Description
Morag Gamble welcomes Nakafeero Brenda, permaculture educator and permayouth leader in Kitgum, Northern Uganda. This is what youth and women are building with practical permaculture and what your support makes possible. It's truly grassroots permaculture - people to people, garden to garden.
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In this Feb 2026 Ethos Foundation session, I am joined by our friend and colleague Nakafeero Brenda, a permaculture educator and permayouth leader based in Kitgum, Northern Uganda. Brenda shares the story of how permaculture is supporting young women and youth to grow food, build livelihoods, and regenerate land, through demonstration gardens, training, and youth led cultural projects. This comes as a healing and regenerative practice after decades of internal displacement, loss of knowledge transfer, and lost childhoods in camps.
Brenda explains how permaculture spreads through relationship and practice, teacher to student, youth to youth, garden to garden.
You will also hear about Brenda’s plans for the year ahead, including building a young farmers network, training more local teachers, and opening permaculture gardens in schools, with water harvesting where needed.
Ethos Foundation (https://ethosfoundation.org.au) is the registered charity connected with the Permaculture Education Institute (https://permacultureeducationinstitute.org) that supports grassroots permaculture partners through long term relationships and mentoring, rather than one off grants.
When you support Ethos Foundation, your donation goes directly to the communities that need it most, and Brenda speaks to what that support enables on the ground.
How you can support:
Donate here: https://bit.ly/ethosfoundation
You can also become a monthly donor
We always send 100%
Read more: https://permacultureeducationinstitute.org/ethos-foundation
You can sponsor a student to join a local permaculture design course and receive follow up support, seeds, and tools with $100. (or any amount you are able to).
Chapters
00:00 Welcome and why these sessions matter
03:50 Meet Brenda Nakafeero in Kitgum, Northern Uganda
05:10 Permayouth song and why culture matters in learning
12:10 How Brenda began, from PDC to teaching in community
18:20 What the Learning Centre makes possible
21:10 What is happening on the ground, gardens, training, livelihoods
27:20 Mushrooms and women’s livelihood projects
32:10 What Brenda is building next, young farmers network and school gardens
36:50 Seed saving, policy, and why these grassroots networks matter
40:30 Climate and water, designing through the dry season
41:50 How to donate and sponsor a student