11. To educate for solidarity, for social justice and peace.

Finally, all that has been said would have no meaning if a true education for solidarity, social justice and peace were not at the heart of our establishments. Education for solidarity represents the corollary of all pedagogy based on the welcome of the most disadvantaged young people: what use would it be to pay particular attention to the poor without at the same time educating the body of pupils we receive, to solidarity with them? Particular attention to the poor and educational service of the poor, the promotion of rights of the child and respect for his dignity must not be written into a vertical structure of the exchange, which would amount to no more than a form of outdated paternalism. We must be constantly seeking a horizontal exchange. This horizontal exchange means that if our attention is attracted by poverty. it must also be attracted by a solidarity which we are educating towards. Poverty is not solely a measurable objective reality, it is also and above all the object of a struggle and a fight to make this evil disappear on a long-term basis. What programs and processes are we developing in the educational centres? What projects of solidarity are we suggesting to the young people we live with? In these areas the work being done by inter-district exchange groups (France, England, USA with Asia, Africa, Central America…) bear lasting fruit in the minds of the young people and adults who benefit from it.