About this project
Show list of needs
Infrastructure
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Minimum | Optimum |
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Two constructions without foundations (necessary)
Our idea is to buy two yurts of 30 square meters and place them on two wooden bases that we will make ourselves. If the budget obtained was not enough for this, we would have to replace it with other cheaper options such as two bio-construction classrooms with straw bullets, or prefabricated wood, always respecting a minimum diameter of 30 square meters.
Since we are always trying to cause the least possible impact on our environment, we prefer natural materials such as wood, adobe, straw, and in the case of the yurt the cotton and wool of the fabrics that cover the structure.
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€ 7.000 | |
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Wooden platforms on which to build the yurts/classrooms.
The idea is to build two wooden platforms, to insulate the buildings from the ground and thus avoid humidity and take advantage of the lower space as a warehouse for firewood, tools, and other things. We will build them ourselves with Basque pine wood and the advice of some parents of the project who have knowledge about carpentry.
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€ 2.000 | |
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Solar power equipment.
Equipment for installing solar energy in classrooms. A 450-amp solar panel, an inverter, a regulator, and a battery are needed to cover the basic electrical needs of the project. We would make the installation ourselves with the help of our community?
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€ 800 | |
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Construction of a composting toilet
To be able to carry out our needs in La Atalaya space in a sustainable way in the medium term, it is necessary to build a dry bathroom, which does not pollute the environment and can be done quickly and easily with wood, a roof tile and maintenance based on sawdust.
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€ 600 | |
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Buy collectively the land, that is, the forest plot, on which our project is located.
The Atalaya project is located on a plot of forest belonging to a neighbor of the neighboring town where there are olive trees, holm oaks, some fruit trees and a well. We would like to be able to buy it collectively and become part of the project. The owner wants to sell it. For now he is willing to rent it to us, but if he finds a seller we will have to leave, dismantle the yurts, and start again elsewhere. We would very much like the land to be ours in order to be calm, knowing that we will not have to leave, and that everything we build will endure.
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€ 8.000 | |
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Water pump and water pipe
Purchase of a water pump and pipes to move it from the well to the school.
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€ 1.000 | |
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Segunda Fase para realizar dos construcciones sin cimientos (adicional)
(Segunda Fase ) Nuestra idea es comprar dos yurtas de 30 metros cuadrados y colocarlas sobre dos bases de madera que realizaríamos nosotras mismas. Si el presupuesto obtenido no alcanzara para esto, lo tendríamos que sustitir por otras opciones más económicas como dos aulas de bioconstrucción con balas de paja, o de madera prefabricadas, siempre respetando un diámetro mínimo de 30 metros cuadrados.
Y siempre tratando de causar el menor impacto posible en nuestro entorno, por eso preferimos materiales naturales como la madera, el adobe, la paja, y en el caso de la yurta el algodón y la lana de la las telas que recubren la estructura.
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€ 7.000 |
Material
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Minimum | Optimum |
|---|---|---|
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Reward costs
This item will be used for the recording of the audiovisual story, the printing of calendars and the organization of the day of open house.
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€ 500 | |
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Furniture
We need chairs, tables and wooden shelves adapted to the size of the children. We want to make them in the carpentry shop of our town and order all the furniture we need there. Thus, we support the local economy, the participation of our neighbors in the project and also, the local carpenter can make everything to measure and with the characteristics that are required. We consider this item as an additional expense because we already have basic furniture that we have been recycling, but we would like to renew it.
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€ 2.000 | |
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Pedagogical material
We need to acquire pedagogical material, adapted to the different ages of the project’s children. We use specially structured material from Montessori pedagogy, from the age of 3. Wut we also need psychomotor materials, tools, artistic materials, musical instruments and stationery supply.
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€ 1.500 | |
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Books
We need to create a small library, with Atlas’, dictionaries and books on the different areas of knowledge: botany, zoology, geography, poetry, the universe, the human body, etc. We use books from publishers we like: El Zorro Rojo, QOQ, Kalandraka, Maeva, Nubeocho, Cuatro Tuercas, Zahorí Books, Takatuka, Impedimenta, etc
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€ 800 |
Task
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Minimum | Optimum |
|---|---|---|
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Goteo commission and administrative costs of Crowfunding management.
