Lose It! – July 2019

JUST

THE

BIZZ

KEEP IT

REAL

KNOWING YOUR JAR

OF DELICIOUS CREAMY

FULL-FAT YOGHURT WAS

MADE THOUGHTFULLY

BY THE RESIDENTS OF

CAMPHILL VILLAGE IS SURE

TO MAKE IT A REGULAR

ON YOUR GROCERY LIST.

amphill Village founder

Renate Sleigh is often

described as ‘the heartbeat

of Camphill’. Now 88

and retired, Renate still lives on the

Malmesbury farm, reading to the

elderly and mentoring Camphill’s

volunteers. Her son James has taken over as CEO

of Camphill Village.

And it’s quite an operation: the farm produces

dairy products, baked goods and cosmetics; but it is

also home to 95 adults with intellectual development

disorders. Camphill’s residents all live and work on the

farm to create the products you find on the shelves.

The concept, however, didn’t actually start with

Renate; it was her father’s: Karl König was fleeing what

was soon to be war-torn Austria when he originally

came up with the idea. ‘My father was a refugee from

Vienna,’ explains Renate. ‘When Hitler marched in,

he had to go. He moved from Vienna to Scotland –

that’s where Camphill started.’

Renate grew up on that very first Camphill farm

in Scotland. ‘We were enemy aliens and the war was

just about to start.’ Despite their refugee status in a

foreign country, Karl created a safe space for children

with intellectual development disorders.

After Renate finished her nurse’s training, she and

Julien Sleigh (‘a young lad from Italy’ and Renate’s

Below:
Camphill
Village founder
Renate Sleigh.

C