Ethan Hirsch-Tauber

Before founding The Water Folk, Ethan Hirsch-Tauber spent many years living in a range of communities around the world, working as a sustainability educator, and gaining a deep understanding of the connections between water and climate. He studied the Water Retention Landscapes of Tamera, Portugal, and later traveled with and was mentored by Waterman of India, Dr. Rajendra Singh. In 2018, he founded a US-based company, Worldwide Water Wizards, to start doing this climate-based watershed restoration work himself. Ethan is now passionately piloting The Water Folk to implement water catchment projects in Sonoma County and beyond.

Philip Munyasia

Philip Odhiambo Munyasia, the founder of OTEPIC, grew up in Mitume in Kenya. He taught people in his neighborhood how to grow their own food and improve their situation. Eager to learn more, he did an internship on the permaculture farm “Ecology Action” in California. Later, he took part in the “Global Campus” training program in Tamera, Portugal where he became familiar with Sepp Holzer’s permaculture. In 2008, he founded OTEPIC (Organic Technology Extension and Promotion of Initiative Centre) teaching subsistence farmers, women and youth groups in the “Trans-Nzoia County” in Western Kenya and its surrounding areas to use permaculture as an alternative way to gain food security and to conserve nature and biodiversity.