Annual Report 2023
15 December 2023
I always thought the apocalypse would be some dark windy wild storm, but actually it’s the calm warmth of a 20º December day, and we’re all like frogs dying slowly as the water heats up to boiling point without us noticing.
David Attenborough is giving it his all, with every last breath spent encouraging us to fall in love with nature before it is all gone, and Stewart Lee and Arwa Mahdawi are writing regular comment pieces to remind us that politics and equality are moving backwards.
Another incredibly useful source of information this year has been our BiorNE Telegram group which includes voices from an amazing range of academics, farmers, soil experts, psychologists, activists and more. I miss twitter a lot. My mind and body just couldn’t click on the X icon. Not once have I been back since the change.
In general my reading and learning this year has been limited by the full on family life with a two-year old and a ten year old, and the sheer AMOUNT of work I have had to do for the association. My intellectual challenges have included re-learning how to read music to teach Kira how to play the violin, and designing daily schedules where I avoid needing to be in two places at once as much as possible .
Relating to Boodaville: I am incredibly happy about a few big steps forward. We now have two employees on permanent contracts (Lou and Carlos), we planted 1300 trees in carefully selected micro-climates where they can grow unassisted, we ran the smoothest and most enjoyable Youth Exchange ever at Sanilles, some wonderful new collaborations have been started, and the financial situation of the organisation is ok.
On the other hand we are disappointed by being given an extra hurdle in the infinitely annoying path towards getting permissions for running economic activities in environmental education at the “Aula de Naturaleza” at Boodaville Finca. I have recently visited the mayor to let him know that we have all the teachers, farmers, regenerative designers, organisers, accountants, public funding, potential participants, consultants that we could possibly need and that the ONLY thing stopping us from running a successful non-profit business is them.
Here’s to 2024 with adventure, agroforestry and abundance!
Below is a detailed summary of the projects this year, and plans for next year
A – ESC VOLUNTEERING 2023/2024
B – SOLIDARITY PROJECTS
C – ERASMUS+ PROJECTS
D – ROVIRA REGENERATIVA
E – OTHER EDUCATION PROJECTS
A – Esc volunteering 2023/2024
This year we had 6 funded volunteers, 2 of them left before the end of their contract and were replaced. So in Barcelona we thank Baloo for starting the year with us and have a huge thank you for Emma who has been with us all year, and thriving in the Poble Sec neighbourhood. She is staying on in 2024 as a (non-funded) volunteer mentor and is participating in a Solidarity project with us.
In Caseres we have a huge thank you to Sara and Klif, our dedicated volunteers who spent over 9 months at Boodaville, and we have also hosted Pauline, Gaius, Jakub and Oumy for shorter periods of time.
We were missing a site manager after Alex left us, and are extremely happy to have started a collaboration with Roser who has helped out with that role.
In 2024 we are excited to change the plan a little!!! We are slimming down and Lou is removing some projects to better concentrate on a manageable amount of work, (and to go exploring Europe with the children..).
In 2024 we are hosting 3 funded volunteers from Jan to July. Pauline in Boodaville Caseres will not be at Boodaville Finca, but will work with Roser at her family permaculture project.. beautifully named “Boodaville Kindergarten”. We also have Antonia and Frida joining us in Barcelona. They are being mentored by Emma, and hosted at the amazing social project “Can MasDeu”. This means Lou has a minimal role in managing volunteers, and means that we don’t need to find a site manager in Caseres (which has always proved complicated).
B – solidarity projects
The Red Tent project was approved in Spring and runs through until next year. Vianna is the coordinator and mentor for this project and you can see the beautiful activities they offer around menstruation, sexual health, pregnancy on their instagram.
We are also very happy to receive news this week that the Río Algars project has been funded. We have finally achieved our goal of finding a group of young people near Boodaville Caseres who want funding for an activity. Samai is leading the project to make a movie about a young person, disillusioned with the city, who finds a more beautiful path in the rural setting near the Río Algars. Samai is passionate about the ecological message he wants to transmit with the film and the project includes organising screenings in Barcelona as well as in the countryside – Proposed date for the screening : October 2024!
