U.S. – El Salvador Sister Cities invites you to an immersive week-long Popular Education School. The School is designed to give participants a basic understanding of the principles and practice of popular education, and to help participants gain both skills and ongoing support to use popular education in their own activism in the United States. The School will be held in Cinquera, a beautiful community in rural El Salvador. It will be led by skilled popular educators from Equipo Maiz, the leading Salvadoran popular education organization, and from USSESC’s sister organization CRIPDES, the organization of the Salvadoran rural popular movement.

WHY POPULAR EDUCATION?

Popular Education is experiential education that lets “ordinary people” come together, understand their own oppression, and develop their individual and collective power to overcome that oppression. Popular education was at the heart of the U.S. labor and civil rights movements in this country.  It has not played such a large role in our country in recent decades, but it has been developed to a very high level in parts of Latin America.
Popular education is the “secret sauce” underpinning the extraordinary power of the Salvadoran popular movement – as demonstrated by El Salvador recently becoming the first country in the world to ban metallic mineral mining.  We need some of that sauce in our work in the U.S. right now!

DETAILS AND HOW TO APPLY

School schedule: The School dates are August 12-19, 2018.
The 12^th and 19^th are travel days to and from El Salvador. We will be spending most of the time in Cinquera, with a day and an overnight in another nearby community to learn first-hand how popular education is a part of that community’s life. On most days we will have activities together starting at breakfast and extending into the evening.
Costs: We estimate the School cost will be around $850, which covers all costs within El Salvador including lodging, food and transportation. This amount does not include airfare to and from El Salvador. We will have some limited funds available for partial scholarships. We will also provide as much help as we can to make people’s own personal fundraising efforts successful.

HAVE QUESTIONS?

We’d love to hear from you. Contact Jon Falk at jonf@lljf.net, or 207-478-1537.
To apply for the school: If you are interested, please complete the online application form HERE. If you are going to need some financial assistance, there is a place on the application to request it. We ask that you apply as soon as possible.

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