Search Website

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 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

< 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 .

< back Date of completion: 1 Apr 2022 Non-Digital Communications for Capacity Building Analogue learning materials for regenerative food growing in refugee camps and settlements. This project pilots the use of radio and non-digital forms of communication to promote Permaculture and food growing within refugee and IDP camps in the Philippines and Kenya. Locally grown, low cost, nutritious food growing builds health and resilience for communities facing crises. Gardens offer additional wellbeing benefits of green space and meaningful occupation. Despite this, there is a barrier to uptake of regenerative food growing practices. Re-Alliance worked with partners to explore how ideas and practices could be amplified and spread beyond people coming to training events. In Kenya, we worked with Kajulu Hills Ecovillages to design and trial a radio programme with inbuilt good growing messages. They broadcasted eight episodes of a radio soap opera using local actors. The program tells stories about the benefits of growing food with a Permaculture approach and advertises a demonstration site in the camp that listeners can visit. Green ReLeaf in the Philippines trialled a gamified approach integrating emergency food growing information with a card game, which can be shared with people in remote, disaster-prone locations.

< back Date of completion: 2 Aug 2024 Growing Mushrooms in Reusable Buckets Minak Projects trialled mushroom growing in reusable, upcycled containers in a refugee settlement. Between October 2023 and August 2024, Minak Projects ran a mushroom cultivation project in Nakivale, Uganda to create better food security, nutrition, and economic resilience. By supporting displaced women with specialised mycology skills, the project offered a pathway to financial independence and a strategy to combat local malnutrition. The project grew food insecurity in a context where food aid was being severely cut, by introducing a high-protein fungal food source. The project's circular design allowed the use of local agricultural waste such as dried legume husks as growing substrate. Once the substrate was used, it was then composted in local Permaculture food gardens, allowing the nutrients to return back to the land. Beyond the food harvest, residents' active participation strengthened community bonds and learning. Mushroom cultivation is a valuable addition in refugee contexts because the mushrooms can be grown in clean, upcycled and reusable containers such as buckets, and grown in small spaces. The crops also have good value-addition potential, with the ability to solar-dry the mushrooms and ground down to a storable and nutrient-rich powder. Re-Alliance worked with Minak Projects and other partners to develop a 'how-to' booklet, which was then translated into multiple languages, so other displaced communities can learn and adapt mushroom growing to their own contexts. Click the image below to download the publication.

< 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 .

