Our participants are particularly interested in:

• community living,

• permaculture and ecological farming,

• community gardens, perma-gardens, with the use for community education,

• local production, economy and sustainability
  
  

The group includes:

• a farmer, awarded by Pestrá krajina, who is also active in public education,

• a developer of the permaculture garden and educational center Divočina,

• and three more participants working on similar projects.

Hello Ruth,

Wonderful! Yuhoo — that would be amazing :)

The group is very excited about this possibility and has come up with a few questions of interest:

• How did the community/cooperative come together, and what principles guide it?
• The economic side — communication with investors, ensuring financial stability
• Sustainability — how do you think about it, and how does it work in practice?
• How is collective functioning set up? Is there a central team? Are there any paid roles?
• Shared community spaces for leisure, and how care for these spaces is organized
• Communication and collaboration with the “outside” community
• What are the biggest challenges?

If you could spend more than a day with us, we would be delighted. From our side, we could join for 1-3 days. At the same time, we don’t want to disrupt your flow or to be a burden. If you had some planned work during those days that we could take part in, we’d be more than happy to give a hand. Really. And if it makes sense, we’d also be glad to offer something to you in return — whether a program for children, sharing our projects, experiences, and possible contacts.

For example, Helen dreams of living in a cooperative, something she once experienced among Indigenous communities in America. She is now trying to create at least a small community space in the Czech village of Malešov. She has extensive experience with international volunteers, works with children’s homes, and is looking for ways to help prepare them for life after institutional care, teaches local children English and gardening, and much more. However, she struggles to attract enough people around her, especially those with families.

If it would be possible to stay with you also overnight and join meals, we’d be happy to allocate our accommodation and food budget to you rather than to some hotel. It’s not much, but we’d rather support you. We don’t need much. Roof, bed, and shower :)

As for the format, we’re flexible and can imagine anything from a short visit of a few hours to spending 2–3 days with you — shadowing, helping where needed, and experiencing how things work and flow in daily life. We also understand that we are new to you and don’t want our visit to be a burden or complication. Thanks to the Erasmus+ funding, we are greatfull that we can offer finances as well in return for your time.

That’s from our side. If it would be useful to meet at least online “in person” beforehand, we’d be very happy to :)

Thank you for your openness, and we look forward to your response.

Warm greetings from Brno,
Lucie, Helen, Kamil, Anna, and Anastasia :)