Harambe

A Way Of Life And An Experience InSustainability And Governance.

Outlined by the photographs in this presentation, Harambe is an ideal

shaped by the writer Dirceu Borges and published as a novel in the 70’s.

The beautifully photographed images are the scenarios that unravel

before the

reader’s eye of

a book, Dirceu

Borges’s “What

are you going

to do in

December?”.

Borges’s ideological fiction used the acknowledgement of failure from

systems supposed to give care for the old age as material to build a

revolutionary model of a community designed not only to give people

proper care and

shelter in the last

years of their lives,

but also dignity,

identity, freedom,

love and

happiness.

Harambe goes further than just acknowledging the failure of proper care

and for pointing out the failure in our society to give old age a dignified

place as it’s social image is distorted.

It is said that

a good

measurement

of the quality

of a society is

the care given

to their

elderly.

Harambe brings this saying to another level as

it is a formula that offers the old age opportu-

nity to take destiny in ones own hands so

people can empower themselves to get the

care and the life they choose best for them-

selves.

Harambe believes the main reason for the ex-

clusion of the elderly from social processes

is their lack of participation in the production

processes.

An important tenet of Harambé is the

belief that old age is a period in life in which the individual has equally

as much to offer as in preceding stages of life since he has progressed

much further on the path of life experiences.

Therefore it is seen as a period in which someone has an enhanced

ability to discern what is good for himself without taking undue

advantage of others or the environment.

The characters in the

novel “What are you going

to do in December?”

envisioned more than just

a place to live well. Their

search was a life style

that would give them

conditions to create their

own happiness and well

being.

For this reason,

Harambe is a more than a place, it is a life situation where people living

in the state of Harambe gather to empower each other using the

experience, knowledge and skills learned in their life path.

Many years after he had written the novel, Dirceu Borges was

approached by two women who had had a dream to live their old days

in an alternative way but they didn’t know exactly how. After reading his

novel they knew

that described

in there was

this place they

wanted to build.

They discovered

they had always

dreamed of

Harambe.

And so, they offered their 68 hectare farm in a small picturesque village

in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Peiropolis is today a touristic area. The village has had a chalk stone

quarry later interdicted by an English paleontologist because there were

found dinosaur bones from aproximately 65 to 80 billion years ago. The

local modernized museum and the replica in real size of a apatossaurus

atracts many tourists.

Peiropolis is also the home of Fundacao Peiropolis, an institution that

gives training to people working in education aiming for a culture of

peace and there is also the permanent Exposition of “Human Values”.

Surrounding Harambe is an area known in Brazil as “cerrados” .

This describes a climate that has traditionally allowed the agriculture,

and in Harambe there are pioneer cultures as the “neen” (a tree that

comes from India), to carry several therapeutic possibilities.

This all in at 12 km from a major regional city of 287.760 inhabitants

called “Uberaba”.

That is the décor where Dirceu’s romance has been brought to life, with

the idea of being a seed of a social innovation that is able to replicate

itself.

Lets not forget that the estimates tell us in 2050 the population of

people in advanced age will be 4 times as much as it is today 5,1% of

the global population.

To have this expectation be unaccompanied by expectations of

depressing statistics excluding old age of beautiful and fulfilling life, we

need to let old paradigms go and believe maturity is able to take with

itself the desire of be a protagonist and part of the social and productive

networks.

The project’s name-

Harambe - is chosen

because it means “lets work

together”, an expression

used in Kenya when they

were fighting for their coun-

try’s independence.

Blessed by its topography

and the natural resources of

the farmland, Harambe has been able to realize its goal of sustainability

with an organic agriculture.

It hosts a garden of medicinal herbs considered by the brazilian Health

and Food Administration as an example of quality and productivity, and

the production of aprox 1000 neen a month.

This is a beautiful place that has been taken care of with endless love

and lots of work. It has a wonderful climate, healthy air and mineral

water. Its ground is fertile and it is surrounded by lakes filled with fish,

2 forests and it faces 2 different groups of mountains.

Harambe has worked on its infrastructure to stimulate and enhance

wellness and productive work, it has instalations for health care and its

houses are planned by architects that focused on comfort and security

for people of age.

The residences are set

in blocks of 6 houses,

called ‘pueblos’ or in

independent chales.

Harambe´s philosophy is that a human be-

ing needs to maintain themself in an active

way executing work that he or she likes to

perform, feeling happy and keep on being the

protagonist of his or her own life and

history.... it is a life style.

Harambe offers peace and tranquility but not isolation of the world. It is

within 500 metres of Peiropolis, a village that is continuously visited by

researchers of the Paleontologist Association of Brazil, and tourists.

The one that lives in Harambe has still participation in social life,

contributing with experience in the with young

people and participating in courses in Peiropo-

lis Foundation for Human Values, and an active

life in the Uberaba city a 15 min journey from

Harambe.

There is more that could be said about a project idealised

over 30 years ago that is in perfect syncronicity with the

most recent concepts of sustainable development and based

in a firm triptic: social, ambiental and economic

development.

Being true to the saying that “ an image tells more than a

thousand words,” this presentation brings the vision of the place and the

ideal through images made by the photographer Luciano Sousa.

Now it is up to you to inspire

yourself and step in there with your

heart.

Would you like to know more about us?

[email protected]

We organise guided tours for Harambe and the surroundings.

http://www.spauberaba.com.br