Scholarship holders and researchers celebrating Ecotenderness in the garden at the National University of Colombia. © Photo: TRAJECTS.

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By:
Nataly Díaz Cruz
Academic Coordinator
TRAJECTS Hub Latin America

In September, Colombia typically celebrates the Love and Friendship Month. At the Latin America Hub of TRAJECTS, we have chosen to give a new meaning to this celebration by honoring Ecotenderness alongside the master’s and doctoral scholarship holders from the National University of Colombia.

We first encountered this concept during our most recent Mobile School in the city of Leticia, Amazonas. Ecotenderness is understood as a model of environmental education and action centered on spiritual connection and the responsible care of nature, especially through participation in community projects such as gardens and mingas (collective work). It also strengthens our bond with the land, helping to preserve biodiversity and raise environmental awareness.

Through an exchange of affectivities for sustainability, we celebrated the path that each participant is walking toward a more just and sustainable world, contributing to the search for solutions to the civilizational crisis we currently face.

In addition to sharing intangible yet significant expressions, such as songs, poems, hugs, dances, and drawings, we also organized a minga in the medicinal garden at the Bogotá campus of the National University of Colombia. It was a profoundly beautiful event that reminded us that, beyond technology, the transition toward sustainability also requires a cultural transformation that involves our social and emotional dimensions.

Top left: UNAL fellows. Top right: PhD students pruning the garden. Bottom left: UNAL garden. Bottom right: Fellows and Hub LATAM team exchanging details.© Photos: Nataly Díaz and TRAJECTS.