The Wisdom of Elders

Working broadly in sustainable development with Latin America for 15 years.

Connector of people, ideas and opportunities continuously for a positive impact. Advocate for regenerative development and radical transformation to meet 2030 Agenda.

Part of social impact communities and participant in high level forums/conferences on climate change. Experience in exponential technologies to increase the positive impact in social companies.

Conscious citizen and environmentalist. Zero waste activist who minimizes trash and personal footprint for 8 years. Learning always from elders and nature. 100% driven by purpose.

We believe that when an older person dies, a whole library dies. We have discovered how innovation is not always doing things differently with technology but sometimes is looking at past solutions and adapt them to the present.

In “the wisdom of elders” we save memories in an open repository that everyone in this world can use, both including stories and using them. We are a community of hubs in more than 10 countries which is connecting databases to make this knowledge actionable.

We are losing an incredible human biodiversity around the world that can be
the chart to recover from the coming crisis.

Entrepreneurs, youth and people in general will need to know how things were done, from how to grow certain plants to how to be resilient inside a community. Innovation is also in the past, so these memories need to be recorded in a way they can be actionable.

Any person can enter in the virtual repository www.somosmemoria.com and upload the story of an elder, including picture, music, audio recording or even the link of a video.

Thanks to our search engine, we are able to look for words or topics that can help readers to find what they want. You can “ask elders” about whatever you want, from solutions to crops to recipes or how they repaired certain things.

Through Wisdom of Elders, we are impacting positively in:

- Elders - as we foster better appreciation and communication with them. We have discovered how volunteers and people recording / remembering their stories are more engaged with elders. Moreover, they are also happier with the conversations they have and the time the legacy they can give.

- Young people, who are able to learn from other cultures and from their own ancestors that they couldn’t meet, helping them to be more resilient in the present. We have proved how stories can be completely transformation for the young generation in times of decisions.

In 2017, a 98-year-old friend died in silence. Many stories were not written and many lessons learn were lost forever. During the same year, I was attending to dozens of social impact events, discovering that many of the answers that entrepreneurs look for, were more in the past that in technology from the future.

In October I met with a great person from Mandela’s Foundation who encourage me to make possible this dream of digitizing the wisdom of elders and… here we are!

I feel a deep connection with elders, maybe because they have so much to teach us although they are not listened enough. The urgency to conserve the memory of them has always come to me, but specially it has been stronger in these COVID19 times.

At least 2 in 3 people who have died in Spain due to COVID19 lived in a nursing home (more than 19.000 elders). Similar figures for France, Italy or US. People that were living out of their families and that died out of them. The feeling of urgency came for this reason even stronger. Our grandparents taught us that “better late than never” and that “the best is the enemy of the good”. We cannot continue to lose an entire generation and its memory.

Apart from my deep connection with this need and the project, I'm 100% driven by purpose, so very constant in reach solutions beyond adversity.

Speaking about nursing homes in Spain,from March 19 to March 24, I talked with Public Administration, worker unions and civil society to promote complementary measures to keep those homes safe and with enough sanitary material.

Looking at the general disinterest of all the parts, I started a platform with more than 30 volunteers in 5 days to call every nursing homes, one by one, to inform them about complementary measures, and to know the lack of material they have. Then, we connect the nursing homes with donation of material. 

Recently, during COVID19, I have been non-stop volunteer, leading iniatiatives which connected innovation within 20 countries, specially focused on sanitary material, elders, food, finantial access and vulnerable populations. I'm also leading the Observatory for Sustainable Development, that works with 22 countries, which is key in the new plans and narratives for the recovery.

We are using a very basic machine learning for the search engine, but the way to rescue stories and memories is so easy that anyone can use it.

There are many places to register memories, and others that are thematic, but there is not easy to find a place in which this memory is alive to continue teaching to future generations.

Young generations can learn from the elders as essential part in history, they can appreciate their knowledge and this knowledge can help them in their daily decisions.

Now - 2500 people

In one year - 7000 people

In five years - 300, 000 people

I strongly believe in the power of connection, and this Prize is amazing to connect with extraordinary people and projects who are really making the change in the world.