Putika Village: a regenerative polytechnic for children, elders, and soil

Raising Land Stewards: Early Childhood Regeneration at Putika Village

The Problem

Modern schooling separates children from their communities for the most formative years of their lives. In rural Kenya, that separation meant leaving behind the land, the animals, the languages, and the elders whose accumulated wisdom cannot fit into any curriculum. The result is a generation formally educated yet relationally severed — from food systems, from cultural memory, from the practices that made village life resilient. The land suffers the same severing. Without people who know how to tend it, who feel responsible for it, who were raised inside its seasonal logic, land degrades. What we are restoring at Putika Village is not just soil. It is the relationship between a community and its place.

Our Vision

Putika Village CBO is rebuilding what was lost. We operate a village polytechnic for children aged 3 to 12, grounded in Bantu philosophy: that people become fully human through community participation. Learning happens through apprenticeship. Children work alongside adults, care for land, tend animals, practise languages, and gather by the traditional fireplace where elders share stories and knowledge that no textbook carries.

The Model: People, Land, and Animals

Three elements anchor this work and none functions without the other two.

People means the holders of indigenous wisdom who make this model alive. At Putika Village, that includes Linette, Joyce, Kamatheka, Mule, and the community of mentors who work directly with children each day — transferring knowledge of land, seasons, animal care, cooking, language, and the ethics of shared living. They are the living library of the village.

Land is being restored through integrated ecological design. Moringa, calliandra, and desmodium serve a triple function: livestock feed, soil restoration, and nutrition for families. A closed nutrient loop is being established. Composting systems and black soldier fly farming convert organic waste into protein feed for chickens, whose manure feeds the soil, which feeds the crops, which feeds the children. Solar irrigation and rainwater harvesting will bring water to the food gardens year-round.

Animals are part of the community. Poultry, dairy goats, ducks, and guinea fowl are tended by children as part of daily village life. A child who feeds a goat every morning understands dependence, responsibility, and care from the inside. That understanding does not come from a classroom.

The thome, our traditional fireplace and gathering space, is the cultural anchor of the village. It is where stories are told, languages are spoken, and continuity is passed on. Children learn Kamba, Kikuyu, Kiswahili, English, and Sign Language not through instruction but through daily use in a living community.

Why Now

The village is already active. Since 2025, children have been learning through land participation. In March 2026, the children completed their first competency walk — a village-based demonstration of growth across ten learning domains, observed by families and mentors together. The model works. What Round 3 funding provides is the infrastructure that makes it fully operational, visible, and replicable: irrigation, animal housing, composting systems, rainwater harvesting, an outdoor classroom, and the curriculum documentation that turns lived practice into a transferable model.

Our community co-invests through what we can provide: the animals and the fencing. This is our skin in the game. The Ma Earth ask covers what we cannot raise alone.

How Funds Will Be Used

Land and agriculture: food gardens, fruit trees, forage and restoration species, composting infrastructure, pasture establishment. Water: solar irrigation Phase 1 and rainwater harvesting. Infrastructure: animal housing, the thome fireplace, an outdoor classroom, and dry toilet installation. Curriculum and knowledge: development of the land, animals, and elders learning module, and honoraria for the knowledge holders who teach it. Operations: project management, audiovisual documentation, and community communications.

70% of funds go to direct project costs. 30% covers operations. No founding member draws a salary during this phase.

Tracking Impact

We are documenting this model from the inside. In 2026, the founding team joined the Culture Hack Lab Rhizome Fellowship under the Economies of Regeneration cohort. We are developing How to Rebuild a Village — a film and knowledge product designed to make the Putika Village model replicable across Africa. The Ma Earth campaign is part of that story.

Impact is tracked across four dimensions: ecological (soil health, food production, biodiversity), community (household food security, elder participation, language use), educational (child development through the competency framework, family engagement), and replication (curriculum documentation, model transfers to other communities).

Every donation counts. In quadratic funding, the number of people who give matters more than the size of any gift. If you believe children should grow up knowing where food comes from, who the elders are, and what it means to care for living things — give what you can and share this campaign with one other person.

The village is being built. Come be part of it.

FUNDRAISING TARGET

$10,000 USD — $5,000 from community donors, $5,000 in matching funds from Ma Earth Round 3.

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY

Our donor base spans Kenya, the African diaspora, and international supporters aligned with land-based education and African community development.

Primary mobilisation channels: WhatsApp communities including family, educator networks, and Tigoni community groups. Instagram (@putikavillage) for visual storytelling of village life and the children. Bluesky for the regenerative and impact-focused community. The Culture Hack Lab Rhizome Fellowship network under the Economies of Regeneration cohort. Email outreach to prior supporters and aligned organisations.

Campaign message: the village is already alive — now it needs to run at full capacity. Every post during the July 1 to 21 window will show real work: land preparation, animal care, children in the shamba, mentors at the thome. Each post will carry a clear ask: give any amount, share the link, help us reach 50 or more donors. In quadratic funding, the number of supporters determines the matching allocation. Small gifts count as much as large ones.

TEAM DESCRIPTION

Putika Village CBO is led by a founding team of educators, land stewards, and community organisers based in Tigoni, Kiambu County.

The lead founder brings experience education design, African philosophy of education, and community programme development across Kenya and the broader region. The team includes practitioners with hands-on experience in regenerative land management, multilingual education, animal keeping, and community documentation.

The village has been operating informally since 2025. The children's learning programme has run two full seasons, completed a formal competency walk in March 2026, and currently serves children aged 3 to 9. Round 3 funding enables the transition from active pilot to a fully operational village model.

In 2026, the founding team joined the Culture Hack Lab Rhizome Fellowship under the Economies of Regeneration cohort. The fellowship is supporting the development of How to Rebuild a Village — a documentary and knowledge product designed to make the Putika Village model replicable across Africa.