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< Back Geoff O'Donoghue Trustee and Finance Circle Geoff has over 30 years of experience in the development sector including 15 years as International Programme Director at CAFOD, and 7 years spent managing development and emergency projects in Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia. As an independent consultant Geoff has delivered organisational change, partnership development, and capacity strengthening programmes in the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK and internationally.  Geoff is co-Chair of the Rufiji Leprosy Trust and a founder Director of Ohana Community Holdings – a CIC supporting two environmental / community sustainability  projects in Portugal. He has an MSc in Change Management (Guildford), Post-graduate Dip. in Applied Social Policy and Social Work (Edinburgh), BA Hons in English Lit (University of Ulster).

Join the Re-Alliance membership to access a vibrant network of regenerative thinkers from around the world. As part of our network, whether a grassroots practitioner or a policymaker in a big international NGO, you will have access to dynamic knowledge, a vibrant and active community of experts, and a wealth of opportunities for collaboration. Joining Re-Alliance's Membership Contact us Request to join Re-Alliance is a coalition of field practitioners, policymakers, educators, community leaders, and humanitarian and development workers. Our mission is to advance and showcase regenerative practice across the sectors of humanitarianism and development, particularly in the context of development, disaster and displacement. We work with our members to build an evidence base showcasing regenerative projects, to create mutually beneficial connections, to facilitate peer to peer knowledge sharing as well as influencing larger scale agencies and big, international NGOs (BINGOs). While our website and social media channels share information that is fully open to all, Re-Alliance members have exclusive access to a network of experienced practitioners working on the ground in a variety of capacities, as well as a variety of members-only materials. Become a member of Re-Alliance As part of our network, whether a grassroots practitioner or a policymaker in a BINGO, you will have access to dynamic knowledge, a vibrant and active community of experts and a wealth of opportunities for collaboration. Our membership is open to all, the only requirements are interest and expertise in regenerative design, experience in the humanitarian and/or development sectors, and a willingness to comply with our code of conduct and policies. Member benefits include: The ability to connect with a global network of regenerative specialists Exclusive access to learning opportunities Inclusion of your organisation’s details on our website Exclusive member communications Access to invite-only meetings and webinars The opportunity to host webinars or propose topics Eligibility for members-only funding opportunities Consultancy and collaboration opportunities Having your work featured in our growing evidence base of regenerative design Please note that we are a networking and learning organisation, not a funding organisation. We cannot accept request for funding. Request to join form View membership request form

< back Date of completion: 1 May 2024 First Response to Trauma Psychosocial support and community building for trauma healing. Re-Alliance and SACOD have been working with communities displaced by conflict in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, exploring several trauma healing approaches and supporting 1,278 individuals (across 210 households). For people forced from their homes, trauma is more than an emotional wound—it reshapes daily life, erodes social ties, and deepens vulnerabilities. SACOD's approach to trauma healing combined traditional healing practices, vocational skills training, and community-led resilience strategies to provide a holistic response to the psychological and practical challenges of displacement. Healing from trauma does not happen in isolation—it is strengthened through connection. Recognising this, 22 first-line psychosocial responders were trained who can now offer Psychosocial First Aid (PFA), group therapy, and emotional support to their communities. The training emphasised the power of collective healing, where peer support and shared experiences can form the foundation for recovery. Through focus group discussions, storytelling, and arts therapy, displaced individuals found ways to express pain, reconnect with cultural identity, and foster hope. Music and dance from their home regions reignited a sense of belonging, while expressive writing and campfire rituals provided a symbolic way to release grief and reclaim strength. Alongside SACOD, we created this short booklet to help guide community first responders .

This practical guide covers approaches to growing food in camps and settlements with limited water. < Back Food Growing in Camps and Settlements: Collecting, Storing and using Rainfall and Grey water This practical guide covers approaches to growing food in camps and settlements with limited water. Donate to Re-Alliance Stay updated with our newsletter Download for free: English English (Black & White)

This illustrated guide explores how to establish composting at community scale, to build soil health, cycle 'waste', and grow community cohesion. < Back Community Composting This illustrated guide explores how to establish composting at community scale, to build soil health, cycle 'waste', and grow community cohesion. Donate to Re-Alliance Stay updated with our newsletter Download for free: English Español Português عربي Swahili Français

