Article by John Champagne
Domestic and sexual violence against women is a global scourge in every country and in places like Kenya, support networks can be difficult to find. Agatha Amani House is an NGO and Kenya’s first women and children’s safe house for those fleeing abuse. Their mission is to empower victims to heal from their trauma and help them become self-sufficient.
Permaculture is central to Agatha Amani House achieving that aim.
They were successful in applying for a $2000 grant from Permafund to present a 6-day workshop that included as a practical exercise, the beginnings of establishing a Food Forest. 18 participants were selected including 10 women from the shelter and 8 from the community.
Early preparation included getting local permaculture experts in to assess the site and come up with a spatial design. Soil samples taken revealed a lack of nitrogen, phosphorus and zinc with a low reading of organic matter. The main topics covered in the workshop included soil preparation, water harvesting and planting guilds.
This project was completed in 2023 and a more recent report outlining the ongoing progress of the Permaculture Farm was received.
Early learnings were the need for an increase in mulch materials to combat the severe dry periods for water retention and soil build-up. Also, small animals were included in the Food Forest system with their manure increasing the volume of compost that was able to be added.
The farm is not just a source of nutritious food, it embodies a sustainable healing space that helps women and children rebuild their lives, cultivating hope alongside the crops. The farm does more than nourish bodies….it nourishes souls.
At Agatha Amani House the wish is that the farm becomes a beacon of hope that spreads through Kenya and beyond. It’s another example of permaculture flourishing where the need is great.
Your donations to Permafund assist projects such as this and emphasise our 3rd Ethic of distributing surplus resources with a financial leg up to projects already operating and run by local people.
Permafund Grant Update Report from November 2024
Permafund Grant Update Report from December 2024
PROJECT STATUS UPDATE REPORT
PROJECT NAME: PERMACULTURE FOOD FOREST WORKSHOP & FOOD FOREST ESTABLISHMENT FOR AGATHA AMANI HOUSE-ABUSED WOMEN SHELTER-KENYA.
The project continues to progress and to yield day by day. For the last 2 months, we have been receiving a lot of rain and thus our vegetables and trees that we initially planted are blossoming well. Our farm officer together with the women hosted at Agatha Amani House has been taking care of the food forest; maintaining it, adding more plants and also being in charge of harvesting the yields. The food forest has been a great source of improved nutrition; vegetables and herbs for the hosted women and their children. It has also acted as a learning hub, as we have been using it for field visits. People visit to see the food forest and also to learn about permaculture. The workshop participants have reported great success on their farms too.
We have been selling the surplus vegetables to the neighbours and the nearby market. We normally make food baskets with all the varieties we have in the farm or sometimes we sell as per the customer’s orders.
Through the continued assessments done on the food forest, it has been noted that our farm; soil needs a lot of watering during the dry season, more than how we have been watering there before. This was noted through the planting of some red cabbage that took way more than the 3 months to mature. We are currently working on better watering schedules and water conservation activities in the farm.
For preservation of our surplus, we made this small solar drier. Preservation of our food forest produce is one of the central problems we have been facing as we would like to save the food for the dry seasons when food is scarce. Drying these products will help solve these problems, while also making an important contribution to improving the population’s income and supply situation.
Among the key learnings from the workshop, we have been very intense in practising what we learnt. The project has been keen on applying the principles of permaculture in the entire design and in both food forest phase I and phase II, Climate Change; Building resilience and mitigation, Water Harvesting and conservation, Soil Fertility Building and Care of Trees and seedlings among others.
Next Steps
There is a need for another workshop, as a follow-up on the previous one together with additional topics and activities such as the construction of a dam for water harvesting, more shed nets for the dry season plus Increased crops and trees including cover crops.
We also look forward to learning more on how to use the solar dryer and how to use and package the dried vegetables and fruits. This will also involve learning on how to do value addition to most of the products that we produce at our food forest. Hence making us more sustainable at the shelter.
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