Exiled Honduran Teacher Thanks Canadian Supporters

In late October 2019, Honduran teacher activist Jaime Rodriguez was abducted, tortured, thrown off a bridge and left for dead. He survived, and when well enough to travel, went into exile in Mexico just before the Covid 19 pandemic began. CoDevelopment Canada called on supporters to help Jaime through these difficult months of exile. As organizations and as individuals you responded with an outpouring of solidarity. On November 26 2020, Jaime will take his chances and return to his country. This is his message to you:

Message of Thanks

On my first day of pedagogy class when I began my primary school teacher studies at the Western Normal School in La Esperanza, Intibucá, my teacher Marco Tulio, congratulated us all for choosing a profession that involves so much social commitment. At the time I did not grasp the significance of his statement, but little by little this noble profession taught me the realities of our children and youth, and they become a reflection of my own reality. This makes it easier to understand the commitment of teachers all over the world to defending the rights of the people; the right to health, water, land, the rights of women and, of course, the right to education.

There are consequences for struggling for a better future for our peoples and against policies of privatization and the looting of public resources. Various colleagues have given their lives for this in Honduras, and in almost every country of the Americas.  In my case, it brought exile. But with exile came a wonderful experience of great learning.

Today I want to thank my fellow teachers, and others, in the republic of Canada, the teachers of Mexico, and educators from many countries of the Americas who supported and sheltered me with their solidarity. You, compañeros and compañeras, have shown me the true value of that word.

I want to give special thanks to CoDevelopment and the IDEA Network, to the BC Teachers' Federation and the Surrey Teachers' Association, to Steve, Maria Ramos and the teacher Dilcia Díaz – and to so many compañeros and compañeras who I have never met, and to whom I beg forgiveness for not naming, because that list would be very long.

I am returning to my country.

My commitment to free my homeland is today even stronger than before. I return bringing more experiences and the knowledge that, with your solidarity compañeros and compañeras, they will never break us.

But the repression will surely continue in Honduras, so I ask of you to simply follow the song of our resistance that says, “Promise me you will continue to fight.”

Gracias maestras y maestros

Jaime Rodríguez México City, November 25, 2020 

Colombia: Teaching for Peace, Working for Human Rights

Labour and Human Rights Program director with NOMADESC staff

By Filiberto Celada (Human and Labour Rights Program Director, CoDevelopment Canada) 

During CoDev’s Schools Territories of Peace Canadian teacher delegation to Colombia, I took some members of the delegation to observe a pedagogical encounter in Monteria, Cordoba province in Colombia’s Caribbean Region. Together with teacher delegates Anjum Khan and Susan Trabant, we travelled to the conference with John Avila, former director of the Colombian Teachers Federation’s (FECODE) Centre for Education Research and Development (CEID) and Jose Luis Ortega, executive secretary of the Córdoba Teachers’ Association’s (ADEMACOR) CEID.FECODE and ADEMACOR organized the conference entitled: Pedagogical Movement, School Territories of Peace and III Pedagogical National Congress and 2nd Provincial Encounter of Secretariats of Pedagogical Affairs – ADEMACOR 2019. Between 15-20 teachers attended this provincial encounter at ADEMACOR facilities where members of CEID and FECODE presented an analysis of the Schools as Territories of Peace program and the education policies and agreements with the Colombian Government. The last day of the encounter, 10 teachers presented and shared their alternative pedagogical experiences within 10 different schools.

It is important to highlight the fact that some teachers were presenting their alternative pedagogical experiences as part of their Master’s thesis in education. It was very motivating to witness that even that it was their own thesis, the teachers were open to share their methodology and results and welcomed their colleagues to use what they had developed in other schools without caring about copyrights.

After the Schools Territories of Peace Delegation was over, I traveled to the city of Cali in southwestern Valle del Cauca province to meet with CoDev partner NOMADESC (Association for Research and Social Action). While visiting Cali I was able to:

1) Introduce myself and meet with NOMADESC’s staff, explain CoDev’s model of partnership and international solidarity;

2) Meet with NOMADESC’s beneficiary population: members of the community of el Jarrillon and of Buenaventura;

3) Meet with NOMADESC’s Director Berenice Celeita to evaluate the project Comprehensive Defense of Life, Territory and Culture in Colombia.

4) Participate as International Observer in the National Congress of the Republic of Colombia’s session in the City of Santander de Quilichao in the department of El Cauca, organized by Senator Alexander Lopez due to the acts of genocide against the indigenous guard in Colombia’s Pacific coast.

Colombia Delegation Learns Innovative Approaches to Peace Education

by Education Program Director, Wendy Santizo

CoDev accompanied a Canadian teacher delegation to visit Colombia and learn from the “Schools as Territories of Peace” project FECODE is implementing across the country. Our visit coincided with the celebration of provincial pedagogical circles encounters, where teachers shared their experiences in bringing peace education to the classroom. Pedagogical circles are made up of teachers, school principals, parents and students to discuss and create alternative pedagogies that will result in promoting peace, dialogue, conflict resolution, historical memory and democratic participation in their communities.

