The Organic Garden Farm here at CICD covers an area of around 80 m x 45m, divided into two sections – one with the greenhouse and the raised beds, and the other for the potato field and the poultry. We have 20 chicken and six ducks, that give us on average 13 eggs per day. We have two greenhouses with raised beds for tomatoes and a lot of herbs and spices. We have a special section for potatoes: five big beds each of 25 x 2,5 m. Then we have all our other crops: onions, leeks, cabbage, courgettes, french beans,...

4 months ago in April Monzer and Roula, two of our students, decided to take the responsibility for running our garden farm when their programmes were put on hold. They stepped up to the plate – and it has gone really well! They have learned a lot through own studies as well as through their practice. Learning by doing is one of the keys to studies, work and life here at CICD – and not only in the garden! There are a million details to remember and do the right way, and at the right time...everything from the spacing between...

Global inequality is worsening the suffering caused by climate change and the Covid19 pandemic. This summer extreme weather caused by climate change has seriously affected Europe, with devastating floods in Germany, Belgium and Netherlands....and while writing this, wildfires are again raging out of control in Greece, Turkey and Russia. But this and worse extreme weather has hit many countries in the Global South for many years already. Climate Change and Global Warming are caused by the marketing economy's continuos race for infinite economic growth. This is a contradiction, as we live on a planet with finite resources.  Covid19 is most likely another consequence of the...

I am Madia, a 23 years old French-Gambian woman. I’m a marketing student and I have always been an open-minded person with a big curiosity. While I was in France finalizing my gap-year student, nothing was motivating me to stay in the country. I made the decision to have a WWOOFer experience. It was the perfect way to improve my English skills while leaving my comfort zone being closer to the nature. I joined CICD for two months without knowing what I was going to expect. The surprise was sincerely very good. Being part of the Garden Team Here the...

By Melanie Pita, Climate Activist teacher: Today we will share with you some recipes for making your own organic compost and fertiliser, as well as compost from raw food scraps. A really good way to reduce waste and improve the yield and beauty of your garden! 1. Green compost Green compost is created by recycling green waste: grass clippings, leaves, flowers, plant stalks and other plant material from garden and park. What are the benefits of green composting? Green compost provides slow release of major and micro nutrients, improves soil structure as well as workability & rooting potential, increases moisture retention...

By Melanie Pita, Climate Activist teacher A new garden season has begun and with it a lot of new tasks. At CICD we have four sections for our garden production. The small walled garden, the big walled garden, the greenhouse and all the flower areas. We have made plans for our garden farm for the next 5 years and now it is time to get the hands into the soil and get prepared. Let me start by telling you about our new greenhouse, in a building outside the walled garden. There we have 3 raised beds where we will be...

By Noemi Karacsony, Gaia team teacher at CICD From Earthday.org 22nd of April we celebrate Earth day!! This year, the headline is Restore our Earth. World Earth day is realised every year on 22nd of April to create awareness about pollution and to celebrate the Blue Planet - or our Mother Earth. The first earth day was in 1970 and gave a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state of our planet — in the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry discharge smoke...

By Melanie Pita, Climate Activist team teacher Today I would like to write about the issue of the Military Complex and how it influences our Climate Crisis. First and foremost is good to understand that the Military protects commercial interests, that the commercial interests fund the Government- and that the government pays for/to the military. This is the very basic structure of this complex. Starting from the very basic connection between the Climate and military pollution… The production. Every single item produced and its production chain. The need of resources and the pollution that takes place. From the simplest to...

By Melanie Pita, Climate Activist team teacher Hi there. I just came here to write a bit about Permaculture as it is one of my favorite topics. Like the name itself says permaculture is a permanent culture. The main goal of it is to create a perfect ecosystem where everything works like it was a cycle, a living being cycle. Permaculture is not just a way of growing food. Permaculture to an extent is a way of life. We, humans, the ones starting out on applying permaculture techniques, are also part of it all, in the beginning it requires a lot of...

In the middle of the beautiful and peaceful Yorkshire landscape, hunters for profit and fossil fuels have found some very big oil and gas deposits. During the last 8 years, there have been several attempts to start bigger scale fracking or acidisation, and drilling for oil and gas here, but they have met a fierce resistance from the local people. One extraction site in West Newton was closed down after leakage of poisonous chemicals, but now the company is trying to get started again in a neighboring location. Until very recently there was a Monitoring Protection Camp that was manned...

