The Kwendalo Institute is reimagining education as a dynamic process of learning that promotes wellness, interconnectedness, and harmony with life.
At Kwendalo, we possess a genuine passion for acquiring and sharing knowledge that is in service to life, and which has harmony and health at the core of that emergent wisdom. We wish to enable diverse citizens, especially our youth, to become leaders in co-creating a regenerative future.
Our Purpose
The Kwendalo Institute (KI) is a pioneering centre for nature-based research, deep learning, and regenerative practice. Rooted in the belief that human and planetary wellbeing are interdependent, KI offers transformative programmes that strengthen embodied connections with nature. We work across education, health, community, and research to nurture relational harmony between Self, Society, and Nature.
Our work supports the emergence of regenerative futures through:
Our Vision
A world where human–nature connectedness is a foundation for everyday wellbeing, deep learning and social-ecological harmony.
Our Mission
To promote regenerative futures through inclusive, nature-inspired learning and practice, fostering resilient health and harmony within individuals, society, and the natural world.
Our Objectives
We aim for the Kwendalo Institute to be a globally respected hub for nature-connected learning, research, and regenerative practice. Key priorities include:
The Kwendalo Institute is therefore creating and implementing nature-inspired learning that promotes:
Harmony within Self: nurturing the curiosity, capabilities, and wellbeing of people at the centre of their learning.
Harmony within Society: recognising the interdependency of our relations and the actions that we can all undertake in support community and planetary health.
Harmony within Nature: nourishing a deeper embodied connection with place, enabling learners to experience kinship with life while cultivating meaningful regenerative relationships with earth.
We are aspiring toward these outcomes through formal education and curricula, gap-year learning journeys, workshops and training, and explorative research.
The Kwendalo Institute is bringing the philosophy of The Harmony Project to schools and courses around Plettenberg Bay and, in time, across South Africa. The Kwendalo Institute is home to Africa’s first international Harmony Project initiative.
A pioneering model linking healthcare and nature-based wellbeing.
The Harmony Centre at Kwendalo is the home of The Harmony Project in South Africa and is our shared hive for learning events and workshops that create a buzz of curiosity and pollinate new ideas within our community.
The Harmony Centre is equipped with conferencing facilities available for hire.
A whole-of-school model for nature-inspired learning.
Tertiary-level and gap-year outdoor learning experiences.
Public forums for dialogue, reflection, and hands-on engagement.
Evidence-based insights and consulting for education, wellness, and social-ecological systems.
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Sue has been working in conservation and environmental education for 34 years and immersed in the teaching and practice of biomimicry since 2007. Sue’s primary focus is on Biomimicry as a way of Being and Belonging as a means of, once again, living in right and rich relationship with Nature. This looks at how to make the practice of reconnecting with, revaluing, learning from and living as one with the community of Life on Earth, a part of our daily lives. Sue offers Forest Immersion experiences and engaging workshops related to this, and also developed an online course on the topic.
Founding Chair at World Trails Network.
Galeo Saintz is the founder and co-founder of multiple non-profit organizations and initiatives linked to trails and conservation. As a mountain wilderness guide, he leads unique trips and expeditions with an emphasis on conservation and ecological awareness. As the Founding Chair of the World Trails Network, a Swiss-based international non-profit association working for trails globally, Saintz helps to shape a global outdoor sector that makes a difference to rural communities, to nature, and to tourism. He is also the Co-Chair of the IUCN – CEESP Commission’s Theme on Environment and Peace, and its Task Force on Migration and Environmental Change, fostering collaboration for environmental peacebuilding.
Carol Surya is a registered counselling psychologist with over 30 years of experience supporting children, parents, educators and helping professionals. She completed her Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 1995, with a thesis focused on child sexual abuse in South Africa. Her career has included managing a multidisciplinary child-abuse intervention project, running a child-centred private practice and training consultancy, providing trauma support to survivors of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, and managing the Psychology Clinic aboard Transnet Foundation’s Phelophepa Health Care Train. Her work on the train contributed to a two-year pilot project that reached more than 53,000 children in rural communities across South Africa.
Carol is also an internationally accredited Journey™ practitioner and qualified Biodanza and Children’s Biodanza facilitator. Since 2024, she undertook additional training in Alignment Therapy, which she offers to children, teenagers and adults and incorporates into her psychological practice where appropriate. She brings her diverse therapeutic approaches into her individual work, organisational wellness programmes, stress-management and self-care training, parenting programmes, and Magical Me emotional-intelligence workshops for children. Carol co-founded WISE (Wellbeing in Schools and Education), which supported educators and learners in under-resourced South African schools from 2017 to 2024. She is the author of Great Kids! Strengthening Their Natural Potential and ParentMagic – Raising Kids Positively, and the creator of the InnerMagic® children’s self-esteem and emotional-intelligence game. Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to helping children and adults strengthen their emotional wellbeing, reconnect with their inner resources and thrive.