The delegation split up and visited three provincial encounters in Montería, Córdoba; Cúcuta, Norte de Santander and Fusagasugá in Cundinamarca.

Three of the experiences presented that most caught my attention were the “7 Hats”, “The Memory of the River” and “My History”.

The first provides students with a tool they can use to analyze any conflict situation and decide how to react in a constructive way. There are seven different coloured hats, each representing a question or perspective of looking at the conflict. Once the student answers these questions, they are in a better position to talk about it and solve it in a peaceful way.

The second is a long-term school project, it was created to recover the historical memory of the local river. It begins with students researching the history of the river, its names, where it originates, what stories are linked to the river, fiction or real, when did the contamination of the river begin and why. Today the school has created a project to protect the river and plant hundreds of trees.

The third consists of students interviewing their grandparents or elders in the family and neighbourhoods and asking: What was school like before? What was the neighbourhood like? What is the story of their town? These stories and anecdotes are shared in the classroom and collective memories begin to be recovered, as well as stronger ties across generations.

The delegation also had the opportunity to visit several museums and galleries including the photographic exhibition “The Witness” by Jesus Abad Colorado in the National University of Colombia. The exhibition demonstrates how communities and schools have experienced the armed conflict and were affected by multiple armed actors.

Meetings were held with FECODE’s Executive Committee and representatives of the CUT (Colombian labour central) Executive to speak about working conditions in Colombia, the impact on workers of the entry of Colombia into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, as well as analysis around the national strike that was being prepared for November 21st.Among the demands of the strike are: No more tax, wage and labour reforms without consultations; An end to the killings of social and environmental leaders; the right to healthcare for teachers and their families; Strengthening of the national teachers’ social security fund, and; Implementation of agreements previously signed with the national government, that include the implementation of a diploma program for teachers in peace education and declaring schools as Territories of Peace.

The teachers’ unions seek peace with social justice, reconciliation and truth. FECODE prepared a report with detailed cases of teachers, social leaders and unionists who were victims of systematic accusations, persecution, threats, forced disappearances and assassinations to be presented to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) as part of their commitment to the clarification of truth in Colombia.

FECODE’s “Schools as Territories of Peace” project is facilitated by CoDevelopment Canada with support from the BC Teachers’ Federation, the Ontario Secondary Teachers’ Federation, the Centrale des Syndicats du Quebec and the Surrey Teachers’ Association.

Disaster Capitalism: Hurricane Maria & Puerto Rico’s Schools

To learn more about the role of the teachers federation and other Puerto Rican unions' role in community–based recovery: http://bit.ly/2Ardg7kI just got off the phone with Sofia Feliciano in Puerto Rico. She told me that her father had been arrested yesterday. Sofia’s father is Rafael Feliciano, former president of the Federation of Puerto Rican Teachers (#FMPR) whom I first met during the Tri-National Coalition to Defend Public Education Conference that the BC Teachers’ Federation hosted in Vancouver in May 2016.2017 Oct 23 Declaración de Prensa FMPR (Spanish)Press Release FMPR Oct 2017 (English)I have been calling Rafael and Sofia more frequently since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in late September, looking for updates on the situation and info on how CoDev and our Canadian partners might assist the teachers’ federation in efforts to rebuild schools and communities. They’ve described the innovative education that is taking place – like classes carried out in neighbours’ kitchens… How many ingredients do we need to feed every person on our block? and on the neighbours’ roofs… How to best build hurricane proof roofs with wood and zinc? But as cleaning up moves forward, they said, communities in Puerto Rico experienced a second blow, the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the US federal government are taking advantage of the environmental crisis. It was not long before Puerto Rico’s Education Secretary, Julia Keleher, announced that over 600 schools across the Island would close down and no longer be needing teachers. The FMPR fears they will replace them with charter schools, unloading responsibility for education onto the communities.Sofia and Rafael explained how communities dealing with traumatic effects of the hurricane are now also faced with having to protect their public schools. Over 50% of them remain closed, in spite of having the adequate conditions to receive students.The FMPR believes that it is unacceptable that well over a month after the hurricane, the government denies the right to public education to tens of thousands of Puerto Rican students. The schools belong to their communities, the union says, and they need them open in order to fully recover!In response to Keleher’s plan to privatize public education, teachers organized a civil disobedience action in the Education Secretary’s offices this week, which resulted in the arrest of 21 teachers, including Rafael.Clearly, Sofia was hurt and shocked to see her father arrested. Unfortunately she had to witness the same brutal actions back in June 2017 when fellow university students were also arrested for defending the University of Puerto Rico after the government attempted to pay its debt to international speculators by selling off the post-secondary institution. The students held a 72 day strike against sweeping austerity measures.Rafael Feliciano and other teachers arrested, were released last night at 11pm and are expected to appear before the courts to face charges.In the face of unprecedented devastation and an ineffective response from US disaster relief agencies in the occupied territory, the teachers’ federation has served as a useful network for community-based recovery from an environmental disaster. It is disturbing that Puerto Rico’s teachers must now also fight to prevent the destruction of their public school system.