Women Caring for Land and Community
(WoCaLaCo)
An Ongoing Program and Community
Offering Tools for Solidarity and Support Across Global Regions
Led by Precious Phiri and Didi Pershouse
We are inviting strong women from across the globe to learn ways of being deep resources
for each other and their communities.
To listen in ways that develop long-term relationships and effective leadership,
while engaging in dialogues that shape our work and build us up.
So that land care, people care, and governance turn away from infighting, killing, and extraction,
and toward ways that address the needs of all of life.
for each other and their communities.
To listen in ways that develop long-term relationships and effective leadership,
while engaging in dialogues that shape our work and build us up.
So that land care, people care, and governance turn away from infighting, killing, and extraction,
and toward ways that address the needs of all of life.
Members meet in two ways:
The offering opens with two introductory workshops on Zoom, one from each of our primary teachers:
- Globally, as one community meeting online at least twice a month, connecting members across regions.
- Regionally, in smaller groups, able to gather in person for short sessions and longer retreats.
The offering opens with two introductory workshops on Zoom, one from each of our primary teachers:
- Oct 10: Tools for Peer Support and Mutual Resourcing — taught by Didi Pershouse.
- Nov 7: Setting a Holistic Context for Your Life and Work— taught by Precious Phiri.
- Two online meetings a month to practice the skills of being resources for each other. (Tuesdays 9–11 AM Pacific / 12–2 PM Eastern / 6–8 PM Zimbabwe.)
- Project incubation “fishbowl” sessions and dialogues to bring our work to new levels of effectiveness. (Dates TBD)
- Mutual resourcing sessions with others in the community (set up on your own schedule, in person and/or online)
- Optional readings and videos to supplement learning.
- Introductory workshops and retreats offered seasonally so that new people can join.
- Listen in ways that help others think more clearly about their projects, communities, and relationships.
- See the inherent goodness, intelligence, and strength of each person (including ourselves), as distinct from any patterns they are acting out.
- Uplift each other as community leaders
- Live without turning to addictive behaviors and substances (food, scrolling, alcohol, etc.) when we are upset.
- Listen for wisdom (from a higher power, the natural world, or within ourselves and our communities.)
- Discern where to intervene, and what is most needed.
- Holistic Decision Making
- Living Systems Frameworks (in the Lineage of Carol Sanford's SEED Communities, Didi Pershouse's Land and Leadership Development Community, and Regenesis)
- Agroecology
- Co-Counseling
- Somatic and Trauma-informed therapies
- 12-Step Communities
- Wisdom lineages and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
What we ask for from our members:
- A commitment of at least 6 months so that we are growing long-term relationships
- A monthly contribution of $100 USD from Global North members
- A monthly contribution of $10 USD from Global South members
- Invites that grow from strength to strength: we are starting with a core of people with whom we already feel comfortable sharing our fears, successes, and developing projects.
About the Leaders:
Precious Phiri (Zimbabwe) is an accredited Holistic Management professional with the Savory Institute and Co-Founder and Operations Director of iGugu Trust, a grassroots organization advancing ecological restoration, food sovereignty and community empowerment in Zimbabwe’s dryland communities.
With over 20 years of experience in regenerative land management, program design and participatory facilitation, she brings deep expertise in Agroecology, Holistic Land and Livestock Management and participatory facilitation to her work across Zimbabwe and the African continent.
Her direct community work has reached over 300 households and more than 10,000 hectares of land under regenerative and holistic management in Zimbabwe. She is an experienced trainer and facilitator, using Holistic Management and Art of Hosting methodologies to design and lead trainings and multi-stakeholder gatherings across Southern, East and West Africa, and coordinates regenerative agriculture initiatives across the continent as Africa Coordinator for Regeneration International. She is co-author of Whole Landscapes, Whole Communities in the Barefoot Guide Series.
Precious Phiri (Zimbabwe) is an accredited Holistic Management professional with the Savory Institute and Co-Founder and Operations Director of iGugu Trust, a grassroots organization advancing ecological restoration, food sovereignty and community empowerment in Zimbabwe’s dryland communities.
With over 20 years of experience in regenerative land management, program design and participatory facilitation, she brings deep expertise in Agroecology, Holistic Land and Livestock Management and participatory facilitation to her work across Zimbabwe and the African continent.
Her direct community work has reached over 300 households and more than 10,000 hectares of land under regenerative and holistic management in Zimbabwe. She is an experienced trainer and facilitator, using Holistic Management and Art of Hosting methodologies to design and lead trainings and multi-stakeholder gatherings across Southern, East and West Africa, and coordinates regenerative agriculture initiatives across the continent as Africa Coordinator for Regeneration International. She is co-author of Whole Landscapes, Whole Communities in the Barefoot Guide Series.
Didi Pershouse (USA) is the author of The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities and Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function. She teaches participatory workshops both in person and online, helping to show the nested relationships between ecological health, human health, water cycles, and climate resiliency. Didi has taught peer counseling in her local community for many years. She is a lineage member of Carol Sanford's Change Agent Development Community, and has led a weekly leadership group using living systems frameworks since 2020.
After more than 20 years as a health care provider at the Center for Sustainable Medicine, she founded the Land and Leadership Initiative and co-founded the "Can we Rehydrate California?" Initiative. She has been an independent trainer and curriculum developer for the UN-FAO Farmer Field School Program and the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative in India that involves over 1.8 million farmers, and is led by Women's Self Help Groups. She was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day in 2017.
