The Wilder Institute is currently working to develop three new permaculture curricula. Each project requires new skills for teachers, and a new understanding of the specific needs of the students. We are actively fundraising to support these courses, and appreciate your donations to make it possible.

Single Mothers and Children in Nicaragua

This 10-day design course will be taught entirely in Spanish. In addition to the standard permaculture curriculum, we will specialize in nutrition, small market economy, plant propagation, medicinal plants, and design of water systems (water filtration, water catchment, and water health issues).

The Wilder Team has been working with a group of 10 women and their children from the village of Balgue since February, 2005. The group has learned composting, seed collecting, grafting, soil mixes, plant nursery management, and how to build a fuel-efficient cook stove. We retured to Balgue in September to catch up with the women's group and and to plan in detail the March course.

During the course, while the mothers are in class, the children will be taken care of onsite by permaculture child-educators. They will learn a wide variety of skills including vermicomposting, understanding soil-food web, recognizing patterns in nature, plant propagation, maintenance of food gardens, harvesting, music, and art.

This particular course requires complete funding to cover costs for accommodations, teachers salaries, hands-on projects, and a reasonable stipend to each student for lost wages while attending the course.

Our goal is to train a cadre of Latina women to teach this course themselves, and become a network of rural environmental education experts in Central America. We are starting with single moms because their need is the greatest, as they are very marginalized in Latin America.

Course dates March 6th - 16th, 2006, at Finca Bona Fide, Nicaragua

Peace Corps

The development of this 3-week design curriculum requires the research efforts of a return Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) to assess the current education resources available to entering PCV, their immersion programs, and skills needed to enhance and improve success for volunteers on their projects.

Our goal is to develop a curriculum that can successfully integrate the permaculture program into the Peace Corps education strategy. Peace Coprs volunteers who are trained in permaculture will bring a wide and comprehensive range of skills (seed collection, plant propagation, grafting, starting a small nursery, water catchment and filtration design, pond building, etc.) when they arrive onsite at their two-year projects.

We will send students on to their projects with excellent seeds and cuttings of nutritious and diverse food crops, building materials (native hardwoods, bamboos, thatches), and medicinal plants.