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 →

From Permaculture in refugee settlements, to eco-building in disaster prone regions, to water harvesting in areas severely affected by worsening climate change, Re-Alliance and our members showcase how we can create stability, resilience and abundance, even in times of crisis. What could a regenerative humanitarian response look like? Increasing the impact and influence of regenerative responses to disaster, displacement and development Explore Re-Alliance free guides Re-Alliance promotes a regenerative vision, beyond sustainability, for the humanitarian and development sectors. From Permaculture gardens in refugee camps, to eco-building in disaster prone regions; eco WASH interventions, to integrated nature-based solutions for settlement designing: Re-Alliance members are showcasing how we can create stability, resilience and abundance, even in times of crisis. Watch Videos Play Video Play Video 07:14 Beejvan | Restoring and regenerating sacred food forests in India Beejvan began in 2022 to revive local understandings of tree-based farming. In this film, Founding Director Sanjana Krishnan explores the joys and the challenges of land-based work. The project has become more than a farming practice, but a healing and community-building activity. 🎥 Film by Pankaj Rishi Kumar Play Video Play Video 04:41 YAKUM | Protecting and restoring the bio-cultural abundance of the Amazon YAKUM partners with three indigenous nations in Ecuador to turn degraded land into cultural food landscapes. In this film by Remi Bumstead, Re-Alliance member YAKUM explores the importance of Indigenous wisdom in forest protection and restoration, and the abundance that healthy forests can offer in terms of culture, food, and climate resilience. Arley Paraguaje and Nick Ovenden explain why YAKUM rediscover and replant diverse cultural foods, and safely harvest food from standing forests. Find out more about YAKUM's work at https://yakum.org/ 🎥 https://remibumstead.com/ Play Video Play Video 07:21 Minak | Growing nutritious mushrooms in a refugee settlement Mariam Antoine from Minak Women-led Organisation helped co-create a programme of training women in Nakivale Refugee Settlement to grow nutritious Oyster mushrooms in reusable buckets. In this video, trainees from Minak organisation explain how mushroom cultivation is such a powerful way to grow the health and income of people living in refugee settlements. Re-Alliance worked with Minak to create a how-to booklet for growing mushrooms. Read more about the project here and download the booklet: https://www.re-alliance.org/post/cultivating-mushrooms-in-buckets Minak is bringing to life real examples of #Permaculture in #Refugee settlements. Play Video Play Video 06:08 YICE Uganda | Urine-diversion dry composting toilets Join Winnie Tushabe, co-founder of YICE Uganda, and Ecosan user Uwizeye Salima, in exploring Ecosans. In the Nakivale refugee camp in Uganda, refugees are given a small plot of land to build a dwelling and farm food on. Re-Alliance's partner organisation YICE Uganda (Youth Initiative for Community Empowerment) is working with families to create kitchen gardens but yields are limited because the soil is poor. Re-Alliance and YICE collaborated to build eight urine diverting dry toilets (or ‘Ecosan’ toilets) for families. By separating the urine and faeces, the volume of composting waste is reduced, extending the capacity of the compost chamber and giving an immediate source of fertiliser in the form of urine, which, when diluted 1:10 - 1:20 with water, is an excellent fertiliser rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Diverting the urine away stops the compost chamber from becoming anaerobic and smelly and the addition of wood ash or saw dust, after using the toilet, acts as a dehydrating cover material. This design used recycled plastic barrels as containers for the faeces, which ensures no ground pollution. Once nearly full, the barrel is moved aside and replaced with a fresh barrel. With the hot composting achieved inside the barrels, compost can be created in under 12 months in the Ugandan climate. The compost is used to enrich the soil around fruiting trees and bushes. Find out more about this design and create your own with our free guides on www.re-alliance.org/publications . Play Video Play Video 07:35 Unidos Social Innovation Centre | Eco-social regeneration in Nakivale Refugee Settlement What could it look like if Refugee Settlements were thriving ecological and social spaces? Unidos Social Innovation Centre is a refugee-led, community-based organisation that engages with young people located in the Nakivale Refugee settlement, South West Uganda. In this video, Unidos founder Paulinho Muzaliwa explains how they support the communities to create abundant Permaculture gardens, grow biodiverse food forests, and build healthy soils. Find out more about Unidos at https://unidosprojects.org/ Donate to Unidos' work here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/water-4-thriving-african-permaculture-group 🎥 7Times Film Production Play Video Play Video 04:36 Ecopoblaciones | Ecopoblaciones Ecuador Ecopoblaciones Ecuador create eco-social regeneration programs that promote the participatory design and implementation of sustainable and resilient populations. Their work integrates ecology, social, economic and cultural aspects, using tools and processes of eco-neighborhoods, eco-social movements, permaculture, ecotourism, bio-construction, participatory leadership, emotional management, well-being, among others. Find out more about Ecopoblaciones Ecuador here: https://ecopoblaciones.github.io/ Find out more about joining Re-Alliance's thriving community of members here: https://www.re-alliance.org/members Play Video Play Video 11:32 Green Releaf | Designing for resilience in disaster and conflict prone regions in the Philippines Green Releaf Initiative prototyped two projects that aimed to respond to and prevent disasters, in contexts of climate and conflict vulnerability in the Philippines. Green Releaf worked with Permaculture as an approach to address food security, regenerative livelihood, and ecosystem restoration. They had a community-led approach, working with early adapters as grassroots permaculture leaders to train as multipliers. They aimed to highlight the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) from the community, honouring their earth wisdom as key to the community's resilience. Featuring grassroots community leaders from areas affected by disasters and displacement where Green Releaf worked, this film begins to document the knowledge learned and practices implemented over time. Play Video Play Video 02:32 What is Re-Alliance? What is Re-Alliance? What do we hope to achieve? These questions and more are explored by some of of the founding members of the Re-Alliance network. Join our membership As part of our network, whether a grassroots practitioner or a member of an international NGO or Aid organisation, 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 an interest, understanding or expertise in regenerative design, experience in the humanitarian or development sectors, and a willingness to comply with our code of conduct and policies. Find out more Read Articles The Farmers and Beekeepers who are reforesting Mount Cameroon Mount Cameroon is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in Cameroon, including endangered forest elephants, chimpanzees, and the elusive primates called Drills. Farmer and apiculturist Evambe Thompson helps to nurture the biodiversity of this critical ecosystem by replanting trees, and encouraging nature-friendly livelihoods. Batata Boris-Karloff The Peacebuilding and Environment Nexus: healing land, systems and communities How do climate change, land conflict, and ecological loss shape violence, and how can environmental cooperation support peace? A regenerative lens on trauma healing, agency, and systems change. Juliet Millican Nakivale Arboloo Toilets: Growing Trees from waste Arborloo compost toilets are movable structures which, when the compost pit is full, can be covered and planted with a tree. The top structure can then be moved to a new location. Mary Mellett Sign up for our newsletters For inspiring stories from our network of practitioners around the globe, to learning about how to integrate regenerative design into humanitarian and development contexts, sign up to our newsletter below. Sign up We can support you Re-Alliance and our members have hosted several training programmes for humanitarian and development organisations and agencies. We can help you and your organisation to integrate regenerative paradigms and practices into your operation, interventions, and policy. Contact us to arrange a meeting and find out more. Contact us

