Green Living East London visits KDC

Green Living East London
Visits Khula Dhamma Eco Community farm

As community members of Khula Dhamma, and members of the Green Living EL, we, Tim and Anne Wigley, were very happy to host the group’s May meeting here on the eco community farm.
Khula Dhamma is an eco community with the aim to show that living more lightly on the planet is possible. From humble beginnings it has grown over the last eight years to a core group of ten members. We are now focused more ecologically, as well as becoming a place running retreats and workshops.
Last year we had professional Permaculture designer carry out (with our input) an overall LAND CONCEPT DESIGN for our farm. From this design plan we are now able to branch out with confidence into our various plans and projects e.g. where to grow food, which areas to leave undisturbed, where to build etc.
The farm is on the Haga Haga road, about 60km from East London, and we were not expecting as large a group as arrived on Saturday. How lovely to meet so many friendly, like-minded souls who live right here in East London!
We met in the newly completed hall for tea and Anne explained to the gathering how our community runs. Central to the community’s work here is the nonprofit organization HOPE LEARNING, HEALING, & RESOURCE CENTRE, which has as its aim to promote and serve the movement towards conscious, natural and community-based living, and to share skills and understanding with others who seek to restore the Earth and her people. Our aim is to host workshops and retreats that promote personal, cultural and environmental transformation. We are exploring creative solutions to the challenges of our time and have already run a few interesting workshops.

After tea we made a tour of the nearly completed guest accommodation and the bio-digester, then looked at the members’ houses. A fascinating mix of materials have been used to build them: straw bale, cob, wattle and daub, some with thatch roofs, one with a living roof, and one with a tin roof to collect rain water. Tim then led us down to our “homestead”, a 2 hectare plot designed on Permaculture lines to produce the fruit and vegetables, and some grain, for the community. We started farming here 18 months ago and have planted about 120 fruit and nut trees + other indigenous trees, as well as a variety of vegetables. Tim often feels frustrated at the slow pace of things, but starting from scratch on an old beef cattle pasture dotted with non-organic licks, has not been easy.
We were very lucky last year to get a donation to build the lovely 100 000 cubic meter dam for irrigation. If you remember it has been very dry here in the Eastern Cape for the last few years. Some local sources say it was the worst drought in a hundred years; without this dam we would have been doomed!
As a community, we at Khula Dhamma see ourselves as taking part in what eco-philosophers are now calling THE GREAT TURNING. There is NO argument that the world’s resources are rapidly becoming more and more precarious, that we are losing plant and animal species at an enormous rate, that our climate is changing, and as humans we have almost totally lost any connection to the natural world.
One of the other ways we see ourselves addressing this problem while attempting to live in as “EARTH FRIENDLY” a way as possible is to re-establish the natural vegetation on the farm. We’re overrun with wattle and lantana; yes, it’s going to be a huge job eradicating it and replanting with indigenous species. The riverine vegetation and the grasslands are really the only indigenous biomes here, so we’re starting with the banks of the Quku River and plan to cut and replant here first, then spread out and out …. Mmm, one day it will be beautiful!
So, keeping our LAND RESTORATION project in mind, we completed the day with a picnic lunch at the river. Some people gently removed yellowwood saplings and we have put them in our nursery until we are ready to replant them. Thank you to those of you who did!

Frankly, the KD community believes that there is nothing more sorely needed on our planet at this specific time, than a HUGE move towards another way of living. And I think that is what GREEN LIVING EL is all about too; we have Annegret Mostert to thank for pioneering this initiative.
Another of the ways we’re using to participate in and explore creative solutions to the challenges of our time, is to run workshops and retreats in our lovely big hall – anything along the lines of alternative technology, to hand crafts, to growing food in a natural way, to vegetarian/raw food eating, to yoga, to meditation, to dance, to education, and to becoming deeply in touch with the natural world.
By providing a congenial setting along with all natural, eco-innovative facilities and wholesome food that is largely produced and prepared here on our farm, we hope to attract national and international facilitators who are pioneering their respective fields. So if you’re interested, please keep a look out for information with regard to our activities. If you would like to hire the facilities to either run your own workshop or to host someone else, please contact us.
Please visit our website www.khuladhamma.org to find out more about our ethos and vision. We are always looking for new members to help us make our vision possible. If you identify with Khula Dhamma’s values and goals, please contact us – we would love to hear from you!