With this amount we will be able to cover Goteo's commission, the administrative costs of the management company and bank commissions once we reach the minimum amount requested.
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€ 1.500 | |
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Campaign creation and management costs.
Expenses derived from the creation of the campaign: creation of the website, video editing, design and production.
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€ 500 | |
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Administrative costs and drip commission, if the "Optimum" is reached.
With this amount we will be able to cover Goteo's commission, the administrative costs of the management company and bank commissions once we reach the optimum requested.
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€ 1.500 | |
| Total | € 11.500 | € 34.700 |
General information
Atalaya is a project about active and experiential education in nature. Here in our rural community, a lot of families come to raise their children
away from the city.
We are moved by the excitement of accompanying the kids in a respectful way,
enjoying the journey, taking care of ourselves and each other, and sharing the joy of learning,
discovering and exploring together, while remaining surprised by the challenges that we face
every day.
We have experimented, over the last ten years, different ways of organizing and accompanying the children, and we are currently a team of four
adults who make decisions (from the heart) along with several
families and their children that give life and color to this project (our engine!).
In recent times, we have inhabited several different spaces; however, the outcome has always been having to leave the space for one reason or another.
Nothing grows without roots, and we are tired now of moving from one place to another, like snails carrying our houses on our backs. We now look for a stable place of our own in which nothing or no one can remove us.
A place to plant our roots so that we can grow. A piece of our own property in which the life of Atalaya
can develop at a calm, steady pace, spreading its seeds and watching it's fruits mature.
That’s why we are doing this Crowdfunding, to reach our dream of having a common and collective space on our own piece of land. We want to acquire a small piece of land, develop, and build two spaces.
Two spaces that can accommodate our two age groups and their necessities.
(One for the youngsters and one for the older children).
We also need to invest a little bit of money in quality furniture, shelving and
Sturdy, well-made tables... Up to now, we have been using recycled furniture.
The furniture has served us well, but things are always a bit beat-up, such as
collapsing shelves and rickety chairs.
And last but not least, we need another little collection of materials and books… As we keep growing there is need for renewal.
With each person who wants to support us adding their grain of sand, we can
build the pillars of this Atalaya (Watchtower), so that from up there, on top, the
children of our village can keep on climbing and learning, in respect and
freedom.
Thanks for supporting us, with your little drop of water our seeds can germinate!
Description of the project. Main features, strengths and differentials.
The Atalaya is an active school, where learning takes place in
living from the inside out through all processes.
With clear and sensible limits, we can assure that kids can explore
and go through the different stages of their development, respecting their own needs at their own pace, without imposing common guidelines on them and therefore contemplating each little being
as they are: a unique and unpredictable being with their own characteristics. Avoiding
comparisons, judgments, and expectations. Embracing their emotions.
We want to allow each one to build their own identity in their own way,
listening and letting themselves be guided by that innate intuition which all people are born with; the curiosity that comes with being in a safe environment, which then drives us to try and
replicate things, to explore and question, to try new things, take on challenges etc... We like to encourage the children's
ability to make choices, promoting autonomy and acknowledging mistakes, which
help us to learn so much.
For us it is essential to live in contact with nature, to learn from it,
take care of it and take care of ourselves, enjoy the enormous freedom of being able to grow outdoors and enjoy the rain and the puddles, climb, jump on the stones,
observe ants and search for tadpoles, taste edible plants,
collect fruits and light the stove with the twigs we collect on the walks.
In an increasingly technologized world, our project seeks the silence full of the sounds of nature, the slow and unstoppable pace of the seasons, the physical abilities that it provides to explore a wild natural environment, without being modified by humans.
Although life changes at a frenetic pace, the goal of the Atalaya is to stay a little away from the screens; look back and continue learning from the wisdom accumulated by our ancestors through different jobs such as agriculture, pottery, mechanics, and other professions that surround us. That is why we try to approach traditional trades and weave collective networks into our environment, trying to make school part of community life, sharing the knowledge that surrounds us and knowing the people who carry them out.
