I created Munay Forest Garden because I believe there is a general need for people to spend more time in nature. In our hectic lives with busy schedules and social commitments, we often spend far too little time in nature.

Growing up in the Belgian countryside as a “farmer girl”, I learned the vital connection between solidarity and nature. It is so important to connect with nature because when we connect, we care. With farming roots in my family, I spent my childhood outdoors, tending to gardens and animals.

My drive and perspectives of life were deeply shaped by my work as a social worker with refugees and homeless individuals in Belgium. Later, I focused on defending the rights of coca farmers in Bolivia, studying their survival strategies in the War on Drugs. Living in Kenya, I worked as an anthropologist and delved into the local lifeworld of young people, facing the realities of poverty and diseases like leishmania, TB, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. In the village, we had no tap water, no electricity, no gas… A big amount of our time was used cleaning the water that was carried in buckets on donkeys from Lake Victoria, cooking with firewood, and lighting the house with a candle or a petroleum lamp. “Close to nature”; “Romantic”, an ecologist would say. For most villagers, however, it is a daily reality and not romantic at all.

My experiences working in Bolivia and Kenya shed light on the intricate and ambiguous nature of the development world. Within development projects, complex power dynamics are always at play. The central question isn't solely whether development functions, but rather, HOW it operates and WHO ultimately reaps its benefits. Numerous stakeholders are involved, yet despite many repeating the same mistakes, little knowledge exchange occurs because our focus tends to fixate on success stories exclusively. Regrettably, if a project is labeled a 'success,' its narrative is shaped by how YOU, as a (natural or social) scientist, interpret certain situations. I aspire to one day muster the courage to pen a novel on 'Aspirations and Sex: Coming of Age in Western Kenya in a Context of HIV,' laying bare the true stakes in that village and advocating against injustice.

After my experiences in Kenya and Bolivia, my husband, our little daughter and I moved to Lima (Peru) and Dakar (Senegal). No matter where we had lived so far, I consistently established my own organic vegetable gardens for both nourishment and tranquility, viewing them as a form of meditation. Engaged within transition network groups and interconnected with organic farming networks, I immersed myself in projects focused on preserving organic cotton and/or (sheep and alpaca).

Due to my husband’s job, we relocated to Bonn. Despite the allure of city life, my passion for starting a permaculture food forest project led us to search for a countryside home near Bonn/Köln. After some time, we found our dream home in Drinhausen!