Our Approach
Memory and Research
At Fundación Malula, our work is grounded in the understanding that communities create and preserve memory in different ways. Through memory and research, we explore how people remember events, build collective memory, and share their histories. This research informs our publications and helps amplify the voices and experiences of the communities we work with.
We translate this knowledge into action through an integrated approach that combines research, social work, non-formal education, culture, and sport to improve lives and promote social inclusion.
Social Work
Through social work, we generate, coordinate and implement social impact projects built alongside communities. We draw on the knowledge, skills, and opportunities present within each territory, community, and culture, ensuring that the people we work with are active agents of their own change. We co-construct solutions.
We recognise the transformative power of women and other demographics whose understanding of care and community life is often overlooked. By centring their voices, we design more meaningful, grounded and lasting interventions that respond to real needs and honour the richness of each community's own experience.
Non-Formal Education
Through non-formal education, we offer alternative educational programmes that enhance the skills and talents of marginalised and minority populations. Malula specialises in creating participatory spaces and frameworks that communities actively help to design and develop. Our capacity-building trainings are adapted to the specific needs of each community, allowing us to respect differences and protect unique cultural expressions.
Through culture and sport, we create inclusive spaces that foster participation, strengthen community ties, and promote social inclusion.
By combining memory research with participatory programmes and community-led learning, our method supports communities in preserving their histories, strengthening their capacities, and shaping solutions for their futures.
Culture and Sport
Aligning our projects and partnerships to support social cohesion, justice and equality means supporting peacebuilding throughout the whole partnership. Our peace pedagogy fosters inclusive and open forms of communication, creating spaces where difficult conversations can take place. This process brings together different sides of conflicts to exchange knowledge, lived experiences, and perspectives.
We organise and facilitate events that go beyond dialogue, generating new propositions and ideas. This work contributes to peace initiatives, social projects, and collective reflections about who we are, the societies we inhabit, and the world we want to leave for future generations.
Peacekeeping in communities' means being aware of conflict dynamics and structural inequalities that enable cycles of violence to repeat. Building on current academic peace and conflict research that we contribute to, we are participating in the process of rethreading the social fabric of Colombian society. One conversation, one community, and one shared vision at a time.
Peace Work
