The Foundation

Our Dream, our Mission!

« Our personal experience and endeavors have led us to believe in a world of resilience (ability to absorb and adapt to change) in which the fundamental needs of life (eating, having a home, access to health and sharing) would be met locally, in which food production would partake in the collective effort for environmental enrichment, and in which the great ecologic and energetic transition would bring forth the best of abundance and joyful simplicity. Our paths have led us to men and women that embody this ideal, and therefore we know that it is up to us responsible individuals to initiate the change we want to see happen in societies. At the very heart of this sustainable development stands the Individual in his relationship to his environment and his community. These are the objectives we have assigned to ourselves, and the dream that we took to pursue for ourselves 10 years ago, and that we now wish to carry on with the community. »

                                                                                                                    Damien & Lyse

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We are a young structure created in 2017 (supported by Millenium Foundation and Léa Nature) and bought old rice fields that we want to rehabilitate by creating a resilient cultivated ecosystem through permaculture: vegetable garden, orchard, aromatic and medicinal plants, grains. Our goal is to produce enough food, in quantity and diversity, to provide schools and use the farm as an educational and experimental structure. Indeed, a plot of 2500 m2 was donated to PAI SEEDLINGS FOUNDATION when it was created by Khun Kritanai Chungyampin. This land is an old rice field farmed in non-intensive monoculture (one harvest per year) and chemical (use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers twice per harvest). We want to rehabilitate part of this land in a community kitchen garden by using permaculture. In addition to the 2500m2 offered to the Foundation, Khun Kritanai Chungyampin owns the adjacent land of more than 4000m2 on which Thai jasmine rice will be grown during the rainy season this year 2017 (June to October) without fertilizer application . And on which we can grow different types of seeds such as wheat, sesame, corn …

THE TRIBE

We are Damien and Lyse, a couple who fell in love with Thai culture and their people about 5 years ago and moved to a peaceful place in Thailand’s Pai Valley, a few kilometers from the Burmese border. . For 5 years we have grown a 800 m² large vegetable garden following the principles of permaculture, observing and enriching ourselves with the local experience of Lung Son (Uncle Son), the 65 year old owner of our house and garden , local farmer forever. Two years ago, we found the land of our dreams, ancient rice fields located in Pai and surrounded by beautiful and majestic mountains. Thanks to this land, we are fulfilling our dream of neo-farmers, whose vision is to achieve food and energy self-sufficiency for our family and community and to create a site dedicated to education and sharing of knowledge. . This winter 2016-2017, thanks to the support of the Millennium Foundation (one of the most important foundations of the Chiang Mai region) recognized by the Thai government as being of public utility, we were able to create in Pai our own foundation named Pai Seedlings Foundation, under which all of our activities are grouped together. Our primary objective is the rehabilitation of this land by creating a resilient cultivated ecosystem using the founding principles of permaculture.

Damien Masselis: President and Project Manager

Damien has been living in Thailand since 2009 and is one of the co-founder of Pai Seedlings Foundation. He is passionate about his host country and has always been inspired by its living tradition and its unique art de vivre. Cooking and the philosophy of the Dao have led him to permaculture which he studied for 7 months as a volunteer in PunpunFarm, a center for resilience, near Chiang Mai.

Project Manager for Pai Seedlings Foundation, he now dreams to give this adventure a collective dimension to offer as much as he has received and to offer the future generation a cleaner and more resilient world.

Lyse Kong: Co-founder and permaculture project manager

Lyse has a background in Chemistry. She gave up this field 10 years ago when she consciously brought herself into a new life connected with Mother-Earth. She is a nature lover and mother of two beautiful children. After living in multiple farms, she took her permaculture course PDC in Thailand in 2013 and has been working on land restoration through permaculture since 2011.

She facilitates permaculture workshops for children, and small groups on how to raise awareness and mindfulness in their daily life.

Co-founder of Pai Seedlings Foundation, she makes a point to embody in her everyday life the value of this life project.

Lung Son: Our expert in tropical farming

Lung Son lived his whole life as a farmer in Vieng Nuea until he decided 8 years ago to buy a plot of land, restore its fertility through natural practices, and turn his back on modern agriculture to grow organic substistence crops. The results are breathtaking!

Local expert with a big heart, it is in his land that Lyse and Damien have been living since 2011. It is thanks to him that they have understood some of the local dynamics and through him that we have slowly nurtured this project.