La Bolina - Global Ecovillage Network

Our Vision:
A dynamic and thriving multicultural and ecological revolution in the rural area where we live which creates new sustainable livelihoods for locals and newcomers*, regenerates the ecosystem and celebrates cultural diversity.

*By newcomers we refer to people from all countries wanting to settle in this area particularly refugees and migrants.

Our Mission:
To create sustainable solutions for real-life issues, specifically the depopulation of rural villages, the degradation of land, high local unemployment, and the unmet basic needs of refugees and migrants. We aim to provide trainings, develop micro-enterprises and sustainable livelihoods, set up housing cooperatives, and coordinate cross-cultural integration to transform multilevel problems into genuine opportunities.

La Bolina is working to create systemic change by connecting, educating, and empowering young locals and migrants to create sustainable ‘collective-enterprising’ using local social and solidarity economy.

Our Activities:
We run trainings in permaculture, agroecology, and commercialisation, we host volunteers and interns and support locals and newcomers to set up sustainable collective-enterprises. We run a veg box scheme in collaboration with a network of local organic producers that enables us to offer conserves, olive oil, wine, etc. and to sell our produce in shops, hotels, and enterprises in the Lecrin Valley and Granada.

Our Origins:
We met in summer 2016 on an Eroles Project residency in Spain where 16 people from all over the world gathered to create a project which offered an integrated and holistic approach to borders, climate change, new economy, human rights, and migration. During these three weeks a set of visions and set of values emerged, along with a deep understanding of each other and a commitment to radical friendship, which resulted in the group deciding to live, work and develop the Project La Bolina together.

www.labolina.org

Membership & Visitors

Current members: 10
Not currently open to new members, but might be in the future
Open to visitors

Our priority is to involve refugees, migrants, and local people. We also consider long term volunteers whose expertise might be valuable according to our project needs. The project also considers people who respect our core values and principles and visions. We put gender equality and respect for women as a priority. Regeneration, sustainability, and integration is an important principle we put into our practice. This approach pushes us into respecting the values of the local people in the rural community we are living in. We are also keen to have people who are innovative in local businesses and small scale enterprises. We are also interested in experienced people in funding applications and fundraising. As a community and a project, we are interested in someone to support us in our communication strategy preferably a fluent Spanish and English speaker. We are a scattered community across the valley and we share different houses.