Part of the 11-year-old University of Resistance’s curriculum is to share ancestral health knowledge. It has become survival knowledge as well as a tool to regain community power and autonomy. Creating, together with the Global Campus network, medicinal herb gardens in different hamlets of the Peace Community, studying ancestral and indigenous medicinal knowledge, seeds exchange across several regions of Colombia and abroad as well as creating a model of medicinal herb garden for children to … Read more
University of Resistance A collaborative University of farmers building regional autonomy in the area of education for non violent resistance
Eleven years ago, the community’s response was to organize volunteer teachers to give basic classes as a traveling university. “We began to realize that we are the owners of our education,” said Tuberquia. The names “Campesino University,” or the “University of Resistance.” reflect the core values that guide the education process in a campesino (farmer) culture. The community’s declared principles of resistance, solidarity, plurality, transparency, freedom and justice are taught hand in hand … Read more
Overcoming trauma Supporting children to overcome trauma and become responsible adults.
If life is a game called "I'm building the world", them it's fun to play. Beginners are not responsible for anything, like babies. But step by step the players learn about self responsibility and respect. There's the thrill and the theatre of initiation to become a Student. Through many challenging steps, the students prove to themselves and their mentors that they really can add beauty to their world, act courageously, accept criticism and much more. Eventually they too become mentors, ready … Read more
Localisation-economics of happiness Promoting the renewal of local communities, economies and cultures
The answer lies in shifting away from economic globalization towards localization. Whereas the global economy demands monoculture, both human and ecological, localisation is a process that adapts economic activity to diversity -- a fundamental principle of life. The worldwide localisation movement, including local food and finance, ecovillages, permaculture and transition towns, demonstrate that local economies rebuild our connections to one another and to the natural world – connections that … Read more
Intergenerational Living Creating spaces for young and old to live together
By designing our communities to encourage and facilitate a wide diversity of ages and stages of life from day care and preschools to assisted living and aged care we can reclaim the extended family that is often non-existent in the modern world. Day to day mixing in town/village centres and gathering places for recreation, play, entertainment, sport, music, theatre and art can add richness and texture to our community fabric. … Read more
Intergenerational Living Creating spaces for young and old to live together
By designing our communities to encourage and facilitate a wide diversity of ages and stages of life from day care and preschools to assisted living and aged care we can reclaim the extended family that is often non-existent in the modern world. Day to day mixing in town/village centres and gathering places for recreation, play, entertainment, sport, music, theatre and art can add richness and texture to our community fabric. … Read more
School yards to fruit forests Productive multi-purpose school grounds/ greening school yards or compounds/ school food forest/ school orchard gardens
Integrated land use design (ILUD) is an inclusive and participatory process that is used by the SCOPE and ReSCOPE Programmes in east and southern Africa to green the schools and turn the bare school grounds into food forests. In the ILUD process parents, teachers and the students come together and redesign the school environment into a functional landscape that meets the needs of the stakeholders at the school. They plan, implement and monitor together the establishment of a multi-purpose and … Read more
Bread from Sweet Potatoes Creating local food sovereignty
Challenges also includes post harvest processing or storage. This can lengthen the period for which sweet potato can be marketed but may also be relevant for subsistence oriented households to increase the period over which sweetpotato can be consumed, particularly where there is a marked dry season. Improving the sweetpotato value chain should lead to a linked set of impacts on the livelihoods of the poor including: 1) Increased income of those selling sweetpotato with particular advantages … Read more
The Practice of Forum Building transparency and authenticity in community
In the practice of Forum, we come together in ongoing groups to share deeply and authentically what is alive in us. With skillful facilitation, an atmosphere of safety is created, which enables us to step out of our comfort zone and into deeper levels of vulnerability and creativity. We also start to see ourselves as an integral part of the whole and not an isolated fragment. As witnesses, we build the capacity to hold more of the richness and diversity of human experience without being … Read more
The Ethics of Sustainable Thinking A framework for making moral and ethical choices
some choices are “right versus wrong” and most people only take a moment of reflection to come to the proper decision. Some choices are more complex and might be viewed as “right versus right”. From a sustainability perspective, there are six suggested categories, that can help guide our decision making Individual versus community. Global versus local. Law versus truth. Short term versus long term. Toxic versus non toxic. Justice versus mercy . We can also consider the pros and cons … Read more
