Fundación Origen is a non-profit institution whose fundamental mission is to improve the quality of Education through original programs, promoting a leadership that fosters the conditions to live in peace, and a regenerative development that sustains life for all inhabitants of our planet. We believe that inner peace results from a deep work that involves every dimension of our being. Social peace, in turn, results from a society’s commitment to economic, environmental, social, cultural and spiritual sustainability.
Agroecology has been at the core of our educational model, both in its profound vision of agricultural production and regeneration, and in its social and cultural commitment.
Although Fundación Origen is a secular organization, respectful of other visions and beliefs, we have been inspired by the values and vision of Buddhism. We seek to apply its wisdom to our personal and collective transformation. We seek to develop Equanimity, Altruistic Love, Compassion and Rejoicing in ourselves, through our actions and transversal work. The development of these qualities commits us to the happiness of all sentient beings without exception, to the strife for greater social equity and the protection of the biosphere that allows for life to exist.
Since 1991, we have dedicated ourselves to the creation of what we would like to see in the world. We recognize that we are nature, that everything arises from the interdependence between every thing, both living and inanimate, and that, if we pay attention, we can learn so much from that contemplation. We understand that what constitutes quality education is to be concerned with the development of every dimension of the human being, starting with empathy towards the specific reality of each person, without discrimination of any kind. A happy child is a child that can learn, so we focus on the welfare of each student, promoting teaching practices that take care of the entire school community, integrating the physical, emotional, cognitive, creative and spiritual dimensions into every educational instance.
Our programs and educational projects are enacted through the Pirque Agroecological School, the Virginia Subercaseaux School, the School for Peace and Sustainable Education, and the Rio Claro Campus. The projects aiming to financially sustain the foundation are: Mercado Origen and Casa Origen, where you can enjoy our own agroecological products as well as those from other small producers. We believe in reciprocity and generosity as a way of living, which is why we have always cooperated with our community in times of need, like during the pandemic and when facing natural disasters.
We receive thousands of visitors every year, and with them we share what we have learned and what we continue to learn every day: schools, universities, educators, tourists, entrepreneurs, and those who simply enjoy our delicious products… Our vocation is to be an educational and agroecological beacon demonstrating that the changes we dream of can be achieved through humility, love and a lot of perseverance.
Since the beginning of the foundation in 1991
Roberto Miranda Orellana
Antonia Ulloa
Vision
We believe that more compassionate, sustainable, inclusive and respectful worlds can be imagined. We believe that the strife for happiness is inherent to all beings and that it is possible to methodically cultivate the conditions to achieve it.
We believe that we have a great responsibility: to undertake, every day, processes and actions that are urgent to regenerate and heal our society and out planet.
We wish to be an agroecological beacon, a space for reflection, research, education and action promoting these regenerative changes with a forward-looking spirit.
Aspiramos a ser un faro agroecológico, un espacio de reflexión, investigación, educación y acción que promueva esos cambios regenerativos profundos con visión de futuro.
We wish that our students graduate expressing their full potential of transformation, becoming protagonists of their own lives; people who are more aware, equipped with tools and skills for work and study; kinder, more collaborative and sympathetic, more concerned with the needs of the world; fundamentally, all that makes a person happier
Mission
We prioritize the formation of young farm-workers capable of shortening the generational gap that affects the rural world. Part of our mission is to make the choice to live in the countryside attractive and sustainable, and that our graduate students can envision themselves as agricultural producers, technicians and professionals.
We believe thar projects can be implemented without excessive expense of resources, keeping their use both conscious and sustainable. We strive for harmony incorporating the beauty that nature brings: simple, organic means of building that integrate well with the surroundings; warm, noble materials, along the lines of Chilean rural architecture. We have wished to create welcoming, dignified and warm environments: many young people speak of our school as a second home, or even the only one they have. Each material used in our projects has been chosen with a search for meaning in mind, along with the benefit of all beings; principles on which our Foundation is based.
We seek to be consistent in the use of adequate technologies, in recycling and reutilizing. We infuse this consistency in the production of food, both in our vegetables, legumes and agrochemical-free cereals, as well as in livestock. In accord with the non-violence principle that must be observed in a school, we have chosen to rear animals that yield their produce without their lives being taken. Goats and cows give milk for the elaboration of cheese and other derivates; bees yield honey; hens lay eggs. We are committed to good practices for the maximum wellbeing of animals. For example, the offspring of goats and cows are left to their mothers for the first months of their lives and they are weaned gradually, with every possible care required for their wellbeing, and with the respect due to life.
