Tag Archive: catastrophe

Haiti Update.

Builders without Borders in Haiti – 5/3/2010

Should any NBN members want to practically support the relief effort in Haiti, then please mail our director of events Max V. Jensen, max@nbnetwork.org. NBN does not directly manage such efforts, but help coordinate skilled people with relief organizations such as Builders Without Borders, Engineers Without Borders , Groundswell International, Kleiwerks International and the Permaculture Relief Corps. You may also want to read NBN’s project proposal outlining a suitable solution for Haiti’s resettlement: We call it “Cob Core Communities”

If you are a skilled natural builder or permaculturalist and would like to donate phone or email consultation time to organizations supporting rebuilding efforts in Haiti or elsewhere please fill out the form below.

If you have a high need project that could use this list please contact us at rebuild@nbnetwork.org.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

In 1999 I began visiting a rural farm in the Coast Range of western Oregon. Nestled in a quiet valley surrounded by fir, hemlock and cedar forests, Alpha Farm was founded as an intentional community in 1972 by Philadelphia Quakers. The community had been organized as an experiment in collaborative living by several families desiring an alternative to the urban, social and economic systems of the industrial northeastern US. By the time I visited for the first time, Alpha Farm had survived the rise and fall of the hippies, the “back to the land” movement, and the great wave of intentional community foundings and failings through the 1970’s and 80’s.

Exhausted by my corporate job, stressed-out, but hopeful, I came to this place to follow through on a deep desire to live a life closer to the earth, where the complexities of living were less connected to things, and more connected to beings. Believe me, community living is far from simple, but the challenges are generally of a scale resolvable by communication and collaboration at the scale of family, farm, or neighborhood. Continue Reading…