Victor helps to dig rocks to build his own school in Nicaragua
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
-Elie Weisel
Sadly, in 2013 we continue to see injustice all around us. Injustice happens when decisions are made by leaders, bullies, and those who think they know best. Injustice hides in boardrooms, workplaces, private homes, and government. Injustice isn’t just a product of wars and fighting between countries; injustice happens right outside your front door every day.
Elise Weisel lived through one of the most publicly horrific episodes of injustice in the modern world, but if we travel to many, many countries today we see the same oppression, the same powerlessness of the people, the same pain.
Too many people avert their eyes from injustice. It’s painful to watch, and even more painful to be immersed inside it when it’s all around us. But we don’t need to be cartoon crime fighters to chip away at the injustice all around us-we simply need to take one step forward.
To me, education is the great equalizer for injustice. As Americans learned from our times of slavery, education is power. Education cannot be taken away from us. Education leads to enlightenment. In America, educators and parents work hard to create and sustain an education system with equal access for all. In my career, equal access hasn’t meant an inability to learn in an actual building, with real desks, and basic supplies.
When I learned about Seeds of Learning in 2009, I felt that I had found a place where I could make a difference, a place to help right the injustice of a lack of education. Seeds of Learning is a non-profit group dedicated to improving education in central America, right now specifically in Nicaragua.
I’ve written before about the life-changing experience my children and I had when we traveled to Ciudad Dario, Nicaragua, in 2010. After years of listening to their pleas to return, we are organizing another trip to Ciudad Dario this summer to help build an addition to a high school, and to improve global citizenship between the two countries.
If you’d like to learn more about our trip and support Seeds of Learning, please click here to visit the link to our Indiegogo campaign:
Don’t let the bullies win. Decide where you want to speak out, help out, or work towards righting injustice. It doesn’t mean you need to travel all the way to Nicaragua, or take on something huge. It just takes a little step forward to make a big impact.
Jennifer Wolfe
Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.
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