Page 22 - Communities Respond to COVID-19

Quimper Village, Port Townsend, WA, USA

We have an ad hoc Virus Team. They monitor the governor's statements, follow the local health official
statements and inform us about all that information. They suggest guidelines for us to follow which we
are happy to do. We have stopped using the Common House and learned to Zoom!

Cheron
Heart-Culture Farm Community, Oregon, USA

We are socially distancing from people outside the community in order to preserve our capacity to hug
each other, share parenting of each other's children, and continue using shared facilities. We consider
ourselves one micro-biome. We are still accepting daytime visitors as long as they stay outdoors, wear a
mask, and maintain distance from residents. We are on a 3-month freeze in accepting new residents,
primarily in order to give our current residents time to emotionally process the changes brought by the
pandemic. We are in the process of making new rules to reduce our risk of exposure by potential new
residents. We also are planting a larger garden this year, and focusing on staple crops like grain corn,
winter squash, and potatoes. We were already four years in to planting a large permaculture food
forest, and the pandemic inspired us to accelerate the timing by hiring someone with a machine to do
earthworks. We are helping each other more, by picking up groceries for each other, paying for things
that benefit the community without asking to be paid back, and sharing livestock chores and gardening
tasks more effectively.

Kara Huntermoon
Ecovillage Los Portales, Sevilla, Spain

From the beginning we have been trying to see the impact of the present world situation with empathy
and with an conscience open to the challenges and questions that arise:

1.- How to manage the necessary health precautions: we isolate and take care ourselves of the people
with possible symptoms of the virus, and we take certain precautions such as disinfecting dishes but we
don’t allow the atmosphere of fear that has taken hold of an important part of society to damage the
essence of our community life.
2.- How to manage the economic impact of the temporary suspension of some key activities; With the
suspension of programmed visits and workshops, we are searching for alternative sources of income and
reducing non-essential expenses...

3. - And, most importantly, we investigate and appreciate to the fullest extent the hidden meaning of
the situation, the ""gift"" or learning that it offers us: to increase relational work within the community,
to increase efforts for personal and community autonomy and empowerment, to foster the deepest and
most effective relationship with the place where we live, to prepare the way to radiate more towards
society in general the importance and usefulness of experiences like ours so that other groups and
individuals can use it as a stimulus and inspiration, and to detect opportunities for change within the
community in tune with the ""winds of change"" that are shaking the planet profoundly.

Kevin Lluch