Developing a Rights-Based Education Model: Alfasoysal

(translated from Haitian Kreyol, author Patrick Pierre, community leader)

In 2016 after completing a community health survey and walking every inch of the commune, I noticed that we would not get anywhere without EDUCATION! The people of Borgne do not just need to learn to read and write. They need to know and deserve to know their rights and how to take their place in a society; they must how to change their lives, their families, the community in which they live, and their country—our country. We must learn to work together, in a chain of solidarity based on strong and sustainable development. I came up with a simple and significant term for what we need: Alfasososyal.

Alfasosyal: is a philosophy of integral development in a community. To survey this philosophy, we began to create a model for it in Oboy (Borgne), so that other communes would come to look at us and also grow throughout Haiti.

Alfasosyal: is the basic philosophy, leading idea and agenda for solving all kinds of problems: moral, structural, mental, social, health, educational, and economic of underdeveloped origin.

Alfasosyal: is a participatory dynamic, it creates space for every citizen to learn to find their place in a society, to sit together, to learn the rights and duties they each have, to solve the problems of their communities, their countries.

Alfasosyal it is reason, it is understanding, attention that puts problems and solutions sitting on the same chair, the same table to choose what is right for everyone.

Alfasosyal: is the participation, reflection, solution, and action of all people indiscriminately, to develop and change the face of a community.

Alfasosyal: it is our day and night, our distance, we must all work for it, it is a duty and humanity, it is the responsibility of all who have good understanding.

Patrick B. Pierre