Hello and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling – I’m Emily Hart and this week we have something a little bit different – the radical linguistic technique which is building peace - personal and political - all over the world, and the inspiring woman bringing it to Colombia. 

This week, I have with me Camila Reyes Azcuénaga – the founder of Resuena, the organisation bringing the school of thought known as ‘Nonviolent Communication’ (NVC) to Colombia, a way of structuring our thoughts and communications to prevent and heal conflict, breaching the divides of culture, politics, and identity. 

Developed in the late 20th Century by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, NVC now has trainers and centres in more than 60 countries around the world. This simple technique aims to humanise the ‘other’, and forge communication, collaboration, and trust – from our daily life, to our work, and well beyond. 

Camila studied law and political science and worked with indigenous communities and landmines here in Colombia, but felt the country needed a more fundamental change than she could achieve with that work. She left Colombia in search of something which would shift the paradigm of violence and conflict entirely. 

After stumbling across Nonviolent Communication training during Occupy Wall Street, she felt she’d found what she was looking for – she spent years training and finally returned to Colombia, founding Resuena in 2011, running free workshops for years.

Resuena has now trained thousands, from institutions like the United Nations, the Truth Commission, and the Search Unit for Missing Persons, to grassroots social leaders in conflict-stricken areas of Colombia’s South-west. The group helps people to navigate interpersonal relationships and conflicts, as well as maintain cohesion within movements and groups. 

Through guided discussions, participants are trained to identify the patterns of behaviour that divide them and weaken their collective campaigns and processes, and then to replace them with a focus on acting from common ground. This year, Resuena also launched the ‘Sowers of Nonviolent Communication’ network – so that trainees can go into their own communities and pass on the training. 

So today, Camila is going to give us a masterclass in these techniques and their underlying ideas, talking us through the four steps – observation, feeling, need, and request – along with some everyday examples. She’ll then tell us about her amazing work in some of Colombia’s most difficult contexts, and why this work is so necessary not just for the country – but for all of us.

On Episode 541 of the Colombia Calling podcast, and given the current COP16 in Cali, we revisit our conversation with special guest Ole Reidar Bergum - Counsellor for Climate and Forests/ Consejero de Clima y Bosque - Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bogotá, who joined us to speak in-depth and openly about the tragedy of the rampant deforestation taking place at the moment in Colombia.

We discuss the causes and results and what the Norwegian government, along with other collaborators, are trying to do to prevent an area the size of Bogotá being deforested each year.

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Be sure to check out her substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

Colombia stands out for its excellent healthcare and is rapidly becoming another destination for medical healthcare. Thinking of a tummy tuck, a hair implant, some dentistry or more? Take a look at the options, go through a reputable agency and take a holiday at the same time.

This week, we speak to Kirby Braddell of Medical Tourism Packages, to talk about what is offered in Colombia.

https://www.medicaltourismpackages.com/

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Grace Brennan.

This week we get on the line to Naresh Dahal in Kathmandu to compare and contrast the tourism practices and politics in both Nepal and Colombia.

Naresh is local travel specialist in Nepal and can assist with customising and tailor-making a tour and holiday suiting your travel needs, so he’s a man in the know.

Whilst the countries may seem incredibly different from one another, we discover there to be some striking similarities as well.

Join us for a pleasant conversation from Bogota to Kathmandu.

"South London has a serious problem with knife crime."

This week we discuss how Henry May arrived in Colombia and ended up being a mover and shaker in the education world here. After a life-changing experience involving a tragedy relating to one of his students in South London, Henry questioned his life choices in education, leading him to consider other avenues.

Read on to find out more about Henry.

Henry May is a Social Entrepreneur from the UK currently living in Colombia where he currently serves as the CEO of Coschool, an education business focused on Social & Emotional learning in K-12 education. Henry has been recognised as a “rising star” of Colombian business by Dinero magazine and as “The teacher closing the inequality gap” by El Tiempo newspaper.

Coschool is a social enterprise in Colombia that designs and implements methodologies for developing social & emotional skills in youth & teachers in the post-conflict country Henry's Coschool seeks to generate an impact on people through its programs, strengthening socio-emotional skills, contributing to their well-being and empowering them as agents of change.

Coschool was selected by HundrED as one of the top 100 innovative global organizations that are transforming education through their proposals in 2020 and 2021. Located in Finland, HundrED seeks to spread ambitious and pedagogically sound innovations. In Latin America, only 8 projects were chosen, 2 of them from Colombia. Coschool was selected for being a pioneer and for its ability to create a scalable impact.

 https://coschool.co

The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart.