Soul Dreamers: Using Gaming to Foster a Reconnection with Mother Nature

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Visionary Teddy Florea describes his three-part project to educate and inspire a deeper level of care for our planet

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By MissionBox staff | | Updated on September 29, 2020

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Teddy Florea is the Director of Business Development for Nordic Game Resources, a Strategic Consultant , an entrepreneur and the vision behind Soul Dreamers. Teddy is a natural connector, helping gaming developers and publishers reach out to any service needed in the industry. This article is based upon an interview with Teddy and Kathryn Engelhardt-Cronk, CEO of MissionBox, Inc.

"The idea for the Soul Dreamer project stems from my experience as a civic activist, a political scientist and an entrepreneur. Soul Dreamer starts with the premise that we are disconnected from Mother Nature and because of this unnatural separation we need to go through some healing mechanisms, which are about coming back to our origins, getting closer to understanding what the Earth means for us and understanding also the issues that do exist and taking specific actions to change them.

The idea is about creating an immersive ecotourism project that brings Soul Dreamers, which are visitors that need this kind of healing, into immersive environments, in beautiful natural resorts, in which they are connecting with the local communities.

A key component of Soul Dreamer is to first create a lodge in the northern part of Colombia, in the Sierra Nevada region, which is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. It’s a mix of different kind of climates from the highest mountains to its slopes, to places in the sand, down the rivers, with alligators, with the sea, with indigenous people.

We’re creating a lodge, hopefully someday a series of lodges—the Soul Dreamers Club, to create centers for purpose-driven tourism. The participants will be carefully selected and become the ethical tourists that will connect with the locals. They will learn Spanish in an immersive way by being in the locals' houses, in their natural habitat and also taking trips across the mountain to other areas. The idea is to connect as much with the land and local communities as possible, so that those ethical and responsible tourists can heal and reconnect with the earth.

The second part of the project involves a charity component, which is about creating a digital library, Eco Manka Library, a centralized platform in the video games industry for people who want to connect and work together on environmental causes with games. The library will offer environmental-related online gaming that tackles issues such as climate change, biodiversity, animal rights, cultural habitat protection and preservation of valued traditions. This library will be offered to adolescents between 12 and 18 years-old, because they are the next generation of consumers who can make specific environmentally responsible choices in their daily behavior. These same teens will also be the next generation of tourists and the next generation of civic activists. Schools and educational institutions will be primary partners to the library.

The third part of the project, Eco Manka Experiential Learning, is about having specific projects that target rural communities in the areas where we'll be providing the tourism experiences—Columbia, Costa Rica, Argentina and perhaps Uganda and Indonesia. We’re going to do research with the region's universities, create local partnerships with reputable local NGOs, and identify human needs at the community level so we can tackle environmental issues. We'll then create a curriculum that will combine digital access to environment-focused games, as well as provide experiential learning through activities in nature, all to reinforce the community's connection with the local habitat.

We plan to start first the Digital Library's prototype in early 2021 while the eco-touristic side will be set off once the pandemic is over. Our funding campaign will start soon."

If a reader has an interest in Soul Dreamers, contact Teddy at florea.teddy@gmail.com or via https://www.linkedin.com/in/teddy-florea-b0343441

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MissionBox editorial content is offered as guidance only, and is not meant, nor should it be construed as, a replacement for certified, professional expertise.