Education: a sign of hope

During our recent Provincial visit in Chile, a phrase written several times on the walls of houses and buildings caught our attention: “They took everything from us…even fear”. The sisters and friends shared with us that the “social outbreak” has left its marks on the facades, but also in people’s lives. These massive demonstrations and riots portray the moments that we are currently experiencing in Latin America and Caribbean. Not only temporary but historical realities disguised as democracy that generate greater vulnerability, in great poverty, indignation, uncertainty, violence.

Our missionary presence in Chile is related to Education, accompaniment of young university students and the Integral Formation as pastoral agents. We are so aware that in Educational Institutions converges the environment that makes the educational service more complex. Various studies tell us, sad to say, that one of the biggest challenges facing the educational system was after the pandemic.

The high percentages of vulnerability experienced by the students are; due to the inequity of the place of origin, the educational system itself, and the violence to which they are subjected. That is why it is not strange to hear from them that the school is a “place of learning”, a “safe space” and a “home that welcomes them”. Face the challenges of a “humanizing, comprehensive, transformative, liberating and inclusive formation”; It has in network articulation of the schools in Santiago, Antofagasta and Calama, to add the quality of education is to have a fundamental tool that allows students this approach and learning community.

Regarding the Global Educational Pact, Pope Francis affirms that “Education is always an act of hope, from the present, facing the future.” We can say that this act of hope has its protagonists in the educational community, which encourages service to mold citizenship, to value culture, to acknowledge and diversity integrated; that is, it has the possibility of “ returning everything necessary and to build a present and different tomorrow”.