< back Date of completion: 1 Dec 2021 Grey water and Rain water harvesting for food growing in Syria Piloting Grey water and Rain water harvesting and irrigation for food growing in Syria. This capacity strengthening project included the development of vegetable gardens in IDP camps in Northern Syria with partner organisation Syrian Academic Expertise. Working in three IDP camps in A’zaz and Jarablus in Northwest Syria, this pilot project tested the viability of creating vegetable gardens to grow food, partially irrigated by harvested rain water and grey water. The project started with training events including five successful webinars for our INGO sponsors and the production of a grey water booklet by SOILS Permaculture Association Lebanon . The growing plots varied in size, from home gardens to community gardens in A’zaz, and a school garden in Jarablus. The aims included introducing regenerative strategies to improve food security, mental health and community cohesion. Working with a large INGO, Re-Alliance acted in an advisory capacity, with our subcontracted partners, Syrian Academic Expertise, providing research, training and mentoring support. The gardens were successfully established with food grown, harvested and eaten. The gardens were highly popular with camp residents, with many more requests for participation than the pilot could facilitate. Bi-weekly mentoring visits were undertaken by our partners while Re-Alliance conducted monitoring and evaluation and the production of learning materials including an NGO guide to using harvested rain and grey water .

A guide to closing the sanitation loop in refugee and IDP camps and settlements: How to safely use the products of ecological sanitation for growing crops, ecosystem restoration and ecosystem services. < Back Ecological Sanitation with Reuse in Camps and Settlements A guide to closing the sanitation loop in refugee and IDP camps and settlements: How to safely use the products of ecological sanitation for growing crops, ecosystem restoration and ecosystem services. Donate to Re-Alliance Stay updated with our newsletter Download for free: English

< back Date of completion: 1 Jun 2023 Regesoil: Community Composting Collective community composting sites in Nakivale Refugee Settlement. Unidos Projects, led by Paulinho Muzaliwa, work in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. With Re-Alliance, they established a community composting project aimed at collectively composting food scraps using traditional composting as well as vermicomposting. Collective composting sites mean that communities can come together to cycle their organic waste, turning it into nutrient-rich compost. Not only does this reduce waste, but it also enhances soil quality on Permaculture food growing sites throughout Nakivale. Unidos hosted educational workshops and hands-on training sessions, empowering residents with knowledge on composting techniques and the benefits of organic waste recycling. This work built community involvement and partnership, empowering residents to actively participate in the maintenance and operation of the composting sites.

The Treebog, an innovative design, offers a sanitation solution which uses the nutrients from human waste to feed trees. This paper is an invitation to inspire further research and development to adapt this concept to suit displacement contexts. < Back Treebogs: Innovations and Explorations The Treebog, an innovative design, offers a sanitation solution which uses the nutrients from human waste to feed trees. This paper is an invitation to inspire further research and development to adapt this concept to suit displacement contexts. Donate to Re-Alliance Stay updated with our newsletter Download for free: English

< back Date of completion: 1 Mar 2023 Reimagining urban ecosystems in Greece, with Sporos A community-led initiative transforming urban spaces in Greece into resilient, biodiverse ecosystems through regenerative design and education. Sporos Regeneration Institute and Konstantinos Tsiompanos have been working with displaced communities to regenerate urban spaces in in Athens and on Lesvos, Greece, with a strong focus on enhancing biodiversity and building climate resilience. Sporos brought together people from 13 different nationalities and regions to co-design and maintain agriculturally productive ecosystems to feed people and nurture biodiversity. The project aimed to empower participants to grow their own resources independently. Through a hands-on learning approach, the initiative supported participants to learn practical regenerative agricultural skills. They learned about soil composition, home composting, water conservation, and seed-saving. Participants also gain experience in compact cultivation methods such as lasagna-bed making, composting and vermicomposting, which supported them to create productive gardens even in limited urban spaces. A key highlight of the project was the creation of a rooftop garden. Using reclaimed wood for raised beds and upcycled pallets for structure, the team demonstrated adaptable, resource-conscious methods perfectly suited to the urban environment. Learn more about Sporos Regeneration Institute at www.sporosinstitute.org .

