Our understanding of the world’s systems and structures is that oppression is both systemic and relational. In our attempt to be anti-reductionistic we will be engaging in an artistic rendering of the world we live in, not an exhaustive academic discourse. Our hope is an awakened imagination that will encourage all of us to be lifelong learners.

A culture of dominance has in many ways permeated our structures and relationships. The systems that we have built have created an environment where certain people matter and certain people don’t. We understand the role of non-personhood as what it means to be poor. Inevitably this manifests in social injustice, such as material poverty and death from preventable disease, but starts with the identity of being a non-person in the eyes of the other. Our journey, deeper than material restoration, is a journey towards becoming more fully human.

Oppressor and oppressed both find themselves on this path towards a regained humanness. The beauty of our humanness is destroyed both when we are oppressed and when we oppress. The liberation of humanity is tied up in the reciprocal relationship between rich and poor.

As an organization operating in a land of excess seeking solidarity with the undersides of society, we take the posture of a learner. We believe that our history has been one of dominance for too long, and do not seek to enter into a relationship as the powerful to the powerless. Solidarity is walking alongside one another. This is our journey, and the journey we invite you on.

Note: We do not believe in education for the sake of only knowledge, but instead view education as a vehicle for transforming our selves and the world around us. What good is knowledge that does not turn into compassion? What good is language that is not accompanied by action? We hope that the educational journey we embark on together will not be in vain.

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” –Paulo Freire