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 2020 Re-Alliance Members' Film Collaboration Participatory filmmaking to share stories of regeneration in action. With a generous grant of €5000 from Lush Deutschland, we seed-funded the production of 12 short films showcasing inspirational examples of regeneration in action, from Re-Alliance members 8 different countries. These powerful stories of community-based approaches spread messages of hope around the world. An advisory panel helped us decide who to award further grant funding to, and the recipients were awarded up to €3000 to grow their work further. This collaboration welcomed meaningful stories from across the world, giving platform for Re-Alliance members to share their work. For accessibility, we asked that films to be recorded on mobile phones and to last under 6 minutes. Films could be recorded in any language with English subtitles. Small grants of up to €500 were offered to help make the films, which went towards travel costs, purchase of lapel microphones, editing and subtitling in English. All films were uploaded onto our YouTube page and widely shared, tripling visits to our site in a short time as well as giving voice to small marginalised groups. Produced at the height of worldwide lockdowns, the films told stories of resilience and adaptability and facilitated connections and the growth of inspirational ideas at a time when people could not meet but stories could still be shared. You can watch the films here .

< Back Ansiima Casinga Rolande Correspondent and Regenerative Settlements Storyteller Ansiima Casinga Rolande is committed to nurturing a culture that regenerates both people and the planet. With a background in community education, permaculture, and regenerative project design, she works at the intersection of peace, growth, systems change, and cultural transformation. Based in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda, Rolande founded FOLONA (For the Love of Nature), an initiative rooted in ecological learning, intergenerational storytelling, and women’s empowerment. Her work explores how compassionate communication and local knowledge can reconnect communities with the Earth and with each other. At Re-Alliance, she focuses on sharing regenerative stories from throughout the network, and especially the Regenerative Settlement in Nakivale.

< 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 Juliet Millican Coordinator Juliet is an educationalist who has worked for 25 years in international development, humanitarian response and the field of conflict and peacebuilding. She is committed to the facilitation of transformational change in individuals, communities and societies to enable us to live in ways that respect the integrity of nature and the broader eco-system of which we are a part. She has worked in academia, in NGOs and in the design and management of action oriented research, and is concerned to make knowledge accessible and to bring together different forms of academic, practitioner and community knowledge to address the pressing problems of our time.