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Discover the partnerships and programmes which are showcasing regeneration in action alongside communities. Projects & Partnerships Re-Alliance works alongside trusted partner organisations to co-create and implement regenerative projects throughout the world. Re-Alliance's role is usually in strategic design, project co-design and management, research, as well as producing educational materials, M&E, and disseminating information. See below for more information on some of our recent and current projects and collaborations. Special thanks to our generous funding partners from the public as well as Trusts and Foundations, including but not limited to Treebeard Trust , the JAC Trust and Lush Cosmetics. Regenerative Refugee Settlement in Nakivale Uganda Co-designing and building a Regenerative Settlement with 20 households in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda + In partnership with: YICE Uganda, Arup, Re-Alliance Regenerative Camps and Settlements: Piloting Interventions Partnering with Re-Alliance members to showcase regenerative interventions in displacement contexts. + In partnership with: Re-Alliance Members Mobile Wind Power Community designed micro-wind turbines for camps and settlements. + In partnership with: School Of The Earth Growing Mushrooms in Reusable Buckets Minak Projects trialled mushroom growing in reusable, upcycled containers in a refugee settlement. + In partnership with: Minak Projects First Response to Trauma Psychosocial support and community building for trauma healing. + In partnership with: SACOD Building Wicking Beds in Tongogara Building water-saving growing beds in a water-scarce refugee settlement. + In partnership with: Fambidzanai Permaculture Centre Vermicomposting Toilets In Bekaa, Lebanon, Farms Not Arms built three vermicompost toilets for refugee families. These innovative toilets use worms to convert human waste into compost. + In partnership with: Farms Not Arms Urban rooftop garden in Al-Buriej Refugee Camp Growing food gardens on rooftops in Gaza, showcasing urban growing in places with limited access to land. + In partnership with: Gaza Urban & Peri-Urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP) Regenerative Urban Agriculture MOCGSE led a project focussed on supporting conflict-affected areas with regenerative urban agriculture demonstration and education. + In partnership with: Mount Oku Center for Gender and Socioeconomic Empowerment (MOCGSE) Regesoil: Community Composting Collective community composting sites in Nakivale Refugee Settlement. + In partnership with: Unidos Social Innovation Centre Ecosan Composting Toilets Urine diversion, dry composting toilets in a barrel, enriching soils for more nutrient-rich crops and healthier people. + In partnership with: YICE Uganda 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. + In partnership with: Sporos Regeneration Institute Building Treebogs in Kakuma Refugee Settlement FHE built several twin Treebog composting toilets in Kakuma Refugee Settlement. These are raised composting toilets which feed 'humanure' directly to perennial plant roots. + In partnership with: Farming & Health Education (FHE) Lime-Stabilised Soil Building in Cox's Bazar Disaster resistant eco-buildings made from locally sourced materials in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. + In partnership with: Bee Rowan & International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Non-Digital Communications for Capacity Building Analogue learning materials for regenerative food growing in refugee camps and settlements. + In partnership with: Kajulu Hills Ecovillages, Green Releaf 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. + In partnership with: Syrian Academic Expertise, Malteser International Re-Alliance Members' Film Collaboration Participatory filmmaking to share stories of regeneration in action. + In partnership with: Re-Alliance Members

Meet the team who support and facilitate the thriving Re-Alliance network of Regenerative practitioners. Meet the team Core Facilitation Team Correspondents Trustees Volunteers Directorship Ruth Andrade Chair of the Trustee Board Read More → Communications Team Ansiima Casinga Rolande Correspondent and Regenerative Settlements Storyteller Read More → Core Facilitation Team James Atherton Permaculture Lead, Communication & Storytelling Lead Read More → Communications Team Batata Boris-Kaloff Correspondent Read More → Directorship Gisele Henriques Trustee Read More → Core Facilitation Team Jackie Kearney Network & Membership Lead Read More → Directorship George McAllister Trustee and Safeguarding Focal Point Read More → Core Facilitation Team Mary Mellett Research, Content & Compliance Lead Read More → Directorship Peter Mellett Trustee Read More → Core Facilitation Team Juliet Millican Coordinator Read More → Directorship Geoff O'Donoghue Trustee and Finance Circle Read More → Communications Team Sunjae Yun Research & Communications support Read More →

< back Date of completion: 1 May 2024 Building Wicking Beds in Tongogara Building water-saving growing beds in a water-scarce refugee settlement. From November 2023 to May 2024, Re-Alliance partnered with the Fambidzani Permaculture Centre (FPC) and the Transformative Innovative Hub (TIH) to build wicking beds in the Tongogara Refugee Camp. The project introduced wicking bed technology to address water scarcity, aiming to improve the community’s nutrition and health through access to fresh vegetables. A wicking bed is a garden bed design that uses capillary action to draw water from the base of the bed, making it perfect for maximum water efficiency in arid climates. By placing a reservoir of water at the bottom, fed through a tube, moisture is drawn upward directly to the plant roots. This ‘wicking’ process ensures plants receive consistent hydration while significantly minimising evaporation. In hot and dry climates, a large percentage of water can be lost to evaporation, so simple designs to maximise water use is ideal. The project engaged 75 residents and provided comprehensive training on the construction and maintenance of diverse wicking bed models. Following the workshops, participants successfully installed their own home-based wicking beds and harvested a wide range of crops, including spinach, rapeseed, tomatoes, and onions. The wicking beds enabled participants to reduce water consumption by more than 50% compared to conventional beds. An FPC survey showed that a single 60-litre reservoir could sustain a garden for an entire week, offering a buffer against the region’s frequent droughts. Beyond water resilience, the project integrated Permaculture training, empowering residents to shift from expensive, toxic chemicals to nature-inspired and organic methods of growing. For long-term success, the initiative has evolved to focus on growing the health of soil. Drawing on lessons from the implementation in Tongogara, the team recognised that using locally made compost, and empowering communities to be self-sufficient, are vital to community resilience. Re-Alliance worked with Fambidzanai to develop a 'how-to' guide on developing wicking beds, which you can download below.