Attaining sustainability is the aspiration of most non-profit organizations. Reaching that point of balance in which one is capable of generating the resources to keep the institution functioning, fulfilling the mission it has set out to accomplish, is a process that requires several conditions.
After a decade searching for resources to achieve our goals and objectives, Fundación Origen made a turn, understanding itself as a social and environmental non-profit enterprise. We identified the strengths that would allow us to generate our own resources; we created endeavors out of our skills and resources; we called on generous partners to donate working and implementation capital. Given the agricultural character of the education that we offer, we focused on the production and elaboration of farm-made products and a platform of tourism services that could benefit from the comparative advantages of our location in Pirque.
So it began “Mercado Origen”, which elaborates and sells our famous cheeses, preserves, honey, eggs, bread and pastries. It soon became a must-go touristic highlight, with its coffee shop and restaurant.
Mercado Origen also sells the wonderful produce of small farmers in our country, in a spirit of collaboration and commitment to the wellbeing of our rural world.
Casa Origen was born as a formation center for educational, social and environmental teams. With 17 rooms set in an environment of beauty and tranquility, it also lodges tourists, companies and organizations, offering workshops, retreats, and wine-tasting of the famous vineyards in our area.
In our Río Claro Campus, in the Maule Region, we dream of building our Center for Peace and Agroecology: another agroecological beacon that will allow us to share good life and agriculture practices. For now, we are planting native trees, restoring and regenerating forests and agricultural land, producing wheat, oats, rye, quinoa, pumpkins, garlic and much more.
Currently, work at the Foundation is sustained by 4 sources of revenue:
- The state subsidy received in Chile by charter schools.
- Revenue from its own enterprises (Mercado Origen and Casa Origen).
- Donations by institutions and companies, which are currently associated with the building of infrastructure or the implementation of educational and environmental projects. Meet our partners and friends.
- Resources obtained from public and private “competitive funds”.
However, for us the concept of sustainability goes even further. It implies to maintain work practices and an efficient resource management. It implies transparency in accounting, paying on time, keeping a management and human resources policy that accords to Chilean law, among other good practices. Along the legal entity “Fundación Origen”, we created “Eco Río Claro SPA” in order to sell our products and services in compliance with the law. 100% of the shares of Eco Río Claro SPA belong to Fundación Origen.
We teach what we are. Planning, producing, elaborating and selling form a virtuous cycle that is fostered and lived in our foundation as part of a quality education. Bringing up young people capable of endeavoring with a productive vision and a strong sense of personal, social, and environmental responsibility. Counting on the theoretical and practical tools provided by an integral agroecological formation makes possible the valorization of agricultural work and the choice for a dignified life.
In a transforming world in which we must rethink our view of environmental issues; a world were food and water scarcity, and financial and sanitary crises have humanity on edge, we see the need for a revision of both educational and development models, tracing new paths for future generations. We believe that, more than alleviating symptoms, it is crucial to address causes and propose viable alternatives.
So, as active members in society, we hold ourselves responsible to participate and propose new ways of coinhabiting that may help rooting out the causes of imbalance. We intend that our projects are developed from an equanimous reflection, from the real desire to alleviate suffering, from the commitment to work and put forward concrete actions towards transformation, believing in the potential of every being to achieve it.
- We developed a holistic and agroecological educational model.
- We integrated active non-violence into school culture and self-discipline, achieving a climate of respect which is suitable for studying.
- We provide quality education and equality of opportunity for socially-vulnerable young people, which is vouched for by the excellent rate of work insertion of our graduates.
- We permanently innovate in methodologies for efficacious learning through experience, internships and subject integration.
- We integrated into the curriculum the Workshop for Inner Ecology, in which we foster respect and compassion for all beings through techniques of mediation, body work, personal and collective development, and self-care. This constitutes a core for the spiritual and moral development of the individual.
- We foster leaderships and entrepreneurial skills in out students so they generate their own job opportunities and become social transformers.
- We integrated Financial Education into the curriculum.
- We have a curriculum that is flexible, inclusive and open to diversity through compared religions, arts, sports, music and science.
- We foster personal, social, environmental and cultural responsibility.
