Still here.

It's been a while now since the first blog, and I imagine some of you had begun to wonder if this whole Diversity Village thing was just one of those new exercise bicycles I bought for myself the week after New Year that has been gathering dust ever since.

Not quite.

Truthfully, I've been getting my workout elsewhere (to continue the metaphor)  - right now I'm spending some quality time getting my crazy life in order, and focusing on mastering the skill of survival in a more hands on fashion than reading blogposts about Organic farming on the Internet. Unfortunately this doesn't leave me much time to hammer out motivational posts about the remarkably important idea that is Diversity Village.

I'm still positive that with time this idea will grow, and find the support it needs to become a reality, and with that in mind I would strongly encourage you all to participate in the process by taking some time to engage in a conversation with me or other likeminded people about how you think you would like the village to look, what you think you could contribute, and who else we should be talking to in terms of getting the ball rolling.

The fact is, if you want to see this dream become a reality, you will have to actively take a portion of your week, month or year to help make it happen. This is what I am doing already. If all you can afford to contribute is advice or ideas, realise that this too is valuable and don't feel afraid to speak your mind. However in the end it will require actual people offline that are willing to sacrifice of themselves to do the work on this project to get over the initial hump of getting this thing running, and perhaps you want to begin to think about whether you would be willing to be one of those people.

If you are interested, please comment on the blog below or email me at cbreedt at gmail dot com.

Have a nice day now!

C.

Where it all began

I posted this on my the Ascape facebook group on January 13 2012: "I am having the beginning of a very large, very very awesome idea forming in my head and I want to know if I am the only person thinking about this... What does everyone think of a self-sustaining eco-village for autistic spectrum individuals (and their nearest families) that allows for an alternative solution to institutionalisation, conventional employment and heavy psychiatric intervention. We can grow our own veg, generate our own power, manage our own waste and still have most of the usual digital comforts (I've been reading up on this lately). If needed we could have a village therapy team who lived there full time and formed part of the community and our own school for children with alternative learning needs. I know this will probably take the contribution and cooperation of dozens (if not hundreds of people) and possibly some form of financial backing (grant/gift/beg steal borrow) and many years to plan and execute, but I feel strongly that this is a important idea, and someone should be thinking about it other than just me."


I immediately started gettng responses, and that is how I decided to begin probably the most foolhardy venture of my life so far : The Diversity Eco Village Project for Western Cape.

Lets see how this all goes!

Love

Christel

Welcom to the Diversity Eco Village Blog

This will be the interim home of the Diversity Eco Village Project - A Neurodiverse Ecologically Friendly Intentional Community project which hopes to create a sustainable community for those with Autism spectrum disorders, and their families.

Please let us know if you are interested in contributing to this project in any way whatsoever! We are still in our infancy, and can use all the advice we can get.

Regards

Christel Breedt