Sendangguwo Permaculture Camp has been attended by 2 Indonesian Volunteers, 15 part-time Indonesian volunteers, and a volunteer from Germany named Anna. Ifa and Sany are camp leaders at the workcamp located in Semarang, Indonesia, from the 14th to the 27th of April 2025.

Permaculture has become a hot topic for young people in Indonesia. Because there is not much literature available in Indonesia, many permaculture activists use literature from abroad as a comparison and look for opportunities to apply it in the community.

This challenge has inspired the sustainable agriculture movement, inspired by the 12 principles of permaculture initiated by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s quite challenging. In 1999, the IDEP Foundation, based in Bali, Indonesia, began compiling a practical guidebook for permaculture activists in Indonesia. However, this encouragement was not enough to include the issue of environmentally friendly agriculture in the academic window until it was fully discussed by the government.

This is what inspired the community of premaculture observers in several cities, including Semarang. Sedangguwo is the name of a location in Semarang City that became the turning point of this community’s movement. Moving together with a community with the same concerns is the solution to making small changes in society.

Concerns about agriculture in Indonesia have occurred since the beginning of public awareness about industrial agricultural practices that change the earth’s landscape and narrow the green space that used to act as a food source for humans.

The arrival of volunteers from Germany has become a spark of enthusiasm for us to continue our struggle in the future. Especially to continue to refresh our movement so that it is easily accepted by the younger generation than us. Although at the beginning of the year we had doubts due to the limitations of human resources and funds that we had, we are sure that change will not start if no one starts it.

The volunteers had the opportunity to visit several community gardens that we assisted, starting from gardens adjacent to houses and business centers, women’s farmer group gardens, to gardens in Islamic boarding schools. Volunteers were also involved in school visits and discussions with students from Diponegoro University.

Visiting schools and universities is one of the important activities held in this workcamp. The human library program was developed as a place for local and foreign volunteers to exchange information and provide an opportunity for us to introduce our activities and invite wider parties to also participate in the future.

Anna (German Volunteer) said, “The work was divided into gardening and ‘talking’. We went to different partners and community gardens and had different tasks there. Fertilize the soil, remove dead plants, plant seedlings, plant small, remove dead plants, prune plants, and enhance the growing process. We went to schools and kindergartens and had a presentation discussion about my homeplace, and I could also learn more about their culture and ways of life.”

Deska (Indonesian Volunteer) said, “It was a wonderful experience to work with people with different backgrounds and nationalities. We used to work with the community at the garden, but through this experience, I can learn how I could adapt and work with people with different characters.”

In between gardening activities in our community gardens, colleagues also had the opportunity to explore the history of Semarang City, as well as enjoy the landscape of Semarang City below and Semarang above. Semarang City is the capital of Central Java, which is a melting pot of various communities, so it is quite interesting for volunteers to witness and learn how we live peacefully side by side until now.

We hope that more and more people will pay attention to this activity. By combining the participation of local volunteers and foreign volunteers, it is hoped that new ideas will emerge. The fresh ideas presented will continue to provide changes that can be enjoyed by the community.