EXTENSION PROJECT "HANDS OF LIFE": NATURAL SPIRITUALITY IN EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES IN CHILD CARE

Abstract

The extension project "Mãos de Vida" of the University of Vale do Itajaí (UNIVALI) develops practices with children in a transdisciplinary perspective and integrates education and health themes. Among the proposals, we highlight the eco-formative workshops on natural care and spirituality. The activities integrated therapeutic processes of health and social care with children from Lar Padre Jacó, located in the city of Itajaí/SC. The general objective of the study seeks to understand the promotion of care for children through educational practices that integrate natural spirituality in the Hands of Life extension project. This is a qualitative study, supported by the phenomenological hermeneutics method. It was carried out through workshops planned and developed weekly, between the years 2022 and 2023, with the participation of children between 6 and 11 years old. The results showed that in the educational practices the children recognized living nature as an expansion of themselves, involved in care actions that strengthened life and natural spirituality. The eco-formative backyard has become a place of contact and creative expression, of care for oneself and the other. The experiences with natural resources stimulated the sensory and reflective body, expressed in the art of modeling, the cultivation of plants and the construction of toys. The manifestations of care and healthy living occurred in the games that integrated human multidimensionality and enabled bodily and social well-being.