Children are increasingly growing up in a world where nature and wilderness are mostly absent. Education does not empower building a healthy deep relationship with the living system around us. As the planet moves closer to potential ecological and climate collapse, we realize the human-nature disconnect is a crucial aspect affecting our capacity to help the planet heal and regenerate.
Assume we want to build a future in which all life on the planet can thrive together. In that case, providing children the learning environments to develop a deep and long-lasting relationship with nature. Through this process, they also strengthen their connections with others and themselves. This work has three pillars: re-connect; awaken the naturalist within, and embody action for regeneration.
We provide students access to nature in short to 35-day programs that combine academic knowledge, physical and experiential immersions in nature (awe), and socio-emotional learning. These experiences strengthen the students' capacity for critical systems thinking, empathy with nature, and empowerment for action (change-making).
Incorporating nature as an essential and powerful ally in education and working with a living systems approach facilitates breaking the barriers between humans and nature, allowing students to start exploring "we are nature."
Our work has spread to many educational organizations and schools around Colombia using our approach or parts of it. Last year we reached 13 new cities in the country with our solution. It has also been recognized globally as a successful and innovative project addressing global educational challenges. A +160k GBP project based on our approach is currently being implemented by OpEPA. We continue to develop and move forward with teacher training programs that directly provide teachers with skills and tools in Latin America. Working with ally organizations nationally and internationally, we constantly create resources to share with and stimulate educators and families worldwide, we are leading a global initiative with IUCN and launched the Greening Schoolgrounds Global Action Agenda.
To start including nature in your programs, allow yourself to deeply reconnect with nature, be inspired by and explore your sense of being and capacity for love. Go outside with your students, share this feeling with them, and allow them to breathe, feel, and be in awe of the magic of nature. Contact us and we will help you with ideas, tools and methodologies you can use or courses you can take.
