Despacio Kit and «Life Cycle»

Have you already bought your Christmas or holiday gifts? If not, don’t worry. The items in the Despacio Kit are pretty and buying them helps support a great organization. The kit includes two items: a mug and a notebook (we ran out of the cloth bags already!) We originally picked these three items because they help people go slower and more sustainably. Instead of a disposable coffee cop, a nice mug; instead of disorganized papers, a notebook with tips on how to go slower in life; instead of using plastic bags (which are incredibly harmful for the environment), a cloth bag with the Despacio kite stamped on it. If you are interested in one of the items in the Despacio Kit, write to ome@despacio.org or call us at 2484420.

 

The sale of Kit items support Despacio’s interesting experiments and activities, self-financed projects that are important to us. These activities normally are part of our «Life Cycle» work area. Despite not having dedicated funding for this area, we’ve spent the past several months working on different projects that in some way improve participants’ quality of life.

First, we began to conduct experiments that encourage different changes in people’s daily routines:

• «Facebook vs. The Little Prince» asked participants to replace the time they would normally spend on social media with a reading of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. 
• «Office in the Park» was designed for students or freelance workers with flexible workplaces. The idea was for people to work or study in the park instead of in their office or house, as a way to change the daily work routine.
• «Despacio Postcards» is meant to change our typical forms of communication with friends or family who live far away. This experiment is ongoing so if you’re interested in participating, let us know!

In addition to the experiment, we printed a book and held a photography contest:

• How to Bring Your Pet to Work: we developed a guide on how to bring your pet to work, using a literature review, interviews with experts and discussions with people who already bring their pet with them.
• Photo Contest for Car-Free Day: participants sent two photos comparing the difference in Bogotá between a typical day and Car-Free Day.