This week on Voices for a Cause, the writer Julia Navarro talks with Daniel Villanueva SJ, General Coordinator of the International Federation of Fe y Alegría. With him, we approached the international dimension of the 22 Fe y Alegría organizations that exist in the world and that “work united by the desire to improve the mission as a whole”.

In this chapter, Daniel emphasizes that although “the core of the Federation’s work is education, this accompaniment of the educational communities has led us to a progressive involvement in the rest of society”. A position that, in Daniel’s own words, occurs because “our concept of popular education is not only limited to the traditional school classroom, but also implies the search for social transformation”.

In addition, Daniel delves into the main challenges currently facing the Federation, pointing out the internal “diversity” of having to coordinate a multitude of initiatives and models built locally to respond to specific educational needs. Externally, Daniel points to “the positioning of the movement, sustainability, global educational discourse and the incorporation and learning of new educational models” as the greatest external challenge.

Daniel and Julia also talk about the new horizons offered to the international movement by the incorporation of new Faith and Joys in regions such as Asia or Africa that “bring freshness and a renewal of the great educational questions”. In Daniel’s words, “it is very interesting what happens in this dialogue because the Federation learns and is transformed by the new projects and proposals that come from below, from the ground, from the roots”.

Finally, Daniel talks about ‘New Frontiers’, a new focus of the International Federation. which “groups together the dimensions of novelty in which Fe y Alegría is seeking new ways to respond or the new populations or groups with which we are beginning to work. A work that goes from intercultural bilingual education in the Amazon to rural education in those places where vulnerability is greater”.

Voices for a Cause’ is Entreculturas’ weekly podcast. The programs are broadcasted every Thursday on our Youtube channel, on Spotify, on Ivoox, and on Apple Podcast.