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Language is the house of the soul

About Us
Nativa Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to biocultural preservation. We defend the inseparable bond between Indigenous languages, ancestral wisdom, and native ecosystems. We partner directly with Indigenous communities in the Andean and Caribbean highlands of Colombia and stand alongside BIPOC migrant communities in the United States.
We bridge ancestral knowledge with technology, digital tools for language, seeds, and territory. We walk alongside communities who are already the guardians of their own rights, lands, and futures.
Mission
Nativa Foundation operates on the conviction that the defense of fundamental human rights and biocultural preservation are one and the same purpose.Our mission is to forge deep alliances with Indigenous communities in Colombia and BIPOC migrant communities in the United States to protect, indivisibly, the sacred triad of their existence: language, land, and Living Heritage.
Vision
We dream of a world where the reciprocal relationship between peoples and their territories is restored and honored as the deepest model of sustainability.

Culture & Territory

Biocultural Conservation

Bridging the digital divide for rural and Indigenous women farmers. Through scalable digital training, skills development, and technology access, we empower women economically, improving livelihoods, creating market access, and building community resilience. Technology, like weaving, connects everything: knowledge, memory, territory, and the future.

Women Weavers of Peace

We work alongside Nasa women weavers in conflict zones. Together, we protect weaving traditions, strengthen leadership, and create opportunities for healing and income. We help provide materials, training, market access, and technical support.

Cultural memory/ contar nuestras historias.

Guided by communities, Nativa advances biocultural conservation by recognizing the reciprocal relationship between people and their environments. Ecosystem protection, cultural meaning, language revitalization, and place-based stewardship are understood as interconnected pathways that sustain biodiversity, socio-ecological balance, and cultural legacy.

Living Well / Buen Vivir

Women Weavers of Peace

Women Weavers of Peace stands with women in conflict-affected territories. We support leaders who transform ancestral practices, like weaving into acts of resistance and healing, strengthening their communities and weaving a new future of peace.

Multicultural Education

In territories marked by war and school dropout, we work alongside communities to create safe spaces of belonging. Through community-led bilingual education and cultural immersion, ancestral languages become acts of resilience, strengthening identity, preventing forced recruitment, and reconnecting youth with their roots and future.

Biocultural Conservation

Guided by communities, Nativa advances biocultural conservation by recognizing the reciprocal relationship between people and their environments. Ecosystem protection, cultural meaning, language revitalization, and place-based stewardship are understood as interconnected pathways that sustain biodiversity, socio-ecological balance, and cultural legacy.

What We Do

Transforming the Community Kitchen
This image captures the harsh conditions faced for years: an indigenous cook preparing the daily meal for over 300 students over an open wood fire on the ground at the Palmichal School in Cauca, Colombia. It represents the immense labor and health challenges the community endured.
"The smoke clung to our clothes and our lungs, but it was the only way to feed our children at school."
The community kitchen is now a safe, fully equipped space powered by biogas, improving the daily lives and health of students, teachers, and the entire community.
Local Territorial Engagement for Peace
Institutional coordination to engage the Presidential Council for Human Rights in the pilot plan for Territorial, Community, and Spiritual Healing within the Nasa Yuwe Indigenous Reservation, with a focus on preventing the forced recruitment of children and adolescents.
Reclaiming Nasa Yuwe Culture, Art, and Memory
Reclaiming Stories brings together Indigenous cultural community membersand artists to revitalize Nasa Yuwe language and culture. Building  cultural restoration among Nasa communities. Through reciprocity, redistribution, and community-led research, they aim to return ancestral knowledge and create new practices, rooted in tradition and facing the future.
Support BIPOC Immigrant Communities
Through strategic interinstitutional and governmental partnerships, including collaboration with consulates, community-based organizations, and public agencies, we empower BIPOC immigrant communities. Our work strengthens protection pathways, expands access to culturally responsive resources, and actively advances the human rights and well-being of migrant communities.

Our Team

Saday Osorio Córdoba

Co-Founder, Executive Director

Daniel Nelson Hood

Co-Founder & Director of Field Programs

Paulina Zapata

Director of Impact Programs & Community Ecosystems

Valeria Rueda

Media & Communications Coordinator

Press

Human rights advocacy for an Afro-Colombian migrant

Human rights advocacy for an Afro-Colombian migrant

12/17/2025

The San Francisco Standard — Coverage of the human rights case of an Afro-Colombian migrant

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Our Bodies Are Not a Battlefield.

Our Bodies Are Not a Battlefield.

12/6/2025

As a featured speaker for the United Nations Association of San Francisco’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, Saday Osorio Córdoba shed light on conflict-related sexual violence in Colombia, sharing firsthand narratives of how armed groups have targeted Indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and campesina girls.

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International Collaboration Agreement Signed to Support Victims of Violence in Colombia

International Collaboration Agreement Signed to Support Victims of Violence in Colombia

5/20/2023

For over 15 years, SADAY OSORIO CÓRDOBA has been creating bilingual curricula in indigenous languages and English/Spanish and has been actively participating in the Afro-Latino community in San Francisco, California, linking artistic and social projects between private and governmental organizations.

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Strategic Partners

Contact

  • 1955 Chestnut St, Berkeley, CA, United States