The International Network of Humanist Educators presented the book “Hay Futuro todavía. Experiences in the construction of a nonviolent humanising education in times of crisis”, a collective work that brings together twenty-eight stories with multiple voices from more than ten cities and corners of Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, interwoven with drawings and paintings by Peruvian children and adolescents.
There is still a future! is still a Latin American cry launched from the shock, uncertainty, loss and isolation in the pandemic period and, at the same time, the living testimony of multiple responses of good treatment, active listening, effective dialogue, mutual help, patient and supportive teaching.
The General Coordinator of the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE), Nelsy Lizarazo, highlights in the foreword: “each story is a gift of certainty, hope and affection made into daily practice. The human intentionality that transforms makes its way and advances steadily in the determined action of teachers, parents, children and adolescents who, convinced of the centrality of learning relationships, of the need for encounter and dialogue, of the unstoppable search for the link with others, deployed ingenuity, creativity and commitment. A sample of that resolve is in this book.
It tells in a simple way how it was possible to overcome confinement (“stay at home”) in the midst of the abyss opened up by economic inequalities and educational exclusion in times of virtual education. It shows how people come together, reflect and organise themselves in different spaces and scenarios: the “women’s circle” in the Amazon in Ecuador, the “Classroom Assembly” and the “march” of families in Rimac in Lima, the “videos for families and students” in the Sierra del Cusco in Peru, the “Train in Movement” in Santa Elena on the Ecuadorian coast, or the learning for affectivity in an Institute of Higher Education in Mendoza, Argentina.
The Humanist Educators Network is an initiative that emerged in 2016, which is part of multiple expressions promoted by the Humanist Movement worldwide. This work closes the second international call, launched in 2020, and marks the beginning of the 3rd international call in 2021, aimed at promoting and collecting “transformative humanist actions”, inspired by the golden rule “I treat others as I would like to be treated”.
