Twinning Regenerative Educators: Aldea Feliz (Colombia) & Kuthumba Ecovillage (South Africa)

Uba Qynza at Aldeafeliz Ecovillage in Colombia in South America and The Self Directed Learning Center at Kuthumba Ecovillage in South Africa partnered in the course of a year during the Twinning ReGENerative Education Project, in which beyond developing their connection as twins they shared their experiences in Sociocracy and deschooling, respectively and also participated working together in the cocreation of the project deliverables such as the Living Showcase and Toolkit and the Teacher Training.

Similar in sizes, attending 15 and 11 children respectively, both are results of long term processes inside their ecovillages, and were born as part of community projects in which parents and other community members are involved in the creation and facilitation. It’s interesting to notice that the two of them emphasise the importance of play.

“One of the things that really struck me about our twinship was like Uba Qynza is quite similar to us in terms of it’s in an ecovillage and it was set up initially by parents and… but they are 10 years older so we’re “babies” really and we’ve only been going for like 2 years. So it was really nice because there was quite an element of mentorship which will continue along the journey and that’s really wonderful and we want to stay in touch and continue the mentorship and maybe one day *fingers-crossed* we go and visit each other”. (Lauriane from The Self Directed Learning Center at Kuthumba Ecovillage in South Africa)

Being from the Global South, they also face some similar challenges, such as funding and trying to find alternative economic resources to help more families become part of the projects.

“I think it was quite reassuring because a lot of the things we were struggling with, they could resonate with because they had been through similar things”. (Lauriane from The Self Directed Learning Center at Kuthumba Ecovillage in South Africa)