"Education delivers one of the most important commodities: Dreams"
-Marlon Krieger
photos by Annalisa Iadicicco and Marlon Krieger
I am working on a project with my partner, Annalisa Iadicicco, documenting the role that education plays in providing opportunities and hope to people battling various forms of oppression. They may be individuals or communities, fighting injustice, marginalization or abuse. We are looking into the importance of developing a relevant and specific form of education that is unique to each situation.
We started in Peru; in the remote region of the Ucayali River working with local indigenous tribes, in Villa El Salvador a shantytown of 400,000 people outside of Lima, and in Cuzco where we were working with child domestic workers.
My journal "Drinking Gasoline, Smoking DynOmite" details the adventures of two weeks in the lower jungle of Peru. "It's not easy travelling with 4 women and a priest..."
We believe education to be at the forefront of the battle against poverty, subjugation and abuse. By giving women and children the tools they need to become self-reliant members of their societies they will lead the path to a world of equality and hope. With education they not only gain the power of knowledge but the ability to provide for themselves thereby freeing them up from the hands of oppression. It is only by empowerment that we will attain change.
Education itself posses many challenges and if applied erroneously can create more damage than benefits for a village and culture. Part of our mission, through this documentary is to get to the heart of what education is and what it means: What have been the most successful applications and the worst failures, what methods work where, and what does education encompass. We know that education helps level the playing field for the oppressed, it gives opportunities and delivers one of the most important commodities: Dreams. These people live in circumstances where hope and dreams are scarce and not given a chance to bloom: without dreams we won’t get far.
Regardless of the challenges of intervention and the difficulties of delivering the right education we believe that it is our best mechanism for change. It is only through education that people stop being victims and are able to take their own fate into their hands. Educate one person and change a household. Educate a dozen and change a community, educate a nation and we change the world.
Experts discussing the meaning of education; it is envirnmental and circumstantial and no single formula can be applied to all situations
Introduction to the work of Centro Yanapanakusun in Cuzco, Peru. The organization does incredible work with child domestic works- children in servitude.
An introduction to some of the girls we befriended at Centro Yanapanakusun