Education is the key to create change Education is the key when we want to create a positive future. The key to reducing poverty, to eliminating gender inequality, to creating a sustainable planet, to preventing needless deaths and illness, and to fostering peace ….. The world needs passionate teachers who are willing and able to act and stand up for the people. Teachers who understand that the world can be a better place for all its living beings. Teachers who teach about the power of community and who can inspire by example. So to be a teacher is really one...

The Climate Activist team invited all of us for a fantastic dinner earlier in the week...it was beautiful, really tasty and well prepared...and: made only from what we have grown in our garden farm: pumpkins, courgettes, different vegetables, potatoes, herbs and chicken! The only exception was a bit of oil, salt and some lemons! To eat this together was truly double happiness - we could enjoy a meal with no chemicals, no plastic waste from the packaging, no air miles transporting it here, the chicken healthy without added hormones...Mmmm! It felt very good that it is possible! Because this points...

World Water Week 2020 Accelerating action for water and climate change! Water is the fundamental source for human development; from nature-based solutions to socio-economic development and human resilience. Water is a key enabler. In fact, water is life! Humana People to People joins the rest of the world in celebrating World Water Week 2020. The five-day event, themed “Water and Climate Change – Accelerating Action”, will focus on innovation, science and all the necessary actions to achieve a climate-resilient future. World Water Week 2020 will be commemorated from 24 - 28 August 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated...

  Introducing: Humana People to People progress report 2019! Humana People to People is a network of development organisations on 5 continents, in 45 countries and involving 12 million people on a daily basis – working together to create better health, education and living conditions. Humana People to People has been in action for more than 40 years and in spite of the Covid pandemic, they are certainly not “on hold” - but are providing communities and schools with Covid19 support: information, advice, food, access to water and soap, production of face masks - in their work all over the...

The PeaceJustice Conference This conference is organised every spring in Denmark, by our sister schools DNS Tvind and DRH Lindersvold. This year, it was of course online....and we were around 100 people participating – small groups in several schools in Norway, Denmark and England and also participants in many other parts of the world. It was a very inspiring event – and the high light was a lecture: "The new world rises in the East" by Jan Oberg - author, peace researcher and photographer. He held an exciting lecture, presenting his visions for what we can expect to happen in...

Solidarity - not charity! Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from Scarborough in north-east England. Together with Pauline Town and many other activists and musicians, Joe Solo runs the We Shall Overcome (WSO) movement. He uses his skills as a musician and song writer to raise much needed funds as well as spirits, all around the country. The aim is to support people living in poverty, who ended up homeless and need a helping hand to get back on their feet. “The Station Hotel”, a pub in Ashton under Lyne in Manchester run...

By Alvaro Valdebenito Sanhueza, Development Volunteer August team 2020 As well explained by the philosopher from Spain, Paul B. Preciado, in his last article about the relation between Coronavirus and bio-politics: “The politics of one country can be defined by the way that they confront a pandemic” - and we can see the real face of many governments: the sacrifice of the working class. The sacrifice has existed since many years and though it has been in connection with the religion, it has always been a political decision. To decide who dies and who lives facing a threat is political....

From Vasile Nutescu, garden farming responsible: Hi, my name is Vasile and I am from Romania and I want to talk about gardening, organic gardening. Why organic? Because it’s healthy. Because in order to have good and healthy food we DON’T need chemicals. I come from a small village in north of Romania. It’s an area where even now days most of the agriculture and gardening are made organically and traditionally. I grew up with gardening and I learned what I know that way. Throughout the years I also worked in industrial agriculture so I also have an understanding of...

By Alvaro Valdebenito Sanhueza, Chile 10 month Development Volunteer team, August 2019 The environmental struggle It has been a custom to think that the struggle about climate change is related with a couple of environmentalist hippies or a small groups of eccentric young people that want to get attention with their new style of life, as the vegeta...

During the last days, the people of Chile have mobilised in the face of the perceived injustices in the conditions that exist to live in the country, considering that the state is not guaranteeing their basic rights even when Chile is considered one of the richest country in Latin America. Last Friday, the underground subway increased its price by ...