The Permaculture Institute of El Salvador (IPES) is a grassroots organization of subsistence farmers, which registered as a Not for Profit Foundation with the government of El Salvador in 2002. The mission is to promote permaculture for the development of a healthier, wiser and more ecologically sustainable society. IPES started small. Relying on volunteers and small donations, it taught ecological farming to small groups of farmers in a handful of communities. Over the past years, they have expanded enormously to meet the rapidly growing demand from poor rural communities for ways of sustainable living and farming.