Where peer learning, hope, and action for change meet.
For a while now I have been reflecting on how traditional education conditions society and us as individuals. After I finished my undergraduate degree, I spent some time flirting with the idea of starting a master’s at an international university, combining my passion for traveling with the next step in my education journey. But something always seemed to get in the way: lack of time, lack of financial resources, finding the right course, and most of all, difficulty in finding a space that would really motivate me to take this step.
I discovered the world of facilitation and design of learning experiences through my work with social impact. Through opportunities to access spaces where I could learn through my own experiences, I was discovering a whole new world of non-formal education that appealed to me a lot more. These spaces gave me a chance to reflect and process feelings, emotions, stories, and connections with myself and other people.
Today I see peer learning as an opportunity to have more voice and belonging in the learning journeys I decide to embark on. And more than anything, I find in it the feeling that I am not doing this alone. Which is a very powerful thing.
Last year I went through a moment of fragility. I, who have always considered myself a cheerful and hopeful person about the future, started having difficulties nurturing this energy and started having doubts about how realistic I was being with my positive mindset. Friends going through difficult times, financial difficulties and lack of professional prospects for myself, a complicated relationship, political instability in my home country because of elections, climate change, environmental degradation, homophobia, xenophobia, hate attacks between people in the news… to name a few things that made me feel in a rather desperate moment. And although I kept having moments of energy and willingness to fight for change, it seemed that this was becoming a utopian idea, mainly because I started to feel alone in this fight. And it wasn’t that people willing to fight for change didn’t exist around me, I just couldn’t feel or see that they were there. It was hard to find connection.
It was at this point that I crossed paths with Huddlecraft and their Fellowship programme. An organisation that seeks to create an ecosystem of support for peer-led learning and action. An inspiring vision of how we can use our learning journeys to envision and build a better future. All of this done in community.
Even before I decided to apply for the Fellowship, as I was studying the work of the organisation, I felt like I was getting an answer to many of the questions I was having at that moment. And more than anything, I felt hope. Hope that there were people as interested as I was in working for positive change in this world and that, after all, I didn’t have to do it alone.
One of the ways in which Huddlecraft puts its purpose into practice is through Huddles. Huddles are groups of people who decide to embark on a learning journey together to overcome challenges and unlock potential that they couldn’t alone. You can better understand the magic of this process in this article beautifully written by Huddlecraft and Amaliah.
One of the steps in the Fellowship application process is to define a theme that moves you and that you would like to explore further over the course of the programme. As I learned more about the experience and progressed through the recruitment phases, it became increasingly clear what theme I wanted to explore on this journey: hope itself!
Finding this community of people interested in dedicating their learning processes to promote change in their surroundings was an injection of motivation and energy for me. And realising that made me understand how important hope is to keep me motivated in my fights and on journeys to promote change around me as well. I realised how much doing this alongside people who are interested in doing the same made me excited!
Circling back to the beginning of this text, for some time now I have been looking for ways of learning that make more sense to me, that speak to my heart and my purpose, and that are more democratic and inclusive for everyone. By being part of the Huddlecraft Fellowship programme, I feel like I have found one of them, and I want to bring it to others! In January 2024, I will host “Hope: the group project”, a peer-to-peer learning journey co-created by myself and 11 other people from different places around the world. It will be a 3-month journey in which, together, we will explore some of the issues related to hope that I mentioned in this text and many others. Personally, I want to better understand how hope becomes fuel for promoting change around us, how it can be cultivated when life challenges us the most, what are the limits of staying hopeful and how we can expand them, among many other things.
Moreover, by embarking on this journey, I also seek to create a network of people who can support, challenge, reflect and act together to make ourselves and our corners of the world a better place, something that is at the heart of creating Huddles. Would you like to join me?
