Ubuntu, a traditional African philosophy, recognizes how we are inextricably bound in each other’s humanity. Translated as, “I am because you are,” Ubuntu describes a sense of unity between people through which we each discover our own strengths and virtues. Featuring healer Credo Mutwa, GreenHouse Project director Dorah Lebelo, and former Deputy Minister of Health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, this glimpse of South Africa shows compassion as a way of life.
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Serving the Whole
By: Global Oneness Project
Featured Community Voice: Global Oneness Project
Global Oneness Project is a film project based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their mission is to explore how the radically simple notion of oneness can be lived in our increasingly complex world.
The Greatest PowerWhen Nelsa Curbelo, a
67-year-old social worker from the most violent city of Ecuador, smiles
into the camera and unabashedly declares, "Love is the greatest power.
It is more powerful than violence; more powerful than the atomic bomb,"
you believe her.
For Ms. Curbelo, love and deep respect are the
foundation of her work with Guayaquil gang members, who together are
transforming their city - once lost to poverty and violence - into a
community that supports their
Join my gang
Nelsa Curbelo, a 66-year-old former nun and schoolteacher, took on the toughest young criminals in Ecuador’s most violent city—and won them over with love.
In the city of Guayaquil in southern Ecuador, Latin pop music blares through the doorway of a graffiti-sprayed shop, competing with American hip-hop blasting from another nearby store. Teenagers, mostly boys, gather at the edge of the street, leaning against parked cars, bodies taut with restrained aggression. Children as young as 4—some shirtless or shoeless—spill onto the sidewalks in restless clusters. And slumped against the cracking paint of concrete walls, half-clothed men sleep, shaded from the hot Ecuadorian
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Grassroot Soccer project coordinator, Nolusindiso "Titie" Plaatjie, uses soccer to educate South African youth about HIV/AIDS prevention. She describes her childhood in the poverty-stricken city of Port Elizabeth and how soccer gave her the drive to be who she is today.
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Grassroot Soccer project coordinator, Nolusindiso "Titie" Plaatjie, uses soccer to educate South African youth about HIV/AIDS prevention. She describes her childhood in the poverty-stricken city of Port Elizabeth and how soccer gave her the drive to be who she is today.
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In the inner-city of Johannesburg, The GreenHouse Project is turning one urban park into a seedbed for sustainable communities. The program takes a holistic approach to the city's challenges, integrating green building and design, efficient and renewable energy, recycling, organic farming and nutrition.
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L.A.-based community activist Orland Bishop explains how the American economic system that assigns value to competition and scarcity of resources undermines oneness, which is inherently relational and abundant. Although the capitalist system as a whole resists investing in human development, people can create new systems that reinforce each individual's value instead of encouraging struggle and competition by making alternative agreements based on collective inspiration.
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In West Oakland, California, where liquor stores have replaced markets, People's Grocery is creating a healthy alternative, offering access to organic produce. Through urban gardens and local farms, People's Grocery supports a culture based on connection to the land, sustainable agricultural practices, and regenerating community.
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Permaculture expert Penny Livingston-Stark shows how natural systems can teach us better design practices. Learning to work with the earth not only creates a healthier environment, it also nourishes the people who live in it.
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Indian social activist Medha Patkar explains how the economic development model being imposed on India's farmers is neither inclusive nor sustainable. As natural resources become commodities and farming families lose the capacity to fulfill their own basic needs, Medha believes that the consumerist paradigm may end up destroying living communities.
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