An illustrated guide of how to save and use grey water and rain water for food growing in refugee camps and settlements, made in partnership with SOILS Permaculture Association - Lebanon, and Malteser International. < Back Gardening with Grey and Rain Water in Camps An illustrated guide of how to save and use grey water and rain water for food growing in refugee camps and settlements, made in partnership with SOILS Permaculture Association - Lebanon, and Malteser International. Donate to Re-Alliance Stay updated with our newsletter Download for free: English عربي Turkish

< 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 Peter Mellett Trustee Peter is personally committed to regenerative projects as a way of continuing the work of his son Paulo Mellett, an environmental activist and fierce advocate of the use of integrated regenerative design. Paulo’s work was cut short in 2014 when he succumbed to the relentless effects of severe malarial infection. Peter’s work with Re-Alliance is an attempt to answer the question ‘How can I work with others to sustain and develop Paulo’s creative values as we try to make the world a better place?’ Peter has worked as science teacher, educational science writer and editor and as a curriculum developer for MSc distance learning courses at Bath University. His training includes BSc Chemistry and an MA in Education specialising in Educational Technology, Organisation Theory and Action Research.

< back Date of completion: 1 Jun 2023 Ecosan Composting Toilets Urine diversion, dry composting toilets in a barrel, enriching soils for more nutrient-rich crops and healthier people. Seven dry Ecosan compost toilets, built by YICE Uganda in collaboration with Re-Alliance, were constructed in four villages within the Nakivale camp in Uganda. An innovative design, utilizing flood-proof containers that could be easily swapped, maximized the limited space available. A comprehensive illustrated booklet, translated into multiple languages, was produced to provide information on the proper use of the toilets. Additionally, 100 households received training on the safe reuse of urine in crop production. Single-parent households with children with disabilities were particularly selected for the project. One such household is Chantal's, a refugee widow from Congo, who has a firstborn son with epilepsy. Chantal expressed gratitude for the Ecosan toilet, stating, “I am Chantal, a refugee widow from Congo, and my firstborn is epileptic. I was always concerned about what might happen to my son during an attack while using a pit latrine. However, all my worries were alleviated after receiving an Ecosan toilet.”

< Back Batata Boris-Kaloff Correspondent Batata Boris-Kaloff is a skillful storyteller who uses multi-media to report issues around environmental and humanitarian themes. Trained in the department of Journalism and Mass Communication in the University of Buea, Boris-Kaloff Batata has been practicing as Journalist for close to a decade. He currently serves as a Journalist and Station Manager of CBS radio Buea. Boris-Kaloff has volunteered his storytelling skills for some international media platforms including Planet Forward and Global Voices and has trained dozens of Youths and Journalist on Fact Checking, combatting hate speech and impact storytelling. His passion and professionalism have earned him several recognitions and awards both locally in Cameroon and internationally. He recently worn the Best Radio Journalist Award for 2024 Organized by the Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers Association (CENPA) also won The Human Rights and Humanitarian Reporter of the year in 2021 and 2023 at the Victoria International Media Merrit Award given by the Cameroon Association of Media Professionals (CAMP) amongst other recognitions. Boris-Kaloff has attended several professional training programs and fellowship around his field. The most recent is the CNN Academy Fellowship and the Journalism AI Academy fellowship.

< Back Sunjae Yun Research & Communications support Sunjae is a volunteer and researcher, currently in her second year of a BA in Social Science. To support Re-Alliance, she focuses on documenting members' work by conducting key research, drafting project pages, and creating social media content.

< Back James Atherton Permaculture Lead, Communication & Storytelling Lead James is a Queer, Vegan Permaculture teacher with a background in climate activism, film and design. James has worked across the UK and Australia, and has co-founded several activist spaces in both countries. James is also the Learning Lead with Regenerosity.world, and works with Oxfam GB.

< back Date of completion: 1 Feb 2025 Mobile Wind Power Community designed micro-wind turbines for camps and settlements. School of the Earth's Wind Mobile project is trialling the development of mobile wind turbines to provide sustainable, decentralised energy solutions for camps and displaced communities, seeking to integrate renewable energy into humanitarian and community resilience efforts. The project is developing small-scale, mobile wind turbines that can be easily manufactured using locally available materials or tech waste, and that can be adapted to different environmental conditions. Designs were co-developed with Fab Labs, several community makerspaces, and refugee-led innovation hubs like Habibi.Works, Energy in a Box, FabLab Winam, and CC4D, ensuring adaptability to diverse contexts. Prototypes range from 1.2m to 4m rotor diameters, utilising recycled magnets and local materials, offering low-cost and scalable alternatives for off-grid energy access. Through this partnership, School of the Earth and Re-Alliance are hoping that clean energy can become an accessible part of community-led humanitarian responses, empowering communities to generate their own energy, skills, and futures.

< 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).