In the northern sector of the city of Santiago, there are towns such as La Pincoya, Conchalí or El Barrero, which have significant pockets of poverty and inequality. Here, people with disabilities with limited resources are usually invisible and are isolated in their homes, without receiving the appropriate stimulation and treatment.

COH wants to achieve the social inclusion of people with disabilities with limited resources, through their active participation in the community.

COH aims to improve the physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being of these people through their training in the reproduction and propagation of medicinal crops.

Thanks to this therapeutic tool with beneficial effects, it promotes contact with nature and peoples with a weekly workshop on the reproduction and harvesting of medicinal plants for subsequent marketing.

the Allinmapu Club, made up of people with disabilities who in previous years have carried out the Tal “Training workshop in biological cultivation of medicinal plants”.

Its goal is to sustain itself as a social network and continue the practice of growing medicinal plants as recreational gardening and long-term healing.

Fondacio Chile - Hortiterapia

Also made up of participants who graduated from the Crops Workshop, it seeks to provide new employability opportunities to its members through the commercialization of some of the products produced by the COH.

Educational visits From various social organizations, colleges and universities in Santiago, which help to publicize the program, generate social awareness about disability and be a good socialization exercise for participants. Support is provided for the eventual professional integration of graduate participants.

“Centro Occupational Hortiterapéutico” works in close collaboration with the municipalities of Huechuraba and Recoleta, the two closest municipalities, as well as with the Cristo Vive Foundation from which many participants come. It is also linked to various private schools and universities in Santiago.

In 2018, around 32 people took part in the organic farming workshops. The Allinmapu Club currently has 17 members; the cooperative, which is just beginning, with five members. The educational visits reach an annual audience of 50 people on average. Since the beginning of the program, four participants have managed to integrate professionally.

Therapeutic Work, To Help Others Heal

COH wants to achieve the social inclusion of people with disabilities, with limited resources, through their active participation in the community. It aims to improve the physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being of these people through their training in the reproduction and propagation of medicinal crops.

“I arrived at the Horticultural Therapy program at Fondacio guided by the need to share with others, to reintegrate myself into the rhythm of society. At that time, I was going through a deep depression and didn’t want to leave my room. One day, my mother told me that I had been invited to a horticultural therapy workshop.

This is where it all began. I was struck by the fact that I saw people with disabilities much more complex than mine and yet they attended the workshop much happier than me. The activities aroused my curiosity: taking care of the plants, putting my hands in the ground and getting dirty, learning about the qualities of these plants.

Everything was very rewarding for me. In this process, group prayer was fundamental and made a “click” in me. At first it was very difficult for me, but eventually I opened up and let out everything I had inside. Today my life is intense and marvelous and I want to live step by step what I started from the earth.

Adrian Martinez,
participating in a program
“Centro Ocupacional Hortiterapéutico”.

Contact

Manager: Monica Espinoza
hortiterapia@fondacio.cl
+56 2 620 8420

The project of the Horticultural Professional Center is attached to the law on donation for social purposes, of the Ministry of Social Development, allowing the donor, the company or the individual to benefit from a tax advantage of up to 50% of the total donation.

COH on video

Centro Occupational Hortiterapéutico in Chile

Through training in organic cultivation of medicinal plants, the “Centro Occupational Hortiterapéutico” improves the social inclusion of people with disabilities in a northern neighborhood of Santiago, Chile. In the northern sector of the city of Santiago, there are towns such as La Pincoya, Conchalí or El Barrero, which have significant pockets of poverty and inequality. Here, people with disabilities with limited resources are usually invisible and are isolated in their homes, without receiving the appropriate stimulation and treatment. COH wants to achieve the social inclusion of people with disabilities with limited resources, through their active participation in the community. COH aims to improve the physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being of these people through their training in the reproduction and propagation of medicinal crops.

Centro Occupational Hortiterapéutico in Chile

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