Educating from emergency - There are unseen wounds.
There are wounds that leave no scars on the skin, but transform the way a child looks at the world. They are the wounds of fear, abandonment, violence, loss, and all those experiences a child should never have to live through.
At SALEM we believe that education has the power to change that story.
With this conviction, our guides Paula, Sebastian and Silvana participated in the International Convention of Emergency Pedagogy, a meeting that brought together educators from different countries to reflect on how to accompany children and adolescents who have gone through difficult situations. One of the main speakers was Bernd Ruf, who shared his experience working with communities affected by wars, natural disasters, displacement and other humanitarian crises, demonstrating that education can become the first step to recovering PEACE.
However, we understood that it is not necessary to live a war to speak of an emergency.
In Mindo, the emergency is also present every day. It is in the child who arrives with a heart full of sadness. In the one who has grown up surrounded by violence. In the one who has lost a loved one, has been rejected, has suffered abandonment or simply has never found a place to feel safe.
Each of them arrives at SALEM with a story that deserves to be heard and accompanied.
That is why, at SALEM, we do not educate only so that our students learn mathematics, science or language. We educate so that they can trust again. So that they discover that there are adults who listen to them, who respect them and who believe deeply in them.
Emergency Pedagogy is not a subject or a school; it is a way of looking at each child with empathy. It is present in a word of encouragement, in a routine that provides security, in art that allows expressing what cannot be said with words, in movement that releases tension, in contact with nature and in every symbolic hug that reminds them that they are not alone.
That is why the constant training of our guides is a priority. Each new learning strengthens our tools to respond with sensitivity, knowledge and love to the realities faced by our boys and girls. Because we know that a prepared guide not only transmits knowledge: they can change the course of a life.
At SALEM we believe that the most important education does not always happen in a notebook; it often happens when a child smiles again, regains self-confidence and discovers that, despite everything experienced, their story can still be written differently.
Because educating from an emergency means sowing hope where fear once existed. It means believing in the power of love, community and education to rebuild lives. And that is the mission that, with deep commitment, we assume every day.
Because at SALEM we educate for life.
