REGENERATION AND THE POWER OF PLACE: by Thais Corral, Environmental Pioneer (Brazil)

Home for Humanity’s Living Curriculum:

“Our culture is global, our vision is global, we are one humanity. But today, our action, our care, our cultivation is, and needs to be, local…Now our actions and our commitments have to be local even if we think globally.’

“Home is the place that we care for, in which we implement the values, the perspectives, the visions that we believe the world needs today.” 

In this authentic conversation, pioneering environmentalist Thais Corral, speaks to us from the community home she founded of the transformative power of place, and the urgent need for ‘relocalisation’ that COVID has intensified, after the footloose period of globalization and frenetic world travel. Thais shares the remarkable experiment in regeneration she founded at Sinal do Vale for young transformation agents, in the Mata Atlantica forest near Rio de Janeiro which led her to discover the power of place and community. She brings to light how nature-based solutions enable us through observation and enquiry to learn from the inherent abundance and resilience in nature. She underlines the need to return to the rhythms of nature, and the rhythm of our own bodies, which we long ignored in our globalized age.   As the eminent co-founder of the Women’s Environment and Development Movement, she speaks to us of the importance of feminine leadership, and emphasises how feminine values of care have shown their invaluable importance during the COVID crisis and need to be nurtured in men as well as in women.  She highlights how ‘homes’ can provide us with the place of departure for the new beginning we need, anchored in care for our local communities, while still connected to our global tribes. She emphasises the importance of an attitude of service rather than selfishness, and cultivating personal relationships as the basis for transformation.

Biography: Thais Corral is a social innovator, ecologist and women’s leader. As mentioned above, she is the Founder of Sinal do Vale, a Brazilian integral organisation located near Rio de Janeiro, in the Mata Atlantica. Sinal do Vale serves as a regeneration campus for individuals, ecosystems and communities. It is deeply engaged in reforestation, food security and sustainability education.  She is one of the leaders who actively participated in the Earth Summit in 1992 and was awarded the “Women of the year 2001” title by the Brazilian National Council of Women. Thais also co-founded WEDO, Women’s Environment and Development Organisation - with Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai and other eminent women leaders - and more recently, Home for Humanity.  www.sinaldovale.org  

The conversation with Kosha Joubert was conducted by Ludovic Mosisca  and Stefanie Kriech, Members of the Home for Humanity Team 2020. The team worked on the creation of a Home for Humanity Living Curriculum – a task that was embedded in the 2020 “Reshaping International Development” Course at the University of St. Gallen, directed by the co-founders of Home for Humanity. This Living Curriculum is part of the HumanivEARTHsity Programme in Transformative Education of Home for Humanity.