Volunteers are at the core of all volunteer programs but just who are these individuals that build these programs.

We have many people that have volunteered and moved through our projects so far and all have left something of themselves and their past experience behind.

Most come into a rural or semi-rural environment from a city back home in the 1st world and it would not be unusual if they struggled to find their feet.

The opposite however has been the rule as they jump straight in and start participating.

The word volunteer means, “a person who voluntarily takes part in an enterprise or offers to undertake a task”. The Concise Oxford offers us this very broad definition that does not focus enough on the individual.

Each volunteer has a background and a history complete with achievements and setbacks which they bring on board when they join the project.

These aspects are part of what goes to make a specific person tick and most relish the distance from home and certainty, within which they can work and contribute to a cause greater than themselves.

Our experience so far is that anything less than 3 weeks is not usually beneficial to either the individual or the project. It takes time for the individual to acclimatize to the dynamic and find a niche within which to live and sustain while contributing.

The overlap that occurs when volunteers arrive and depart at different times creates a wonderfully enforced change of personnel and the team dynamic is constantly switching.

This dynamic has a positive spin off and effect on those more permanently involved in Port St Johns and a constant inflow of energy and information. This dynamic would have to be created if it didn’t actually exist.

Applying the philosophy in a specific community.

The essence of a successful approach to building a sustainable and workable rural community is working hand in hand from the start with the community and building a philosophy of inclusivity from the word go.

Different communities have different strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities as well as their own individual combination of human individuals. Obtaining contribution from all towards the greater whole and the ultimate good of the community is a prerequisite.

Some will get involvement from the outset and others might be a bit skeptical until they see positive results. Bringing in expert input and advice is a tactic that bears fruit, not only for this community but also for those brought in from other communities to share and help build.

Permaculture is a much bandied about word and has lost a great deal of its impact through repetition and being randomly used to describe community programs that don’t adhere to the basic concepts.

Someone brought in to work and teach can not only strengthen the community and its structures but will gain much food for thought and take back a different perspective on methods and techniques that go to build a workable and sustainable permaculture ethos.

This meeting of minds and sharing the same philosophy on the individual and the individual rural community and their right to structure and build sustainability in their distinct and unique way is a crucial building block for communities as well as other communities that they meet with and share ideas that they have worked.

Permaculture deals with the growing of food and the efficient use of arable and fertile land as well as the structure of grazing fields, planted fields and rested fields. As a starting off point it has the benefits of dealing with the basic need for a reliable and stable source of healthy nourishment that comes from planting crops with a plan and getting back into sync with the earth and its cycles.

Those in a community that are initially skeptic will be confronted with results that show short term, immediate gain and benefits for the entire community.

This is a critical step in reinforcing the community belief in their individual identity and the culture of building their place on the planet from the bottom up independent from government choices or decisions made by big business.

As a foundation, instilling a belief in the people regarding their capacity to supply enough food for all from the earth is a great boost and can underpin the next stages of constructing new houses and other structures and fencing for keeping animals out of vegetable patches. Water management is a factor in choosing where to plant and where the waste management site is located as that can infect and affect the growing of healthy and nutritious vegetables, herbs and fruit.

These are all key long term decisions and need to be thoroughly discussed with the community and people need to be chosen to work on these aspects of community existence in a full time capacity.

The emphasis is on building a program block by block that never actually reaches a destination but keeps evolving as the dynamic changes and the flow of people, food, livestock, waste and water keeps changing, increasing and decreasing related to human movement, demand and climate change.

Building sustainable and self supporting communities in the rural areas is an achievable goal.

Regaining a place in the earth cycle and ending a process of simply being a consumer is the key to building sustainable and productive communities in rural Africa.

The engrained feeling of being a victim and floating along at the mercy of the ebb and flow of human dynamics that one has no control over has been the lot of the citizens of Africa and other third world countries for decades.

Decisions made by multinational corporations and 1st world countries regarding trade, the environment, agriculture and economic control of the planet seldom include African and other 3rd world problems in the decision making process.

This is a top down system and makes no space for revitalization and empowerment from the bottom up. Arbitrary decisions based on politics, ego and building a specific brand with advertising on 4x4 motor vehicles do not contribute to finding lasting and sustainable solutions to poverty, starvation, unemployment and the other scourges that beset Africa and the 3rd world.

In order to address this gulf, that separates not only decision making processes but also the list of priorities that potential communities at the bottom work with compared to their well off counterparts at the top, it is necessary for people to forge their own progress around communities built around people and not political agendas.

Choices made by the community and built on are an important empowering factor in freeing people from a dependence on factors beyond their control. From this freedom stems a direct increase in self belief and identity with a community, a cause that is greater than the individual.

This vision of a living, dynamic community organism can be a living model for the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.