Project Resound: Resound Team Member’s Trip to Colombia Homeland Memorable, Rewarding.

Juanita Londoño joined Project Resound (PR) in late 2017 after moving to Savannah from Colombia and meeting the organization’s founder, Louis Baker.

Project Resound’s service goals of “designing for a greater good” and “helping others through design in an innovative way” immediately appealed to Juanita. She liked the idea of learning about new cultures and meeting and working with new people. She also was thrilled to have an opportunity to share her own culture with people from another country.

So, when she learned about PR and Baker’s interest in bringing a team to Colombia, Juanita knew it was the perfect chance to collaborate. She told one of her undergrad professors, Miguel Navarro-Sanint, about the opportunity and he was immediately on board. La Universidad de los Andes already had a partnership with Patrimonio Natural, an organization that supports conservation, sustainable use and improvement of the quality of life of the communities in the strategic ecosystems and protected areas of the country. This made everything easier. Soon an alliance was in place, everything was planned and a team of designers was on its way to Cartagena and Montes de María.

One of her most important memories from the 2017 Colombia trip, Juanita said, was hearing participants say, “I love Colombia, I want to come back!” because she loves her country so much and was so excited to have had the chance to show others how welcoming Colombian culture and people are.

She also talked about the stigma surrounding Colombia, lamenting the fact that all most people hear and know of her native land is Narcos and drugs, when “there is so much more to the country.” Juanita is from Bogota and she and her family would only visit Cartagena once a year, so the touristy outings the PR team took between designing tasks were an added source of enjoyment for her.

When asked to describe her experience in one word she came up with three; life-changing, career-changing, and eye-opening. It was so rewarding for her to see this project come together, be implemented, and impact the lives of the people the project intended to help.

Her advice for any new PR participants: “Go with an open mind, have the willingness to explore, focus on what you are gaining from the experience, and be ready to give 120%.”