Building an Institute

I had written this some months ago but wasn´t sure whether to share it yet. But it´s our Institute´s story and maybe it will inspire some people to join the idea…

Ever since I was sixteen and had packed my bags to move to India for a while, I felt restless. Restless for change. I watched children living in the dirt, eating whatever they could find, only learning from each other, begging in the streets, BUT sharing. They shared everything they had. From food to knowledge and most of all smiles. And I felt embarrassed to live in a society where none of us take care of each other anymore. Here are these children, our children, living without water, not knowing where their next meal will come from and then there´s us, living close by, having hot showers every day, flushing our toilets with drinking water, wasting roughly 1.3 billion tonnes of food every year and worrying about how long the charge of our i-phone is going to last. I felt helpless but inspired.

When I was back in England finishing school, teachers were trying to fit me into career boxes and I felt more and more lost each time because I didn’t feel passionate enough for any of the choices but there wasn´t a real option for development and creativity either. Any money that I had saved up since I was 13, I used for travelling and seeing different cultures. I learnt so much about different ways of appreciating nature and life from different perspectives. I returned to India, because my heart was pulling me back there. It wasn’t much, but I was teaching at a school for half a year, experiencing real joy about learning and feeling reassured in the knowledge that one of the most important things in the world is to build schools and to give every single child the right and possibility to acquire knowledge. Young children do not deserve to work every single day to support their family instead of getting an education but to put on a backpack and head to school. Trust me, they will hike far to get to a school if you only let them.

My path took me to Germany and Argentina, trying to figure out a way to combine my passions of education, art, development, environment and sustainability in a way that would make sense. I was pressured to go to University and felt inclined to give in every once in a while, and while I believe that it is a valuable system, I don’t think it’s the place for me (at least not right now). Im not made to go to an institution every day that produces similarly shaped citizens who feel pressured to fit into a society. And I know that’s not every college or university but a large amount and I know so many people who used to have big dreams before they went to University but gave them up along the way.

I felt so inspired to build schools, to give children a home, to build housing for communities, to feed the homeless etc. etc. but every single idea required heaps of money to start with and usually people want to see someone with a university degree in order to support a project. So I contented myself with small projects until I finally decided waiting around, or getting a PhD is not going to change anything and that we are on this planet to create our own dreams. Sending clothes to poor countries doesn´t change a thing, neither does playing the “white person saviour” (because no one is asking us to save them), but educating people will have an impact. Education about the world, about health, about jobs, about freedom.

A long while back I found someone who shares my ideas and after a few years of gallivanting across the globe together we decided to move to Ghana. Off we went leaving all things behind. First we worked at an NGO for education, which was insightful enough but not exactly what we wanted and after a few months of learning and planning out our own ideas to become reality we figured being young may be an advantage. We are filled with inspiration, willing to work hard, are ambitious, maybe naive, open minded and ready for a challenge. So we made connections, emptied our life insurance and bought land in Ghana. It is surrounded by small rolling hills, has a couple of sweet mango trees, a forest with monkeys right next to it, fertile soil and is 15 min away from the beach. That is basically all we´ve got right now. That, and a dream.

Our deepest wish is to create a home for people who want to come together to teach and learn. It will be an Institute for Permaculture (which is an ecological and environmental design based on natural eco systems which is 100% sustainable) Education and the Arts.
We have registered an NGO and a company and are allowed to commence business right now.

– Trying to be aware of issues around us, we are going to be teaching locals and international people how to grow enough food to feed their own families and communities.

– We will be having lectures and workshops on a vast variety of topics ranging from permaculture, across architecture, fine arts, bead making, philosophy, nutrition to herbal medicine, music and preservation of wildlife. All of which we will invite you, international lecturers and enthusiasts, to for teaching or participating.

– We are going to produce organic products (such as oils, pesto, soap, shea butter etc.) to sell, with the proceeds going towards developing this place.

– It will be an oasis for anyone who wants to escape their busy lives for a while and just be surrounded by nature and quietness.

– The place will be a sanctuary for all the children and adults living around us who will be creating this place together with us to welcome people from all over the world.

– Volunteers will be welcome to stay and work on the organic farm, in the kitchen, on building things or on other developing projects.
In January we are going to start building basic housing so people who would like to be a part of this or help out can come and stay.

– In addition to all that, we will be having one Bungalow only for Philosophy, mainly the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, an Indian Philosopher who has founded many wonderful schools and stimulated many people to learn more about themselves, to explore truth within ourselves, to dive into the complexity of the unknown and to free ourselves from conditioning.

If all goes well we will be teaching concepts that people can take away and share someplace else.
We have leapt into something we believe in and are pouring our hearts into it. We may not have the money to secure our future or have any security about it, but we are doing our part in doing something that we think is right. We want to broaden horizons and create dreams and hopefully there will be some adventurous people who´ll join us! Maybe things don’t always need to make perfect sense or be logical but it just takes a few people who believe in something.
This is just the beginning…

Thank you for reading a million words, feel free to share your ideas!
All of you, near and far, are welcome to visit any time,

The Sun´s Harvest