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 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 are 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, internships and are supporting locals, refugees and migrants to set up sustainable collective-enterprises benefiting the local economy; including Productos de La Bolina – a veg box scheme, moringa, conserves, olive oils and training programmes. We also sell our produce in shop, hotels and enterprises in Granada and beyond.

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 this 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: 12
Not currently open to new members, but might be in the future
Rarely open to visitors

Our priority is refugees, migrants and local Spanish people including people who we might find appealing to the needs of our project. 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 also 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. 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 application and fund raising. 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. As a project most members live in the same shared space, we are keen on exploring different decisions making processes. We will like to have an experience person in decision making processes along the theme of Sociocracy. We are always beginning new land projects and require volunteers to support on our numerous pieces of land. And finally we have begun Productos de La Bolina a series of micro-collective-enterprises and are seeking people to support in numerous fields of business development and marketing.