By Maya Aarohi
From November 17th to 24th, Friends of the Earth Malta joined a group of 40 activists, advocates and organisers from around the world who gathered to attend a dynamic training on the practice of Transformative Organising, set in the idyllic mountainscapes of Lleida Catalunya, Spain.
Following a 5am wake up call to get to Barcelona and two (long but scenic) bus rides, we were welcomed into the hostel/training space, where we would spend a week in a temporary community, embodying the practices being shared with us through collectively cleaning, preparing food and taking care of the space and each other.
Designed and facilitated by the European Community Organising Network (ECON) as part of the Ulex Programme, this training combined participatory education and immersive learning to explore how transformative organising can be applied to build power within communities while centering care and intersectionality.
Set across 6 intensive days of training, participants were split into different constellations or groups of individuals, with bigger groups for daily action-learning set exercises and a smaller group to check in with. Starting with the basic principles of transformative organising, each session built upon the previous one to cover topics such as power mapping, strategy development and relationship-building through one-to-one conversations. On the final day, these sessions culminated in participants developing a long-term agenda for their own groups, exploring ways of applying transformative organising principles to our own organisations.
Alongside the theory and practical tools, it was also the care of the brilliant facilitators, freshly prepared vegan meals and snacks, and activities that made the week feel like abundance. An abundance of deep conversations, laughs and connections that created a renewed sense of inspiration and motivation in the fight for climate/social justice and collective liberation.
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