GRC Spotlight: Robert Ocen
Location: Anaka, Uganda, East African Bioregion
What does regeneration mean in your work? Robert founded the Regenshope Initiative in Uganda in 2018. Since then they have trained 200+ farmers and started a 5 acre permaculture demonstration site. Through training programs with farmers and students, centering the women that often bare the brunt of food-based labor in families, Regenshope is training Uganda's next generation of regen ag practitioners.
How did you come to regenerative work?
Robert was born in wartime Northern Uganda. Displaced by instability, he and his family relied on wild food programs. He left home after the war ended, and returned to find the deep forests around his home cleared and turned in monocrops. He joined with his mother, and their community to regenerate the forest, and wanted to create alternatives for families just looking to make ends meet.
What does regeneration mean to you?
"Regeneration is when we make things better to work towards a better world, environment, political system and community." He reflects that people "often enter into regenerative work with a lot of excitement... [but] it's a journey, it's a process. It's not just one thing... You have to be present with it, you have to accept the change, you have to work hard." Patience is the key to Robert
What's next? In the next 5 years, Regenshope aims to train 15,000 farmers and expand their demonstration site to 50 ha. To support these dreams, they are currently looking for funding for land acquisition, hiring more trainers and an international co-director to expand their reach. Feel free to reach out to Robert for any questions or support.
Alphonce Odhiambo and Cassandra Goodmansen are looking for contacts and resources to support the M20 Community Permaculture Project in Kenya. It’s a wonderful community project that is soldiering on despite a difficult ecological and political environment.
Tanuja Prasad and Ebru Kaya have posted a session on “Regenerative Investing - Moving Businesses Towards Regeneration: a new way to do investing” for SOCAP 2023. More than 450 session applications have been submitted, but only a few will get selected. Please vote for this session (it takes less than 30 seconds)!
Joshua Prieto and the Seeds of Tao team are crowdsourcing the (free) Regenerative Economy Business Network (regenBEN) to create a new way to see and interact with entrepreneurs and their enterprises in the regeneration movement across the globe. They’re just getting started, but the more people we get mapped, the more valuable the resource for the regenerative movement. Please check out the podcast episode and fill out the form to get involved!
Session highlight: Regenerative Insights Circle
What do we do? We talk and work with each other in an international group of collaborators and friends. Sometimes a project is presented and often our group members end up working together on projects, foreseen and serendipitous. Co-working and parallel play are always available. Hosted by Andrew Crosby and friends
This past session started with places and frames for understand how we develop them, and ourselves, we transitioned into the challenging contexts we carry with us and which we are trying to bend one or or another, or which may just have to co-exist. Thanks also for reflecting on an event that brings people who are trying to create new communities together in a discussion.
This week with the CoLab
GRC: Regen Economics - A discussion for evolving new understandings
Apr 18, 2023 8-9am PDT / 11am EDT / 12:00 BrTZ / 1500 UTC / 1700 CEST / 1900 EAT / your time zone
This is a place to discuss and share innovative ideas as we shift our economic paradigm towards regeneration. Join the diverse GRC community in discussion, as we explore our evolving understandings of the paradigm shift we are all experiencing.
Our species needs to evolve and learn how to be in the ‘right relationship’ with nature and this planet we call home. Our conversations will be journey-focused, collecting ideas and evolving our viewpoints as we move towards collective solution. Hosted by Pam Campbell & Tanuja Prasad.
GRC: Regen Ag Community Chat
Apr 18, 2023 9am-10am PDT / noon EDT / 13:00 BrTZ / 1600 UTC / 1800 CEST / 2000 EAT / your time zone
This is a time for people working on or interested in Regenerative Agriculture & related topics to get together, meet, compare notes, and maybe colab. Join us!
Hosted by Erik van Lennep.
