The Journal

Stories of becoming

Training, nutrition, Colombia and the 1% philosophy — editorial notes from the Phoenix Initiative.

Low wide-angle view up the enormous buttress roots of an ancient ceiba tree gripping dark earth, golden sunbeams breaking through the canopy

Why the Social Work Is a Foundation, Not a CSR Department

A separate legal entity is slower, costlier and harder to control. That is the argument for it — and the reasons a foundation can fail just as easily.

August 5, 20265 min read

Distant backlit silhouette of a woman walking a dirt track holding a small child's hand between tall green sugar cane at golden hour

Foundation

Childcare Designed In, Not Added: Access for Mothers Alone

Most programmes lose single mothers at the timetable, not at the door. The Foundation intends to design around care work from the first sketch.

August 3, 20265 min read

Ground-level view of a scuffed football and orange training cones on a dusty rural pitch in warm evening light, mountains blurred behind

Foundation

Open Sports Days: What the Foundation Plans for the Town

Not a tournament, not a launch event. A design for recurring open days in Rivera — and an honest list of the ways this kind of thing usually fails.

August 1, 20265 min read

Close-up of two women's hands passing a small native tree seedling in a soil-filled nursery bag, in warm golden light

Foundation

How the Ambassador Programme Works, and What It Is Not

Four women hold the Foundation's four pillars. Here is what the role actually involves, what it can decide, and why it is not an influencer arrangement.

July 30, 20264 min read

A plain glass of clear water on a bare wooden table, backlit by low golden sun casting a bright caustic pattern on the wood

Foundation

What the Foundation Will Publish, and When: A Reporting Promise

The first annual report will be mostly empty, because no programme has run and no one has been helped yet. Publishing an empty report on time is the whole test.

July 28, 20264 min read

Close-up of weathered hands planing a length of golden guadua bamboo on a workbench, shavings suspended in a shaft of afternoon light

Foundation

Hiring in Huila: The Employment Commitments We Make in Public

No one has been hired yet, and no job number is promised here. Which is exactly why the hiring rules are being written down now, while they still cost something.

July 26, 20264 min read

Aerial view of a green valley in Huila where a ribbon of forest threads between pastures and coffee plots, under low golden morning light

Foundation

Reconnecting a Corridor: What a Valley Needs to Move Again

Colombia holds more bird species than any country on earth. Keeping them means stitching fragments back together — a plan the Foundation is writing now.

July 24, 20264 min read

Macro shot of clear spring water spilling over dark mossy volcanic rock, backlit in warm golden light with ferns blurred behind

Foundation

Water Stewardship: The Commitments We Make to a Watershed

Six waterfalls, three freshwater springs, one thermal spring. None of it belongs to us in the way property deeds suggest. Here is what that obliges.

July 21, 20265 min read

Distant silhouettes of women stretching in a loose circle on a dusty rural pitch at golden hour, green hills behind

Foundation

Training Local Women as Coaches, From the Very First Session

A sports programme that depends on outsiders has an expiry date. Here is how the Foundation intends to build coaching capacity in Huila from day one.

July 19, 20265 min read