We were presented with $500 to go out into the world and “do good” last thursday eve at the Conscious Club….yay!!!
This is what we love to do after all….
Mari: “I would like to use the $500 to be the SEED….Sustain-Employ- Educate-Delish!!!….the $500 will be used to purchase 150 fruit and vege seeds and plants (approx. $3 AUD each) to be planted at Rainbow Ridge!
Rainbow ridge is a working sustainable village that serves as a teaching hub and demonstration site for sustainability practices within the local community of Maili Sita near Moshi in eastern Tanzania, Africa.
As well as a “demonstration site for sustainability practices”, Rainbow Ridge is the home to now 26 orphaned children (commonly referred to as an orphanage for the “kili kids” ) and forms the human living component of Communities Assist, an Australian not-for-profit organisation without political or religious affiliations that Mari has been involved with for the last 8 years.
To cut a long story very short, Communities Assist was founded in 2006 by John O’Reilly, a young Australian lawyer from the northern beaches after volunteering at another orphanage in Moshi and deciding to continue supporting orphaned and vulnerable children and their communities.
While running my own architectural practice, a fortuitous meeting occurred in 2007 and I joined John and Communities Assist. I started designing an ecologically sustainable masterplan for housing approximately, 100 orphaned children on a hypothetical site, started visiting the children in Africa twice a year, organised fundraisers with Rodney Sen (my darling husband and owner of Barzura restaurant, the livingroom school & dharma shala yoga schools and yoga travel company) within the Coogee and Bondi community, became a director of CA and architect for sustainable buildings at Rainbow Ridge.
Communities Assist started by renting property, housing, schooling and caring for 24 orphans the “kili kids”, employed local staff in Moshi and soon we had raised enough funds through our community, friends and family to purchase land in Tanzania which we named Rainbow Ridge. We then started designing then building our sustainable housing, community and permaculture education demonstration site at Rainbow Ridge. We have now built 4 sustainable homes, a community hall and are just in the process of starting the education centre using 4 shipping containers and recycled materials. Through this project, we have also managed to teach local workers how to build and use sustainable domestic support systems, including compost toilets, solar power (lights, energy, compost fans), methane gas (cooking), grey water filtration systems, and solar operated water pumps, educated and employed the local villagers in permaculture while providing caring homes for the “kili kids” and offering them the opportunity to learn the laws of the land for themselves.
More info
http://communitiesassist.org/videos/
Just to recap- $500 will pay for approximately 150 fruit and vege seeds and plants which will provide employment for our permaculture farmers, the kili kids will help plant these seeds, tend to the plants daily which teaches them about permaculture and their environment. The Kili kids will then nourish themselves as well as their community with the fruits of their labour for years to come.
Thank you for this opportunity to be the SEED Conscious Club!
More information about Conscious Club & their events