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1974-1980: Establishment of Investigation-Action-Learning
Processes: Educational, Technological, and Organizational
During
this first stage FUNDAEC focused its efforts on the
establishment of an investigation-action process, oriented
towards the search for the integral well-being of the
communities of the Norte del Cauca region in Colombia.
Founding Members
of FUNDAEC alongside First Group of Students
Two
groups of youth directly participated in this
process, and eventually became the first graduates
of the institution’s educational programs.
The knowledge generated during this period contributed
greatly to the content of the first educational
material developed by FUNDAEC. The projects focused
on the development of innovative systems of agriculture,
on the use of appropriate technologies to improve
the production of small parcels of land, and of
bee and fish farms, and the search for effective
forms of community organization.
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Building and Grounds in La Arrobleda |
Workshop in La Arrobleda
Complex
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In
a few modest structures built in the village of La Arrobleda
in the municipality of Santander de Quilichao, classrooms
and a laboratory for science experiments and a workshop
for the building of simple tools were prepared, and
land was set aside for the hands-on fieldwork in animal
and agriculture production (including garden plots,
a pig sty, and chicken coops for laying hens and broilers).
Within the same buildings, a space was reserved for
the construction of a small animal-feed production center,
to which other products lines were gradually added (to
process jam, soy beans, and cocoa). This center was
conceived as, notwithstanding its small size, an Agro-industrial
Park.
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