In addition to free play, exploring nature and acquiring concrete techniques, both creative and mechanical, we also learn a lot from books, of course! And using materials such as manipulatives, which allows us to understand abstract ideas in a sensorial way. To do so, we have a lot of material devised by Maria Montessori, which leads children to acquire increasingly complex knowledge starting from sensory experimentation, in an autonomous and expiriential way.
We also take elements from other sources, and we do not stop looking for everything that can serve us to continue putting pieces in the infinite puzzle that is the process of learning.
We try to apply mutual aid and cooperation in all possible variants, to keep in mind at all times that a lot of precious individualities are interrelated forming a whole, in which each of its parts is important and unique.
Agreements and collective work are fundamental in La Atalaya to live together in harmony. We all need each other to be exactly what we are.
Why this is important
Atalaya is a project focused on families who want to live upbringing their children in a
natural environment, enjoying nature and its life cycles, far from
those that mark urban life.
Our project is designed for families who are doing their best to raise
conscious and respectful children, seeking for their youngsters a way to construct the pillars on which everything else is built. Families who want
their daughters and sons to be able to develop freely and autonomously, while always
accompanied in their emotions, needs and interests.
We believe that it is very important that there are alternatives to the traditional school and
in rural areas it is vital to promote projects that dynamize and give life again to villages
like ours, that just 15 years ago had become quite depopulated and practically without children.
Since educational projects began to take place in this area, many
families with children have moved here. We all contributed
to recover land that was not cultivated, economies have been somewhat reactivated (renting houses, shopping at markets and local shops),
we learn and continue some traditional professions, we collect the
olives that the old people can no longer harvest, and we provide other kinds of knowledge that
here concrete examples are not given... In short, Atalaya and the families who join it,
contribute to revitalizing the rural environment where we live.
Many older people in the area thank us for the joy that comes with the
noise of laughter and the cries of the kids, in a few streets that for a while,
became dull and silent.
A living school is also a rich and active environment.
Our project is led by four women who make up the team
and are in full service of the Atalaya. We come from diverse trainings and experiences that we consider highly enriching when it comes to accompanying kids in the exploration and understanding of the world from the maximum respect towards childhood, the stages of development and individual processes.
The trajectories of each of us have been very different; we are a
multidisciplinary framework with a personal and professional background that comes from
various areas of knowledge. Navigating from the fields of art,
music, anthropology, audiovisual communication, theatre, and health, which
our great love for childhood and accompaniment from the respect of learning processes has united us. The four of us come from different places;
two of us have lived for years in Mexico, and from there we
have brought a suitcase full of experience in the creation and participation of
alternative education projects, both at the infant and primary levels, and
at university, in urban populations and in indigenous communities.
We have worked with public entities and with autonomous projects, we have accompanied children from two years to youth, inside and outside the classroom; academically and playfully, making workshops, camps, environmental routes, storytelling... We have worked with the social services, in projects of attention to the functional diversity, with self-managed communities, in working-class neighborhoods, in large cities, in public schools and in free schools. We have often worked purely for vocation, without charging, and we have started numerous projects and collaborated in many others.
Despite our different starting points, we have found ourselves in a common place, we share what unites us: the desire to give life and give roots to this educational project; together we want to continue building this Atalaya in which we pour all our learning and knowledge, all our experience and our past discoveries, our ideas, and worldviews.
In recent years we have been focusing on and getting closer to childhood through motherhood (two out of the four of us) and training.
specialized in active pedagogies. We have received training as Guides
Montessori in the stage of Casa de Niñ@s (from 3 to 6 years) and Workshop (from 6 to 9 years), as well as courses on some aspects of Waldorf pedagogy, Creative Expression and different courses and workshops on Active Education and
Free Pedagogy.
We believe that all the knowledge and experience we carry can serve to boost the cognitive and emotional development of the children with whom we live, as well as deepening in specific disciplines and fields of learning such as language and communication, mathematical thinking, exploration and knowledge of the world, physical development, health, personal and social development and artistic expression and appreciation.
Social commitment
Educational
Our commitment is to approach childhood education in a respectful way, taking care of the relationship with the environment and with other living beings and trying to encourage mutual support, cooperation, collective work and the preservation of sustainable lifestyles consistent with our natural environment.
Sustainable Development Goals
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Quality Education
Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development.
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Gender Equality
Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.
