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Care Beyond Crises

Shifting Degrees of Uncertainty

By Design or by Disaster Conference, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.

17 – 19 December 2020 (7×7 format)

Marguerite Kahrl, Co-founder of Permaculture for Refugees

The conference Care Beyond Crisis addressed coping with crises through care. Care as a way of leading beyond crises by means of coping practices and a transformation approach.

Permaculture Design Course for Syrian Refugee women in Turkey, a project of P4R

Climate change, war, and natural disasters mean that people will be forced to flee from their homes and seek sanctuary more than ever. People, materials, and methods are required to convey the means to manage, scale-up applications, and learn to support vulnerable communities and those living in crowded environments. It is to be expected that Informal settlements will be on the rise.

As a group of experienced practitioners, the collective Permaculture for Refugees (P4R) is united in the belief that permaculture can address the systemic relationship between economic collapse, degraded habitats, loss of the relationship between people, and food security. We became convinced that training refugees in permaculture could offer a springboard to gain confidence and access other long-term social and economic integration opportunities.


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Food for crowded populations in an uncertain and compromised future

Northern Real Farming Conference
Permaculture for Refugees (P4R)
Panelists: Rowe Morrow and Marguerite Kahrl
Sep 30, 2020, 10:30 am –12:00 pm

The conference focused on just and sustainable farming and food systems in the North of England and Scotland. Run in partnership with @foodfutures and Oxford Real Farming Conference.

Against a background of uncertainty, and possibly cascading disasters, this panel provides a changed perspective for permaculture regenerative practices applicable to a range of variables and contexts.
 Permaculture is often used in rural settings, which don’t reflect the reality for the majority of the world’s population. This is set against an uncertain and rapidly changing world.
Working with refugees, P4R has gained experience in ways of life that are, unfortunately, likely to become common. With mass migration, crowded settlements will become a new norm in urban and rural areas compounded by economic collapse, global warming, and possibly further pandemics.
 Permaculture has the potential through its relevance to local bioregions and knowledge, and, working through principles to meet their needs. Facing an uncertain future requires people, materials, and methods to convey these to vulnerable communities and those living in crowded environments to the point where they can manage and scale up the learning and applications themselves.

Coordinated by @lessuk

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Meet, Share, Inspire

International Conference of Good Practices on Refugee Protection, Ankara, Turkey

25th September 2019

Organized by Support to Life (STL), Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM), and Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe (DKH), with support of European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

Marguerite Kahrl taught Syrian refugee women in Turkey and here talks about the follow-up outreach she has been involved in:

This spring, I co-taught a PDC for Syrian Refugee women in Turkey with Rowe Morrow and Francesca Simonetti, in the capacity of Permaculture for Refugees. I returned to Ankara, Turkey later in the year to present the Permaculture for Refugees (P4R) project as a lecturer and panelist for the conference, ‘Meet, Share, Inspire: International Conference of Good Practices on Refugee Protection’.

Particular focus was placed on the PDC course which P4R held for Syrian Refugee women in Cesme, Turkey. Francesca Simonetti and Rafif Jijeh were also participants in the conference, thanks to the support of an American family foundation. Rafif, one of the few refugees present, had the opportunity to take the stage and give her testimony of the course to an audience of government ministers, conference participants, and NGOs supporting best practices.

Members of P4R: Francesca, Rafif, and Marguerite


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999. A collection of questions about contemporary living

2018
“HOMEMAKER: the practice of dwelling”, installation.
Triennale of Milan
January 12 – April 2, 2018

The Triennale di Milano presents 999: A Collection of Questions on Contemporary Living, an exhibition conceived and curated by Stefano Mirti.

MARGUERITE KAHRL, “HOMEMAKER: the practice of dwelling” working model (2018)

Suspended models of dwellings question the notion of home as a fixed and delineated place. Instead these handcrafted signifiers of ‘home’ reference domestic practices, which build on the sense of belonging.

Being and feeling at home is a process of making, intertwined with routines, objects, shelter, and community. Shifting the focus from a closed space to the practice of dwelling helps us to consider belonging as more of an open and social process.

The exhibition consists of a series of questions on the places of our lives, and it illustrates the theme of housing as we have never seen it before. The exhibition is a sweeping investigation of the concept of house and home, living and dwelling, on the borderline between the physical and digital worlds. It is a journey through new realms of the imagination, which are transforming our lives. It is an innovative, wide-ranging, collaborative, and ever-changing exhibition, which evolves in space and time.