Episode 21: Permayouth with Ego Lemos and Morag Gamble

It is my absolute delight to share with you my conversation with Ego Lemos from Timor Leste on Sense-Making in a Changing World.

Ego is a humble yet radical positive change-maker, who grew up in the tumultuous time of the Indonesian occupation. His work over the decades with Permaculture has caused it to mushroom in his country.  He is largely responsible for permaculture being a compulsory subject for EVERY primary school aged child in his country. Permaculture is in the National curriculum and starting to extend to high schools too.  Since 2011 he has lectured about Permaculture at the National University and invites students to come and learn practical permaculture skills around the countryside (which they get credit for).

Ego has launched Permakids and Permayouth and the camps he's been running since 2008 always have well over a thousand youth!  They arrange many 3 day workshops for the youth to build great practical skills. Ego also organises permaculture teacher training, Water Youth Camps for upstream rehabilitation and advises the government. 

As well as being a highly respected permaculture leader in his country, and a TEDx speaker, he is a  singer-songwriter. His song Balibo was awarded best original song composed for the screen at the 2009 Screen Music Awards and a 2009 APRA Award for best song in a film - it was the title song from the movie Balibo, featuring Damon Gameau and Anthony La Paglia.

Permayouth programs are so important in Timor - a young country with over 70% of the population under 30  years old and 70% of people living in faming areas. It continues to be one of the poorest countries in the world with 40%+ of their 1.3 million population living in poverty.

Listen in to hear how Ego created Permakids, Permayouth, restoration camps,  teacher training, school programs and more.

Ego is also a founder of Permatil Global and co-author of the remarkable 1000+ page Tropical Permaculture Manual that is available online as a pay-as-you-can offering. It is in English and now the language of Timor Leste, Tetum, and is being translated to other languages too. It is a comprehensive resource of permaculture, food sovereignty and environmental regeneration strategies.

Here is the interview we recorded together earlier:  A Permaculture Country

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