Emma and Edo were once a hotel stage show dance team, until they quit to live out their dream of rescuing animals (Emma) and farming (Edo) on the island of Tenerife. They bought cheap land and began to transform the rocky, dusty soil into a lush homestead.
In the beginning, it was just Emma, Edo, and some family toiling on the land to create basic accommodation. This was at a time of bare basics, with no electricity, running water, or toilets. Soon they were joined by volunteers, and they got creative building homes out of old vans, hillside caves, mud and clay, and scrap materials (including a lot of old pallet wood).
After a couple years, they had expanded beyond an animal sanctuary into a full-fledged community with 40 to 50 volunteers living on-site who all worked to live as lightly on the land as possible. The Tenerife Horse Rescue community is completely off-grid, using solar power, but also clever inventions like a horse poo water heater and a pedal-powered washing machine.
Since the average rainfall on Tenerife is between 11 to 30 millimeters for most of the year, all water is reused. Kitchen and shower water (greywater) is filtered with natural materials like pebbles and papyrus. Toilet water (blackwater) goes through a more rigorous process of biofilters. First it goes into tanks where it is oxygenated to separate liquids and solids, then it flows into a biofilter basin which works as a hydroponic pond (gravel, water, plants but no soil). Then it goes through a biofilter basins which use gravel and papyrus to trap particles and compounds after which it is finally clean enough to water the garden.
To feed what has now become a small village of people and animals, the villagers have graduated from dumpster diving to “freeganism”: they have an established relationship with a local supermarket to collect all damaged, ugly or out-of-date food. Every day, three volunteers pick up new van loads of food, it is then sorted for humans or animals.
To be sure that nothing gets wasted, and to give back to the community, they’ve gone one step further by registering as a local food bank so they can distribute food to local low-income families and other animal sanctuaries.
To volunteer: https://tenerifehorserescue.com/volunteer-with-us/
To donate: https://tenerifehorserescue.com/
More videos on the Tenerife Horse Rescue channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TenerifeHorseRescue
Drone footage of Tenerife: @madairadventure5201
On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/couple-builds-island-off-grid-village-with-friends-leftovers/
I wonder about group dynamics and communication because conflict always happens with building projects. Some "volunteers" expect to be paid for their work no matter waht and others don't want to do the dirty work like waste removal. Many people do not do what they say they will do. All that plastic bread bags and grocery waste for example has to be taken somewhere. WHo pays for the fuel and supplies like basic hardware and cleaning and equipment? What happens in emergencies? How are people selected? How are people asked to leave? Who makes final decesions ? There are many hardships with community efforts, this just shows the fun side of things.
Her daughters were like, "mommm, why you keep calling us 'volunteers'?"
Since I have been subscribed to Kirsten's YouTube channel for a very long time (about a decade or something like that), I will try to express my humble opinion as clearly, as I really feel.
Ok, here we go…
The first point is that the climate on the Canary islands is generally very mild, warm and sunny most time of the year, so caring for animals is a great pleasure literally at any time of the year…
Still, please tell me, what should those people who were born by the will of fate, for example, in the real heart of Russia, where winter frosts up to from -40 to -45 degrees by Celsius are the absolute(!) climatic norm of January, and where for this reason a lot of dogs, cats and wild animals every single year die from the cold?
Would your community have the courage to protect defenseless Siberian animals? I strongly doubt it, especially considering that literally the entire Western world is now literally turned out against Russia and now hates Russian nature at all.
But, you know what(?), – Russia is far-far way NOT only about the war, whatsoever! ; )
Russia is comparable in its territory to the total(!) surface area of the planet Pluto!!! Please, just remember this scientific fact, my dear friends, and make your own decisions on this! ; )
And, let my Northern Siberian gods bless us all, dear humankind!
Cheers,
Serge
A really interesting watch. They should look at planting native trees further out to act as a wind break as trees also improve soil retention and quality.
The warm climate… the animals… would biogas make sense here?
so amazing!!!!
Thank you for this inspiring video
❤❤❤❤ thanks for this video!
Hola estaba viendo este video y vi una bandera chilena, hay algún chileno?
Love the recycling of everything. Especially free food for you all.
It is mind blowing how much food is wasted in the west . It is so sad . You wish it would not be legal. This community is so brave and inspiring. Wish them the very best of luck!
Thank you so much for your videos! I had a misfortune, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I also created a channel and am trying to move in that direction, but so far not very successful(w
What a beautiful example of a thriving community. The animals look so healthy and happy. Bless you all.
I love this and what they are doing but how can you run an animal sanctuary and still eat meat, eggs and dairy!? Surely this should be an entirely Vegan community. It seems completely hypocritical to me. ????????♂️????????????♂️????????
I love this and what they are doing but how can you run an animal sanctuary and still eat meat, eggs and dairy!? Surely this should be an entirely Vegan community. It seems completely hypocritical to me. ????????♂️????????????♂️????????
I'm also going to be starting a cult to get the manpower to build my compound.
So happy that you have shown Tenerife Horse Rescue and Emma and Edo! They are doing an amazing job here. Greetings from Tenerife!
I Love the Concept and the Energy. The Mindset is Beautiful. Blessings and Sustainability to them all.
I lived in this amazing community for 2 months and I can confirm that it is a great way to live sustainably. There are also many more things happening that aren’t mentioned in this video!
This place will always be in my heart as well as the people I shared the experience with ❤
If you can support them in any way, please do ????????
Very interesting! I'm currently on a slow hiking trip through the Canary islands and this would be a great place to stay and help. Thank you for this video.
So glad to see how much progress you have made
Wow ! A staggering amount of cast-off goods and greens from the market. So much to work with, and for. ????????