Programs
Milenaria brings together arts in health, holistic nursing, community health, education, and intercultural care.
Founded in Colombia in 2012 by Martha Milena Carvajal George, its work grew from years of exploring the arts as a resource for health, learning, self-care, and community engagement. From public health and university education in Colombia to work with migrant communities and individual care in the United States, Milenaria reflects an evolving practice grounded in creativity, cultural knowledge, nursing, and human experience.
Embodied Consciousness Care is Milenaria’s individual approach to holistic nursing and health education.
It focuses on disease prevention, health awareness, and the development of practical self-care, helping individuals better understand how everyday habits, emotions, body awareness, lifestyle, environment, and personal experience influence their health.
Through individualized education and embodied and reflective practices, the person becomes an active participant in the process of caring for their own health.
At its foundation is a simple nursing principle: care is not only what we provide to others; it is also the knowledge and capacity we help people develop to care for themselves.
Impact: Encourages health literacy, preventive behaviors, greater body awareness, and sustainable self-care practices.
Focus: Holistic Nursing · Health Education · Prevention · Self-Care · Embodied Awareness.
Milenaria has also been a space for independent experimentation and community practice.
Over the years, its projects have brought together art, nature, movement, cultural memory, body awareness, health education, and collective experience, exploring different ways in which creative practices can contribute to individual and community health.
These experiences have allowed Milenaria to grow organically across different settings and populations while developing an approach that understands health through the relationship between body, emotions, culture, environment, creativity, relationships, and community.
Impact: Creates participatory experiences that encourage health awareness, expression, connection, belonging, and collective care.
Focus: Arts in Health · Community Health · Cultural Knowledge · Embodied Practice · Collective Care
Raíces de Cuidado brings Milenaria’s arts-and-health practice into the experience of migration.
Created for migrant communities, it weaves together memory, culture, identity, creative expression, health education, and embodied practices as resources for well-being, connection, and belonging.
Alongside community experiences, the program includes individualized accompaniment for people facing social vulnerability and human rights concerns, recognizing that health is deeply connected to personal history, migration, family, culture, and access to support.
Impact: Promotes cultural connection, emotional well-being, health awareness, and person-centered support for migrant communities and individuals experiencing vulnerability.
Focus: Migrant Health · Cultural Memory · Arts in Health · Human Rights · Intercultural Care.
Created arts-in-health experiences within university education, bringing together students from Nursing, Visual and Plastic Arts, Social Communication and Journalism, and Physical Education.
Through interdisciplinary, clinical, and community practices, students explored how the arts could become a resource for health education, communication, care, and social intervention. They also experienced creative practices directed toward their own well-being, self-awareness, emotional expression, and stress management.
Beyond learning about Arts in Health, students were encouraged to create and lead their own interventions, strengthening their capacity to work with communities through collaborative and creative approaches.
Impact: Contributed to interdisciplinary learning, social-intervention skills, student well-being, and a broader understanding of the role of the arts in health and care.
Recognition: This work was shared as a successful Arts in Health experience at national nursing congresses in Colombia and through academic and professional conference presentations.
Focus: Arts in Health · Interdisciplinary Education · Nursing · Clinical & Community Practice · Student Well-being.
Led community-based strategies focused on the prevention of child maltreatment and sexual abuse and the promotion of protective environments for children and adolescents.
Working across health education, public policy, family participation, and community action, the initiative brought together professionals, educators, institutions, families, and communities around prevention and child protection.
The strategies reached more than 92,000 people, making prevention education and the creation of protective environments central elements of this public health experience.
Impact: Expanded community awareness and participation in the prevention of violence against children and the promotion of safer environments for children, adolescents, and families.
Focus: Child Protection · Sexual Abuse Prevention · Protective Environments · Community Education · Public Health.