C – ERASMUS+ PROJECTS
The first half of 2023 we were very busy with several projects. First Active Permaculture Youth Exchange – cordinated by Lou, run by Mas Les Vinyes. Lilo and Marta were incredible in their roles to organise and support the young people, Sergi was an inspiring permaculture teacher and the youth leaders were brilliant. You can see the video published here.
Lou coordinated, organised and facilitated the Healthy People, Healthy Planet youth exchange at Sanillés in June. We had an amazing team with Aline and Sam as co-facilitators, and great meals from Frank and Laia in the kitchen. Here is a little clip (and the final video is on my job list for the rest of this week!)
In Portugal we partnered on two projects with PND, a youth worker training and then the exchange RegenerAction. Oumy – who participated in the exchange – is now a volunteer with us! Julia from Mas Baget, who took the role of youth leader, is now more closely connected with Boodaville which we love!
Boodaville also ran the Sprout and Spread Art in Nature Youth Worker Training. This project was coordinated by Carlos and organised by Elena.
D – rovira regenerativa
We are very pleased with many things that moved forward with this agroforestry, education and ecosocial transition project during 2023. We completed tasks from the strategic plan such as digging ponds, extending the Thyme Terrace, doing a huge tree-planting at Manuel’s land, and we’ve been sharing the wine we made with friends. We connected with the neighbours in the Vall Rovira and other local projects. We are under pressure now to clean and prune the 2 hectares of vineyards, and then to find a way to purchase this land in late 2024. We feel very supported in this project by Angela, Jack and Jacqueline, Sam and Nick. You can read more detail in the Boodaville Caseres document and can see pictures and videos on the Rovira Regenerativa Instagram
Oferta de trabajo Buscamos a alguien para realizar tareas agriculturales del 22 de enero hasta 14 de marzo 2024. Información detallada aquí
E – other education projects
In July Boodaville collaborated with a project in Caseres and offered two permaculture sessions to teenagers from Catalunya participating in a summer camp.
Lou was active in promoting Doughnut Economics. As part of the Spark funded project several workshops were run at community centres, festivals and in secondary schools. In February a funding bid was presented by Anna and Silvia to “Bring the Douhgnut to Poble Sec” but there was tough competition, so although we did an AMAZING job for an application created in 4 days!!!! We didn’t score enough points to get funding. In October we presented Doughnut Economics and participated in the Fira Enredem Poble Sec
Boodaville offered a practical Biochar workshop in February with Nick, and the two tree-planting events included practical and theoretical education in agroforestry.
Boodaville organised the BiorNE permaculture conference in Fuenstespalda in collaboration with Juan Pedro Terramans. It was a great success, with over 50 people attending workshops.
Lou gave a Permaculture workshop at the Hort Font Trobada before summer.
F – administration, accounting, website and community management
We are working with accountants Toni and Bea at Gracer Cooperative and are pleased with the way the bookkeeping, tax obligations and employee issues are being run. Lou manages all the project budgets, the bank account, the cash flow and the overall net balance of the Association and is working to optimise the methods for this in 2024.
Boodaville is comfortable now employing people temporarily, emitting invoices, charging for educational activities. (We just need permission to DO the activities at Boodaville from the local council!)
By the end of this week Lou will finish the budget for 2024 and organise how to receive all the money the association “owes” from previous years. We will then start functioning from a “clean slate”. With no agreements hanging over from previous years, and everyone getting paid what they are due year on year.
The website may or may not still have big issues. Did you get to this link ok? Or did you get a weird message saying you’ve been infected with a virus? The truth is we still have a job list from 2020 that we haven’t finished about how we want the website to function better. We are going to investigate a grant for digital support to hopefully get a professional employee who is our web manager.
Community Management has moved forward well this year with Emma writing beautiful content and regularly posting on Instagram / Facebook. Emma also sent out several newsletters and wrote and published blog posts – including all the “history of Boodaville” posts brought across from the old website.