GRC: Regen Ed - a place to begin the discussion on transforming and regenerating learning
Apr 18, 2023 12-1pm PDT / 3pm EDT / 16:00 BrTZ / 1900 UTC / 2100 CEST / your time zone
This is your invitation to join a discussion on changing education and developing the tools
needed for students of all ages to address the crises facing our world today. We hope you will join us on this journey to discover ways in which our educational systems can be reformed, transformed, and regenerated. This week we will be discussing “What is the purpose of education?” An examination and discussion on “What is Regenerative Education?” will follow, with the intention of focusing on discussing what goals and purposes it will serve.
Hosted by Dan Beltramo and Cassandra Goodmansen.
This is the first of two weekly calls dedicated to this topic. The other call happens on Wednesdays at 6:00 pm PDT / 9:00 pm EDT.
GRC: Regenerative Insights Circle
Apr 19, 2023 0730 UTC / 0930 CEST / 1130 EAT / 1300 IST / 1830 AEDT / 2030 NZDT your time zone
Welcoming participation from all over the world. Please join us Wednesday.
What do we do? We talk and work with each other in an international group of collaborators and friends. Sometimes a project is presented and often our group members end up working together on projects, foreseen and serendipitous. Co-working and parallel play are always available. Whatever the mode, please bring a friend if you like. Hosted by Andrew Crosby and friends.
GRC: Regen & Governance
Apr 19, 2023 8-9am PDT / 11am EDT / 12:00 BrTZ / 1500 UTC / 1700 CEST / 1900 EAT your time zone
This series is for discussion and co-learning of what it means to govern regeneratively and how regeneration can inform governance.
This weekly session will be a co-created exploration of what regenerative governance means and how we, as regenerators, can apply it. Hosted by David Witzel.
GRC: Regen Ed - a place to begin the discussion on transforming and regenerating learning
Apr 19, 2023 6:000-7:00pm PST / 9:00pm EST / 22:00 BrTZ /
Apr 20, 2023 12:00pm AEDT / 2:00pm NZDT / your time zone
This is your invitation to join a discussion on changing education and developing the tools
needed for students of all ages to address the crises facing our world today. We hope you will join us on this journey to discover ways in which our educational systems can be reformed, transformed, and regenerated. This week we will be discussing “What is the purpose of education?” An examination and discussion on “What is Regenerative Education?” will follow, with the intention of focusing on discussing what goals and purposes it will serve.
Hosted by Dan Beltramo and Cassandra Goodmansen.
This is the second of two weekly calls dedicated to this topic. The other call happens on Tuesdays at 12:00 pm PDT / 3:00 pm EDT / 9:00 pm CEST
GRC: Regenerative Insights Circle
Apr 20, 2023 9am-10am PST / noon EST / 1300 BrTZ / 1600 UTC / 1800 CET / your time zone
Welcoming participation from all over the world. Please join us. Co-working available as well.
No scheduled guest appearances this week, but co-working, whole working, or parallel play available. We are free-wheeling or co-working. Whatever the mode, please bring a friend if you like. See you there. Hosted by Andrew Crosby and friends.
Consensual Tech Talk
Apr 20, 2023 12pm-1pm PST / 3pm EST / 1600 BrTZ / 1900 UTC / 2100 CET / your time zone
Introducing Consensual Tech Talks: Do an inventory of what we’re currently using for remote collaboration. Look at some alternatives. Hands-on helping each other onboard with new tools.
These calls are hosted by Day Waterbury and are a gathering place for people from aligned communities.
GRC: Hosting for Regeneration & Change with Raman Frey
Apr 21, 2023 9am-10am PST / noon EST / 1300 BrTZ / 1600 UTC / 1800 CET / your time zone
Raman Frey is the founder of the event production community GP Dinners (producing over 400 events since 2012). GP Dinners and retreats focus on vulnerable and deep conversations and an orientation that builds trust and brings collective wisdom to bare on difficult challenges. He also co-founded Camp Earnest with his wife Karin Johnson, a retreat facility in the mountains near Yosemite National Park, where they also live with their dog and son. This session will focus on hosting as a change strategy - why Raman believes in it, how it works, and what is left to do. Open questions include "What comes next for GP Dinners and for Camp Earnest?" and "How can others get involved?" Format for this session will be initial Q&A with Dave Witzel followed by questions & discussion with the group.