try to highlight in this brief activity report. Enjoy the reading!
Trimestrial Newsletter (January-March 2021)
Lesvos
Number of workshops: 56
Thematics:
- Sewing and repairing cloths
- Knitting wash-cloths and cloths
- Bikes
- Wood: realize toys for kids
Number of participants: 7 for each workshop, 77 different participants since January
Number of repaired/created low-tech: 359
Briançon
Number of workshops: 3
Thematics:
- Soap
- Wood
- Sewing
- Electronics (departure kit)
Number of participants: 32
Number of repaired/created low-tech: 41
Marseille
Number of workshops: 4
Thematics:
- Pallet construction
- Anthotype
- Vegetable paintings
- Recycled paper
Number of participants: 24
Number of repaired/created low-tech: 23
In January 2021 a 3-weeks permaculture design course was organised close to Marseille. The objective was to offer this opportunity to a group composed of ⅔ non-paying displaced individuals and ⅓ of non-displaced people, still paying a very reasonable price.
In total, 18 people participated to the course and the program included:
- An introduction to Permaculture Design;
- Principles and themes used in design;
- Understanding patterns;
- Human factors;
- Climatic factors;
- Water management and earthworks;
- Trees and their energy exchange;
- Soil and fertility;
- Design in temperate, tropical and arid climates,
- Aquaculture;
- Urban permaculture;
- Communities and territories in transition;
- Social and solidarity economy;
- Self-governance;
- As well as practical “bonus” sessions such as the use of mapping tools, beekeeping, Creole gardening, nursery gardening, cuttings, etc.
An old bus turned into a school on Lesvos
What do we have here…? An old bus that used to guide tourists on Lesvos island.
What’s happening in there? Low-tech with Refugees, in collaboration with Stand by Me Lesvos, is transforming it into a school that will go inside the new refugee camp on Lesvos.
Since the beginning of the lock-down in March 2020, children living inside the camp don’t have access to education which is a basic human right. Building this mobile school means building future for children.
