Briefing No. 34 - Colombia Special
Greenwood Place in Colombia
A few weeks ago, a group of twenty Greenwood Place community members came together to travel and meet with social innovators and change-makers from across Colombia.
Over a period of five days, we took time to consider together how we could approach a time which feels uncertain and unsettling in so many ways and to dig into the issues we are facing with optimism and energy.
We put together this special edition briefing to share a little of what we learned.
“I learned so much - from the visits of course, but also the group itself and not just the questions but the interactions, connections and general energetic field. Lots of thinking, lots of new sparks and ideas still coming, and adjustments to make.”
“I know I will be feeling the ripples of this trip for many weeks and months to come.”
Participant, Greenwood Place Learning Journey 2023
Our Plane Reading
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker has been a constant source of referral for the Greenwood Place team over the past few years, and never more than in the run up to the Learning Journey. We’ve recommended it before but it bears repeating - it is a true boon for anyone looking to create gatherings with intention. We have sticky notes and underlinings all over the Greenwood Place office copy.
Most of us were also carrying copies of Wade Davis’s Magdalena: River of Dreams - a geography book about Colombia’s great arterial river that unpacks both the political history and the ecology of Colombia, and celebrates the beauty and complexity of the country.
Turning the Problem into the Solution
The backdrop to Bogotá is the Cerros Orientales, the Colombian Andes. We climbed up there early one morning with social enterprise LiveHappy. The mountain landscape - the Páramo - is both beautiful and dangerous. Most Bogotáns fear the people who live in the remote hillside communities and do not venture there.
LiveHappy was built by trail runners who began hiring and training young people from remote mountain communities to provide security for walkers and to care for the trails - working with the communities to plough their profit into the things that young people and their families say they need most. Co-Founder Rafael Torres told us, “We figured, why not turn the problem into the solution.” There have been zero robberies in the area since LiveHappy started work.
Building Peace
Coschool was founded on the belief that peace-building needs to start in the classroom. Fifty years of civil war have left a lasting negative effect on families and children across the country.
Coschool responds to societal fractures by bringing socio-emotional learning into schools - working to build trust, improve relationships, increase confidence and enhance problem-solving techniques. Dilan, Coschool graduate and trainee teacher, left us with the thought that “Education is, after all, an act of love.”
Building Community
Patricia (name changed) used to be a journalist. She trained as a child-minder with early years education specialists AeioTu not long after she arrived in Bogotá as a refugee from Venezuela. She lives in a small apartment in Soacha - an area of the city that, she told us, has the same problems as the rest of the city but 10x fewer resources - and has filled it with engaging toys and learning aids for the pre-schoolers she cares for. She’s determined to be part of creating a stable and peaceful future. She told us that the work she does now is a direct contribution to building a better future.
Relationship
Gaia Amazonas is committed to the protection of biological and cultural diversity, and the future of the Amazon rainforest. Since 1990, they have worked hand in hand with Indigenous communities of the Northwest Amazon for the recognition of their rights, territories, and local governance systems, as the most viable and dignified strategy for forest conservation.
Gaia Amazonas’ work - which leads to a 3-5x reduction in annual deforestation rates - recognises and relies on a deep interdependence of people and nature. Founder Martin von Hildebrand told us: “What is important is not the part but the relationship between the parts. If we focus on the individual we become chaos. Everything is about the community.”
Respect at the Bases of Partnership
We travelled with Carlos Ignacio Velasco of Cacao Hunters to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the far north of Colombia to meet Carlos’s partners from the Indigenous Arhuaco community. Together Cacao Hunters and the Arhuacos have built a business that creates some of the best chocolate in the world.
We wanted to understand the deep, mutually respectful, partnership that they have built in an isolated region of Colombia that suffered deeply during fifty years of civil war. Community Leader Hernan told us that the basis of the partnership was respect: “Cacao Hunters were the first to come, and they listened. They respect nature. We share many things.”
Pause
El Colegio del Cuerpo – the School of the Body – is a community built in, and directly in response to, challenging times. Born in 1997 as an artistic, social and educational response to bodily mistreatments in Colombia – violence, kidnappings, displacement, torture and murder – El Colegio merges dance and social justice. A contemporary dance school at its core, it provides a safe and engaging environment for its students, the majority of whom come from extremely challenging social backgrounds, to pause, to heal and to learn both self-respect and respect for others.
Founder Alvaro Restrepo spoke to us of the importance of “the pause… the silence between the notes”. As a dancer, he explained, you prepare, then pause, and then move. Viktor Frankl phrased it: “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Celebrate
We ended our week at Hay Festival Cartagena with our community members Andrew Bastawrous of Peek Vision, Louisa Mitchell of West London Zone and Maria Adelaida Lopez of AeioTU sharing their stories on stage. The standing ovation that ended that session was a moment of celebration for all of us.
AND…
A deep thank you from all @ Greenwood Place to all of our hosts and friends in Colombia - to Antonuela Ariza and Eduardo Martinez of Mini Mal - and everyone who joined us at their restaurant for supper, to Juan Diego Céspedes Henao and all the team at Fundación Santo Domingo, to the amazing team at Gema Tours, to Patricia and Carlos Julio Ardila for welcoming us to their home and to Cristina Fuentes La Roche whose inspiration lies behind the entire journey.
And a very particular thank you to Virgilio Barco, friend and guide - without whom the week would not have been possible.
“Profound, deep, nourishing and a joy. To be part of such an incredible community and to visit a beautiful country and witness incredible people was such a gift. Thank you Greenwood Place.”
Participant, Greenwood Place Learning Journey 2023
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