Anastasiya Volkova is head of the NGO 'Permaculture in Ukraine' and a member of the core team of the NGO 'Global Ecovillage Network Ukraine'. The ecological activist lives and coordinates an ecovillage around 80 kilometers south of Kyiv together with others. bioPress was able to interview her about the current situation and future prospects thanks to the German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture (COA) project.

bioPress correspondent Peter Jossi in conversation about Ukrainian ecovillages in times of war

bioPress: Ecovillages, Greenroad - please give us an overview of the projects you are involved in.

Anastasiya Volkova: Eleven years ago, I moved to the ecovillage of Zeleni Kruchi in central Ukraine, discovered what permaculture is and led the already existing organization 'Permaculture in Ukraine'. On the second day of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the two organizations joined forces and launched the 'Green Road' project, a network of places in the countryside that took in internally displaced persons.

bioPress: Permaculture - what role does it play for your community and as a principle?

Volkova: My personal intention of living in an ecovillage was to grow my own food. Initially, I knew nothing about it at all, but when I learned about permaculture and took the permaculture design course, I fell in love with this approach as it represents a holistic view of farming in harmony with nature and with people in mind.

bioPress: Today you even offer educational programs on permaculture...

Volkova: I wanted my neighbors to know more about it and organized a training session in my community. The event was successful and we repeated it again and again. This is how our training center was created as part of the network of permaculture centers in Ukraine. The aim is to spread knowledge about sustainable agriculture to as many people as possible. Many of the participants in our training courses come from the city and have decided to move to the countryside. However, they want to work with the earth in a different way than their grandparents did. We show how it is possible to create a sustainable garden that not only provides food, but is also beautiful and respects insects, animals and biodiversity. In the meantime, war displaced people who have had to leave their homes also attend our training courses. They are now living in the countryside, which is a new experience for them, and they want to learn how to provide for themselves.

bioPress: You mention it: The Ecovillages also serve as a refuge...

Volkova: ...when the bombs fell on the cities, people fled to the relatively safe countryside. Friends and relatives were the first to find their way into our communities. Many also opened their doors to people they didn't know and offered abandoned houses. Hosts provided food supplies when supermarket shelves were empty and food chains were disrupted in the worst of times. Practical issues of housing people posed a challenge: The houses were mostly inadequately equipped. The coordinators of the Green Road project from all over Ukraine collected donations from our friends abroad and submitted funding applications for purchases such as washing machines, fridges and beds. The aim was to create livable conditions for the families, who often came with only one bag. One month after the start of the project, there were 70 locations in Ukraine where our living communities and farms opened their doors to Ukrainian refugees. In total, around 3,000 people found temporary refuge. Most of them only stayed for a while before traveling on to the western border or returning home some time later.

However, many have stayed. Today we have around 300 people who have found a new home in our communities. Just one example: In my community there is a family with a boy who initially came to live with us for a few days. But eventually they bought a house and became active members of our ecovillage. My parents came to live in the house of another family who went abroad. They still live with us, help a lot with the gardening and spend a lot of time with their granddaughter - it wouldn't have been like this without the war.

bioPress: How has the community as a whole changed - and your activities?

Volkova: The war changed our community a lot. New people joined us. With the help of our friends and supporters, we were able to improve our infrastructure. For example, we now have a small community house. The families who still don't have a bathroom at home can shower here and use the washing machine. More importantly, we have a small solar system in our community with batteries to store electricity, thanks to German support. This means we at least have water and internet to work around the clock. We were able to build three greenhouses and expand our gardens so that we can produce more and always have supplies. We continue to organize training courses in permaculture and community building. This provides an income for the community members and also shows the people who come to us how they can live sustainably on the land.

My garden and working with plants helps me to stay healthy and gives me energy to carry on living in a country where there is war, where the news is heartbreaking every day, where there are constant power cuts and you don't know when it will all stop and what future awaits our children.

bioPress: What can permaculture do for the development of Ukrainian society and food security?

Volkova: With our work, we can teach people how to provide for themselves on their small piece of land. This is extremely useful in the face of unpredictable conditions, when you don't know what tomorrow will bring. But our work is not just about agricultural issues, it is also about 'social permaculture', building relationships with other people. There is so much stress and fatigue in Ukraine now. There is a huge need for rehabilitation, for the recovery of former combatants, their families, children and all Ukrainians in general who have been traumatized by the war.

Our organization has already started to work in this direction. We offer courses in garden therapy, our sites offer animal therapy and floristry. We want to develop our permaculture centers into rehabilitation centers where people can be healed through nature, good food and additional practices.

bioPress: Where do you see Permacultura Ukraina in five years' time?

Volkova: I see my organization as part of a strong movement of organic, biodynamic and nature conservation organizations working together to rebuild Ukraine and make it a prosperous country. We have so much to fight for and our people are so brave and resilient that we must succeed.