Nea Guinea - Sustainable Synergies

Knowing and fully sharing ethics and principles that guide Fotini and Kostas' hearts, founders and core of the project design and management, I'm gonna describe happily the different shapes that Nea Guinea is composed of.

The main objective of this journey, started in 2009, is re-appropriating everyday needs in terms of food, health, energy, shelter and clothing; it aims to inform, educate, encourage and support people in redefining their basic everyday practices and getting actively involved in different production processes in order to cover these needs, based on their individual or collective knowledge and their local resources, thus becoming less depended on the goods and services of the global industrial market. [1]

Nea Guinea’s activities are grouped under five main fields: education, goods and services (drogeria, healing space and off-grid installation group for solidarity projects), research and experimentation, raising awareness, community building and networking. The first years of the adventure consisted in a fervent pole in Athens' busy centre, that has seen a great participation with thousands of people involved in a wide range of activities. Looking for air and space, in 2012 the organization started working on the creation of a "rurban" (halfway between urban and rural) educational center in Nea Makri, just some 30 kms from the city, aiming at developing a living example for the people that intend to make the transition to rural or rurban life.

This project is based on a field of 0.35 hectares and a house, converted into a location that can host classes and seminars, as well as provide accommodation for course participants and volunteers. Since then, the internal and external landscapes of Nea Guinea have evolved thanks to the influence of people who have lived the project, expressing their proactive intention: the creation of the conditions in which a better quality of life can strive; very different from a reactive approach, which would respond to issues without passing through one's awareness.

The rurban educational center consists of five main sub-projects: a vegetable garden, a cultivation system that hosts dissemination activities on sustainable agriculture, as well as informative events on contemporary social and ecological issues related to food; an herb garden, a living tool for the self-management of health; a forest garden, a mixed crop arrangement designed for the production of food, in a way that simulates a natural forest ecosystem; renewable energy project, with the installation of solar panels; natural buildings, shaping a woodfire earth oven, a compost toilet, and (hopefully) an outdoor kitchen.

As I said before, the site has seen people from all over the world coming by, in a circle of giving and taking that brought ideas, techniques, questions, proposals, experiences and passion that push the project forward during the years. Greek citizens and kids, southern Asia and Middle Eastern refugees, English technical experts and a miscellaneous of volunteers in various forms, colours, attitudes and beliefs.

In recent times, with the pandemic situation firing up and down, the whole scenario of the activities offered to the community shifted completely online, consisting mostly in the "School of the Earth" permaculture course and the dissemination, support and designing part. Although living a quite limited and stagnant atmosphere, humanly speaking, the field floods in life! That's where we are working at right now: Fotini, our amazing tutor, leader and friend, is guiding Vega, Pia and me in a very enjoyable journey of caring for the land [2]. We are working in the field most of the days of the week, and having a special one in which we have a personal class (a session of the permaculture educational program they propose with the "School of the Earth") and a visit of the local market at closing time, where we go around and save loads of crates filled with organic matter (fruits and vegetables "not saleable", from the merchants or the ground) to bring to the field and transform into compost.. back to life! 

What we are doing in our daily loyalties to regenerate the world deserves a dedicated space; by now I would just say that it's been an exciting process, in which I've felt extremely included, healthy and happy. That's the right way to follow!

[1] Neaguinea.org 

[2] "From the soil up" https://youtu.be/8XmsQqDDgP0