< back Date of completion: 1 May 2025 Regenerative Camps and Settlements: Piloting Interventions Partnering with Re-Alliance members to showcase regenerative interventions in displacement contexts. Since 2022, Re-Alliance has be working on a ‘Regenerative Camps and Settlements' project. The project has piloted regenerative interventions within formal and informal camps for refugees and IDPs across the world, in partnership with Re-Alliance member partners. The learnings from the projects are informing our wider research into regenerative responses to disaster and displacement, and forming the basis of content for learning materials and knowledge sharing aimed at promoting grass-roots, community led interventions and influencing mainstream INGO activities. In May 2022, Re-Alliance held our first round of funding and selected eight projects from the 41 applications received, and then hosted a second round of funding in 2023. Our local partner organisations have implemented change-making regenerative programmes to trial innovations which benefit community and ecologies. The projects aim to enhance multiple systems, increasing the health of social, ecological and economic systems together. These projects work in an integrated way to break down the traditional silos between sectors. Our partnerships have included work on projects such as: • Integrated Sanitation Projects Although the concept of dry and compost toilets is now more understood and has been adopted in some camp settings, widespread uptake is limited because, in part, the benefits of resource creation are not appreciated and therefore systems are not maintained and valued. We have partnered with local groups with a focus and understanding of soil health, nutrient cycles and food growing. By integrating various designs of composting toilets with amending soils for plant growth we aim to create projects which thrive at the intersection between WASH and Livelihoods sectors, creating multiple benefits to both areas. • Urban Agriculture Projects Urban agriculture increases access to healthy, affordable, fresh food and gives communities a chance to learn about nutrition and growing food. More than this, it gives people who have been uprooted from their homes purposeful, therapeutic activity. By growing and cooking favourite foods, a taste of home can be created in a new place while tiny green spaces enrich the environment and biodiversity of cities. Reducing the amount of food that families have to buy increases resilience and reduces the amount of food that needs to be imported into cities at high carbon costs. The projects supported also integrate the use of up-cycled and recycled materials and seed saving to reduce inputs and create regenerative cycles. • Lime Stabilised Soil Construction If concrete was a country, it would be the third biggest emitter of CO2 in the world. Lime Stabilised Soil (LSS) is a viable alternative to concrete with similar cost, strength and adaptability benefits but with a fraction of the carbon footprint. Following disasters, huge rebuilding programmes often utilise concrete for rapid rebuilding, but lime stabilised soil has been shown to have greater benefits as it allows for the use of on-site materials (soil) and reduces the need for imported materials. It therefore minimises costs, carbon and resource demands and reduces construction traffic by avoiding transport of excavated and imported materials. Lime stabilisation is an established practice with a proven history of successful use internationally but cement is still the first choice by many engineers in part because of the knowledge gap of use. In some contexts, concrete is prohibited by the authorities for political reasons, so LSS could be a viable alternative to concrete without compromising on strength and safety. • Community Composting Closing the nutrient cycle by converting food waste into compost is a fundamental tool in turning human activity from an extractive to regenerative process. Our partners worked at the intersection between waste management, livelihoods and health. Composting schemes reduce waste management costs, enrich soils to enable healthy food to be grown and increase the health and biodiversity of the soil. Healthy soils sequester more carbon, absorb more water during heavy rainfall and facilitate organic food growing due to increased nutrient content. Find some of the educational materials that we have co-created with partners here .

< back Encouraging urban rooftop garden in Al-Buriej Refugee Camp Growing food gardens on rooftops in urban spaces with limited access to land. In partnership with Re-Alliance, GUPAP aimed to provide a pilot project in Buriej Refugee Camp, Gaza, which lacked agricultural and green places. This project aimed at promoting urban rooftop gardens in refugee camps in order to encourage urban agriculture, and food sovereignty. It was also a wellbeing activity, reminding the families of their lands in the occupied state of Palestine. Moreover, the project allows resident refugees to secure food in the face of poor economic conditions and a lack of humanitarian aid. Through this intervention, building a pilot rooftop garden on the residential unit, designing a roof garden, and an irrigation system, where the design was chosen based on the available house space, the design also took into account that there should be a small greenhouse for growing summer plants during the winter, and agriculture open spaces for seasonal crops, as well as adding the technique of planting pipes to exploit the walls and increase the green space. Thus, an entire family, with an average of 20 members, obtained a financial return that represented self-sufficiency in food and saved the cost of buying vegetables and transportation. Within the framework of this activity, GUPAP supported 20 people who were negatively affected by the economic situation of Gaza City. providing agricultural basics also contributed to increasing the green area and reducing solid waste. It is with great sadness that we say, when the Israeli military invaded and bombarded Gaza from October 2023, this project was destroyed. Re-Alliance wishes to express solidarity with all the women of Gaza who created roof gardens for themselves, their families, and their communities. We hope for a time of peace and freedom when the seeds that are planted are allowed to flourish. Photos