WATER IS LIFE

Hello, my name's Fernando, I'm blind and I'm developing a permaculture project. I need deposits to store the water, I appeal to your participation and publicity of this fundraising. Best regards

CONSTRUCTION OF DEPOSITS TO STORE RAIN WATER

The Naturitude project was born in 2020. In the spring of 2019, when I moved from the city to the countryside, the idea came to me to start a small vegetable garden applying permaculture principles. As I was blind, it was the beginning of an adventure in which I learned to overcome obstacles, to find strategies to overcome my limitations. The small vegetable garden, however, expanded beyond the vegetable garden because, as I like to say, little by little I was rescuing the 300m2 plot of land from my father. So I started working the land with regenerative principles, from adding biomass in strategic areas such as surrounding fruit trees, to realizing the dream of adding a small chicken tractor to the system so that the birds could help in the process of building good soil.

It was my friends and people who I consider highly respected in the world of permaculture who gave me immense courage and told me that my project was very important, in addition to working and cooperating with nature providing a service to the ecosystem, it was very inspiring.

Why build tanks to store rainwater? Since I was able to collect rainwater through the roofs of the garage and because I only have water from the company's mains, the idea of having an indispensable resource for life, water, began to take shape. In other words, in addition to the company's water, reuse the roof water that is wasted when it rains. Associating this idea with the need to have more plants in the system for biodiversity and biomass. Considering that the project site is in a location where annual rainfall is low, the real idea of building tanks to store rainwater began to make sense. So that this dream can come true I decided to go ahead with this fundraising.

Thanks to my friends João Ribeiro from the D'Aqui project and to Gonçalo Almeida from the Fora da Caixa project, for being by my side in this new adventure.

Your contribution and sharing is decisive for another stage of this project to come to fruition.

Tractor de galinhas

Best regards.

About the author

Hi :) I'm Fernando. Despite being blind and having a cochlear implant, since my childhood I have had a very strong connection with nature. I remember the tricycle rides at the viewpoint of Monte Agudo and the reflections of the sunset light over the city of Lisbon until they flow into the Tagus. The hot summer nights in my paternal grandparents' village, where I used to lean against the wall built of shale slabs, are also images that revive my memory. When I was 17 years old, one of my childhood dreams came true, I started to practice spearfishing. Unfortunately, at the age of 22, I have to abandon the practice that I liked so much, because I start to have serious problems with my vision. Life goes on and, despite the fact that the left eye can only see clarity and the reduced vision of the right, at the age of 25 another dream of my childhood materializes, I start doing practical sport climbing that ends at the age of 28 because the vision began to be reduced. However, I underwent several surgeries that allowed me to regain some vision, but gradually I returned to the previous low vision situation. It was at this time that I also did rehabilitation, which gave me more freedom and autonomy. I learned to work with the computer with screen reader software and had mobility/orientation classes with a cane. At 44 years of age, the hope of seeing the shapes of the world was reborn, in Coimbra I had another surgery on my right eye, a corneal transplant with an integrated prosthesis. Having had hearing problems since I was 35 years old, I was also submitted to a cochlear implant at that time, partially rescuing my hearing. If it is moving to enter the hospital blindly and go out to see the morning light and the forms that were resurrecting for me, it is not easy what happened to me at the age of 46, to enter the hospital to see and come out with a glimpse of little light only in the left eye because they had to extract my right eye because of an infection in the prosthesis. No, my existence has not been a torment because despite what I have written, from the age of 34 to 42 I worked in an institution for the blind, the Raquel Martin and Sain Foundation, where I gave computer training to the blind. The practice of physical exercise has somehow accompanied me on this walk of life. I value human relationships, family, genuine friendships. And here I am in this little corner of land in permanent contact with nature where I try to apply permaculture principles as much as possible, where I am confronted with my truest truth. Here I am transparent, open to the mystery, to infinity… From my heart, I am very grateful, thank you.

Amigos

Budget and due dates

• 12 shackles of wired concrete with a diameter of 1mts.

• 6 half shackles.

• 6 cement caps.

• Various materials: iron, cement, sand, connecting pipes for shackles, pipes and material for roof gutters.

1900 €

• Sika products to waterproof shackles and joints.

300€

• Labor and earthworks.

800€

Work on the project will commence immediately upon receipt of the fundraising amount.

2 days for earthworks.

1 day to build the platform with iron and cement.

After 2 weeks of the base being built, 1 day for the placement of the first shackles.

1 to 2 weeks after the first shackles are in place, 1 day for the remaining shackles to be fitted and extra work such as retouching the platform.

1 day to waterproof the shackles.

1 day to install the faucets and build a cement box to protect the faucets, prepare the roof gutters to use the water for the tanks, build filters and other works necessary to complete the project.

Images