Gifts From Mozambique to The Gambia: Reflections on ORA Africa’s First In-Person Retreat
This October, the 3rd cohort of ORA Africa Fellows gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe for our first in-person retreat. Held under the theme “Imagining a New World Beyond the Polycrisis,” the gathering invited us to explore both personal and community resilience, share the projects we are nurturing across the continent, and support one another in the […]
Could Rest Re-Shape How We Meet the Climate Crisis?
When Jennifer Uchendu first began climate organizing in Lagos more than a decade ago, her energy was directed outward on action. She founded SustyVibes, a youth-led nonprofit that has since trained and mobilized many young people across Africa to take measures toward a more sustainable future. But in recent years, her attention has turned to […]
Introducing the Feminist Political Ecology School in Uruguay
In July, 21 women from different territories along the río de los pájaros pintados—the Guaraní name for what is now Uruguay—gathered for the first Feminist Political Ecology School in this corner of Abya Yala. This school was born from the need to name the violence that shows up in our bodies-territories, and the everyday strategies […]
The Canopy Collective: Weaving Science, Art, and Indigenous Knowledge For Conservation
What is the language of love that mahouts use to communicate with their elephants? How deep is the ecological wisdom of forest women, preserved through oral traditions and folklore? These questions drive the work of ORA India Fellow Dr. Nandini Velho—a scientist, field biologist, and conservationist whose research lives at the intersection of the biophysical, […]
Articulating Crisis, Creating Alternatives: Lessons from Global Weavers
In a time of overlapping crises—from ecological collapse to inequality and conflict—it’s easy to feel that the fabric of life is unraveling. But for ORA Research Grant recipients Shrishtee Bajpai and Vasna Ramasar, members of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives (GTA), these ruptures also reveal pathways to weave something new. Their report, Articulating Crisis and […]
Rooting in Collective Memory: An Afternoon with Las Gurisas
We arrived around noon at Unidad Cooperaria No. 1, in the town of Cololó, department of Soriano, about 300 kilometers west of the capital. As soon as we got out of the van, we were met with a suspicious heat that foretold a storm—and a swarm of teenagers. Las Gurisas—Lucía, Mariana, Lucía, and Laura—were fully […]
Listening to the River: How Indigenous Peoples Weave Story and Science to Chart a New Course
In these times of polycrisis—where ecological collapse, systemic inequality, and a loss of communal meaning intertwine in a spiral of destruction and disharmony—the dominant economic model continues to operate like a devouring machine. In the face of such voracity, we must urgently turn our gaze toward those who have maintained, for centuries, a reciprocal relationship […]
Seeds of Resilience: One ORA Fellow’s Movement to Protect Ecuador’s Chocó Andino Reserve
By ORA Fellow Maria Victoria ‘Vivi’ Jaramillo Ecuador’s Chocó Andino Biosphere Reserve is just an hour away from the concrete jungle better known as Quito, but for most city dwellers, it seems like a world away. Between traffic lights and Zoom calls, here in the city, we forget about the interdependence between our mouths and […]
Meeting the Hum Pampa and Its Interwoven Body-Territories
Photos by Val Rodlez The Hum Pampa community is a group of women descended from the Indigenous Charrúa nation (which once inhabited what is now Uruguay, as well as parts of western Argentina and southern Brazil). It is a decentralized collective spread across the country, with members living in various towns and departments, primarily in […]
Weaving Resilience Through Collective Action
I am passionate about discovering my own land, my culture and the communities that inhabit those territories.