Earth Restorer Hubs

Earth Restorer Hubs take their name from Rosemary Morrow’s Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture — a copy of which has already reached our first hub in Nakivale, with more on the way to Kenya and beyond across Africa (as funding allows).

A hub is a community network set up by my group, Permaculture Partners and Permaculture 4 Refugees (P4R) that has upskilled in the basics of permaculture and regenerative land practice, so it can teach, demonstrate, and keep growing that knowledge locally. It’s a grassroots response to the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration — our contribution to a much larger, global movement for change.

Every hub is different, shaped by its own place, resources, and people. Some are schools, some environmentally based, others are faith-based. That’s by design: materials and training are crafted to fit each Hub’s situation. This means that when it comes time to scale up, we will have a template across several types of organisation.

The Foundations We Ask of Every Hub

To keep all Hubs growing toward the same core level, we ask every Hub to work toward:

• Growing food — cultivating at least some food at the Hub, and teaching the wider community to grow food in their own small spaces.
• Eco cooking — building efficient stoves (Lorena, Rocket, or solar) from whatever materials are locally available.
• Recycled fuel — using briquettes made from recycled agricultural waste where possible; experienced members teach others this skill as part of their eco-cooking journey.
• Composting — composting all suitable waste to build healthier soils over time.
• Black soldier fly farming — a powerful tool for soil fertility and chicken feed; we hope every Hub will build this skill.
• Keeping chickens — an eventual goal for every Hub, even if it doesn’t happen right away.
• Teaching regenerative practice — permaculture, circular economics, regenerative agriculture, or syntropic agriculture, whichever resonates most with the group and suits the local environment.
• Natural building — embraced as and when time and opportunity allow.

Hubs are also encouraged to support one another — sharing skills and strengths so every Hub can rise to a strong, resilient level together.

We encourage Hubs to start with the resources they already have on the ground, demonstrating what’s possible through ingenuity rather than waiting on external funding.

What Hubs Receive in Return

• Training and support to build the skills above, starting with an Introduction to Permaculture or Permaculture in Crisis Times (depending on the setting or circumstance, those in refugee camps start with Crisis Times), then progressing to a Permaculture Design Certificate.
• Fundraising assistance, coordinated through a dedicated fundraising officer based in Africa for easy access and training opportunities.
• Visibility, with each Hub promoted across the wider Permaculture 4 Refugees (R4R) network.
• Access to network support — the knowledge, experience, and encouragement of other organisations in the PP and P4R movement.

East Africa Hubs