She was a contributing author to The Climate Emergency: How Africa Can Survive and Thrive; Climate Change and Creation Care; and Health in the Anthropocene.
She serves on the Planning Commission for her town, is a board supervisor for the White River Natural Resources Conservation District, and is on the board of directors of the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. While serving on the state appointed Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group, she helped to reorient the program back to its public roots. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetland while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.
The origins of our work together
Didi and Precious met at the Biodiversity for a Liveable Climate Workshop in 2014 (and on the spot decided to teach a workshop together on peer support during a breakout session, and another in Vermont the following weekend). They have been close friends and colleagues ever since, with lots of laughs and lots of tears during phone calls in the middle of the night, from Zimbabwe to the US. They co-hosted a Sisters Working in Soil Health support group during the covid shutdown, have taught together for the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, recorded podcasts, taught workshops, and worked together on the Barefoot Guide series.
After more than 20 years as a health care provider at the Center for Sustainable Medicine, she founded the Land and Leadership Initiative and co-founded the "Can we Rehydrate California?" Initiative. She has been an independent trainer and curriculum developer for the UN-FAO Farmer Field School Program and the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative in India that involves over 1.8 million farmers, and is led by Women's Self Help Groups. She was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day in 2017.
She was a contributing author to The Climate Emergency: How Africa Can Survive and Thrive; Climate Change and Creation Care; and Health in the Anthropocene.
She serves on the Planning Commission for her town, is a board supervisor for the White River Natural Resources Conservation District, and is on the board of directors of the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. While serving on the state appointed Payment for Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group, she helped to reorient the program back to its public roots. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetland while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.
The origins of our work together
Didi and Precious met at the Biodiversity for a Liveable Climate Workshop in 2014 (and on the spot decided to teach a workshop together on peer support during a breakout session, and another in Vermont the following weekend). They have been close friends and colleagues ever since, with lots of laughs and lots of tears during phone calls in the middle of the night, from Zimbabwe to the US. They co-hosted a Sisters Working in Soil Health support group during the covid shutdown, have taught together for the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, recorded podcasts, taught workshops, and worked together on the Barefoot Guide series.
Regions where we are starting:
Invitations are currently going out across:
Invitations are currently going out across:
- Zimbabwe / Africa (Local Organizer: Precious Phiri)
- Trinidad and Tobago / the Caribbean (Local Organizer: Sarah Bharath)
- Northeast USA (Local Organizer: Didi Pershouse)
- California / Pacific Northwest USA (Local Organizer TBD)
- Midwest USA (Local Organizer: Lynnette Miller)
A note about language:
Our initial year will be in English, only because it is the language that our local organizers share in common. English is NOT the primary language of many of the women we would love to include. As our program grows, we plan to form cohorts in other languages, and to have funding to provide translation so that we can all work together.
Our initial year will be in English, only because it is the language that our local organizers share in common. English is NOT the primary language of many of the women we would love to include. As our program grows, we plan to form cohorts in other languages, and to have funding to provide translation so that we can all work together.
INTRODUCTORY Workshops
Both run 8 AM–12 PM Pacific /11 AM-3 PM Eastern USA/ 5–9 PM Zimbabwe.
Attending these introductory sessions is a prerequisite for joining the regular sessions. We will offer other dates in the future.
October 10: Introduction to Tools for Peer Support and Mutual Resourcing
with Didi Pershouse
How do we listen to each other (and share with each other) in ways that help us remember and reclaim our own intelligence, power, and goodness?
In this workshop, participants will practice being a resource for each other to cut through learned responses/patterns that drag us down such as:
Doing this work together can be deeply moving, oddly energizing, and help us remember our love for each other and our zest for life.
In this workshop, participants will practice being a resource for each other to cut through learned responses/patterns that drag us down such as:
- exhaustion, overwhelm, distraction
- fear, embarrassment
- perfectionism, self-hatred, discouragement
- waiting for permission
Doing this work together can be deeply moving, oddly energizing, and help us remember our love for each other and our zest for life.
November 7: Developing a Holistic Context for your Work and Life
with Precious Phiri
In this workshop, participants will build the first draft of their own holistic context, starting with their "whole under management"
Including:
We’ll use guided questioning, reflection, small group work, and paired Think and Listens to help each person separate what they truly value from what they’ve inherited or assumed, closing with a fishbowl share where a few participants test their draft context aloud with the group witnessing. Each of us will develop a live holistic context, which we can keep using to test decisions, and keep updating as we learn more.
In future Holistic Management meetings we will learn and practice:
Including:
- the decision makers
- the people, land, and resources actually in their care
We’ll use guided questioning, reflection, small group work, and paired Think and Listens to help each person separate what they truly value from what they’ve inherited or assumed, closing with a fishbowl share where a few participants test their draft context aloud with the group witnessing. Each of us will develop a live holistic context, which we can keep using to test decisions, and keep updating as we learn more.
In future Holistic Management meetings we will learn and practice:
- Using Holistic Management (HM) for financial planning
- Testing decisions through Holistic Management
- Holistic Policy Analysis and Design
Ongoing meetings on 2nd and 4th Tuesdays
9–11 AM Pacific / 12–2 PM Eastern / 6–8 PM Zimbabwe.
October 2026
- 4th Tuesday: October 27
- 2nd Tuesday: November 10
- 4th Tuesday: November 24
- 2nd Tuesday: December 8
- 4th Tuesday: December 22
- 2nd Tuesday: January 12
- 4th Tuesday: January 26