Prerna Community Organization
Darjeeling, West Bengal, India
Prerna worked with on several projects, starting with the Critical Ecosystem Protection Fund (CEPF), a Bio-diversity grant.
The Prerna Community Organization works with communities in a participatory format to strengthen Ecosystem health, system level food production, and community management of its resources in an equitable and inclusive manner.
Challenge:
Introduce permaculture as a solution to create community strength and self-reliance.
Solutions:
In 2004, after a PDI-run Permaculture Design Certification course, Prerna adopted Permaculture as an organizational level strategy. Since then they have hosted many Permaculture Design Certification courses, some in different states. They have developed a permaculture-based farmer training that has variations for adjusting it to different demographics and project deliverables (CEPF, Tea workers, village farmers), worked consistently with bio-conservation, waste management, organic farming, and community health and empowerment.
PDI team members continue to work with Prerna, providing educational assistance for 2 or more trainings per year, and contributing to their ongoing project work.
Project Lead:Rico Zook