INSTITUTO ARGENTINO DE PERMACULTURA
SOUTH COAST PC
GUILD-
Att. Margie Bushman
lakinroe@silcom.com
Dear colleges and friends,
We are pleased to introduce to you our project and the next especial
event we are organizing: the
1st Latin American
Permaculture Congress and we would very much appreciate
your letting us know if you would be interested in supporting this
initiative.
Gaia is a non profit association and was founded in December 1991. Its
founding mission is the promotion of sustainable societies, mainly by
creating human settlements based on the practice of Permaculture systems
and methods. Since 1996, the first Eco-village project is being developed
on a 20 hectares' site in a rural area near Buenos Aires city. We have
founded the Permaculture Institute of Argentina and are currently
involved in a world- wide Living and Learning Center project. Through
these entities we carry out our main educational programs. We are also
very focussed on networking. For that reason, we have participated in the
creation of the G.E.N. (Global Eco-village Network) in 1995 and we have
been very active members since then. We are the South American node of
the network.
We see Permaculture as an innovative tool to achieve the creation of
permanent societies based on sustainable principles. We believe that
Latin America is a fertile land to develop new techniques for sustainable
life style and the challenge is to learn and spread them, always making
local adaptations. Out of this vision arose the initiative of convoking
the 1st Latin American Permaculture
Congress, to strengthen the bonds among regional permaculturists, to
offer a forum for the exchange of information and to organize mutual
support within the Southern region.
In order to turn this congress into a success, which will
provide a strong incentive to the development of sustainable living
projects in Latin America, we are in need of financial support. Therefore
we would like to know if you would be able - or may contact us with any
foundation that would - to fund a proportion of the expenses involved in
organizing a congress of these proportions. We need to cover expenses in
the following areas:
- Travel and registration expenses for participants lacking resources
(e.g. in order to be able to invite indigenous people)
- Organization and secretarial work
- Site infrastructure improvement
- Diffusion and printing material
Should you be willing to help us, then please send us all
the necessary requirements in order to present our application as soon as
possible.
We also would like to know if there is somebody in your permaculture
center who has worked in Latin America and who would like to share that
experience with us. He or she may be able to help by connecting the Latin
American project he or she worked in with ours. Your support in the
diffusion of the congress in your region is also very much appreciated.
For this purpose and for your information we have enclosed a copy of the
invitation to the congress.
Looking forward to your positive reply with much interest,
we thank you in advance for your kind consideration of this letter and
your cooperation.
Yours very sincerely,
Gustavo Ramirez - President
Silvia Balado - Secretary
Asociacion GAIA - Almafuerte 1732- San Martín (1650)- Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Tel/Fax: (5411) 4752-2197
Email:gaia@wamani.apc.org
http://www.ecovillages.org/argentina/asocgaia
Enclosure: copy of invitation to the
1st Latin American Permaculture
Congress (1 page)