Sustainability

We aim to build self sufficient clinics and gardens which use:

• Traditional medicines
• Permaculture
• Recycled materials

We also focus on sustainable architecture, wind power, and solar power. This will ensure clinics have the diversity, stability and resilience of a natural eco-system. It also means that clinics are not dependant on continual funding and external resources – communities can easily maintain the clinics after construction.

Permaculture

In keeping with Traditional Healthcare’s dedication to holistic and sustainable practice, the project in Datom, Jharkhand is built on a framework of permaculture design principles. These are used to guide the sustainable features of the clinic, the organic farm and the education facilities.

Permaculture is a broad-based holistic design system. It is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that model relationships found in nature.

Permaculture aims to create stable, productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its inhabitants. It seeks to create, through conscious design, agricultural ecosystems that have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. Permaculture also seeks to create diverse, stable and resilient human settlements.

The ecological processes, and relationships between, plants, animals, their nutrient cycles, climatic factors and weather cycles are all part of permaculture design. Human and animal needs are catered for using proven technologies for food, energy, shelter and infrastructure.

Elements in a system (i.e. water, fertiliser, chickens etc) are viewed in relationship to other elements, where the outputs of one element become the inputs of another (e.g. kitchen ‘waste’ feeds chickens).

Within a permaculture system, work is minimised, wastes become resources, productivity and yields increase, and environments are protected. Fundamental to permaculture design are the three ethics:

1. care for the earth
2. care for people
3. fair share.

These underline our relationship with the natural world, with each other and how we are to use our productivity. These ethics have very much informed the design of all aspects of the Datom project.

Datom, Jharkhand, is situated in a very impoverished and rural part of India. Developing the project using permaculture allows us to implement accessible, low cost technologies and practices that can greatly benefit this much under-resourced region.

Education is a central feature of the Traditional Healthcare project in Datom. Lack of knowledge relating to health care, and shortage of health practitioners in the region sees a great need for wellness education.

This community is confronting the very real adverse effects of climate change – failing monsoon rains, falling water tables and food insecurity, with many farmers dealing with increasing reliance on costly fuels, fertilisers and pesticides.

By incorporating education programs into the business model of the project, Traditional Healthcare aims to address many of the problems faced by the local community, as well as provide a sustainable income stream.

Sample of a permaculture plan used in a clinic

Below is the permaculture plan for our first clinic in Datom, India:

• Clinic permaculture plan (PDF, 543KB)

Photo: South view plan of the completed Datom clinic.