Permaculture as a path to peace (3Peas) is 20 month long project which includes 15 partner organizations from Europe, from 14 countries (Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Greece). The main topic of the project is permaculture as a tool for peace building, reconciliation and empowerment of youth. It will consist of several connected activities which aim is to build capacity of SAVA working group of SCI (responsible for exchange in the Balkans) in youth work within current challenging social and environmental concepts. Through this project, participants will gain diverse knowledge and skills to implement permaculture in peace work, but will also upgrade existing climate for peace toolkit, which will be tested through summer workcamps, youth mobility activities and finalized and concluded together with the video documentary. Therefore, Permaculture design training course will be organized in Croatia for 12 days with 26 participants. One EVS volunteer from France will take part in 11-month long service in Novo Brdo (Kosovo) and will be working on practical and educational aspects through creation of open permaculture classroom. Workshop for SCI trainers will take place in March 2018 for 5 days, in Novo Brdo (Kosovo) during which toolkit and other dissemination tools will be created. Youth exchange, Mitrovica Urban Garden (MUG) will take place in May, and will gather 25 youth from Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Croatia, with aim to learn, inspire and create first intercultural garden in Kosovo. During summer 2018, at least 14 dissemination activities on summer workcamps will take place and final 3-day evaluation and follow up meeting will take place in Novo Brdo. The project will directly involve 78 youth workers and youth, among which at least 45 will be persons with fewer opportunities. Indirectly, the project will influence hundreds of volunteers on workcamps and in two local communities in Kosovo (Mitrovica and Novo Brdo). Expected tangible results include open education resource in form of online toolkit (permaculture for peace), printed versions in 4 languages, FirstAid permaculture kit and video documentary.
Permaculture as a Path to Peace – 3PEAS – was 23 month long capacity building project run by GAIA (Kosovo) and in partnership with 15 partner organization from Europe, from 14 countries (Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Greece). The project directly involved 74 youth workers and young participants which took part in different international activities. In addition, the project included 5 local actions, production of the online toolkit, manual, documentary and permaculture first aid kit. The project activities included (1) Permaculture Design Certificate Training Course in Croatia, (2) 11-month long European Voluntary Service in Kosovo, (3) Workshop for SAVA pool of trainers on social permaculture, Novo Brdo, Kosovo (4) Youth Exchange on urban permaculture in Mitrovica, Kosovo (5) permaculture4peace local actions in Kosovo, Bulgaria, Turkey and Albania (6) project documentary, (7) online toolkit 3peas.design and (8) evaluation and follow-up meeting in Kosovo.The 3PEAS project built capacity of partner organizations to use permaculture ethics, principles, tools and strategies in youth work and peace work. It opened another perspective of youth work in challenging circumstances and explored potentials of permaculture approach in specific contexts, such as post-conflict societies of Western Balkans, rural areas and divided communities. The project provided space for establishing new partnerships, but also enhancing the existing once. Several new project ideas were created during the project life span, including the follow-up project idea 3PEAS 2.0.Permaculture Design Certificate Training Course gathered 25 youth workers from partner organization, 25 youngsters took part in Mitrovica Urban Garden youth exchange which was organized together with Down Syndrom Kosova. One young person from France was involved as EVS volunteer in creation of GAIA’s permaculture program in Kosovo and almost 30 other youth workers took part in capacity building activities. The project involved 74 youth workers and participants in mobility and capacity building activities directly. Among them 43 participants were dealing with different economic, social, geographical and healt. In addition to that, through dissemination activities in Albania, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Turkey and other countries, the project reached out to more than 200 youth workers and young people from partner organizations, and more dozens of thousands people through social media, articles, screening and sharing of the documentary and presentations. An online toolkit and platform – 3peas.design - has been created by the participants and project team and updated with new information, tools and reports on permaculture education in different social contexts, within SCI, GAIA Kosovo and partners. 3PEAS manual for understanding permaculture ethics and principles in peace education, youth work, community based project and social permaculture in general has been created and translated into several languages languages. 3PEAS documentary has been created and used for promotion of permaculture, but also as a tool for sharing inspiration about the unique program and the place in Kosovo which was initiated by the project. Several follow up ideas were created throughout the project and especially on the final event, and among them 6 project were approved include Permaculture as a Path to Peace 2.0.