FUNDAEC
Encyclopedia
FUNDAEC, the acronym in Spanish for “The Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences”, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization
that focuses on training and development in the rural areas of Colombia
and other countries in Latin America
. It was created in 1974 in Colombia by a group of scientists and professionals led by Farzam Arbab, a renowned physicist who had arrived as a visiting professor to the University of Valle
in 1970.
There are two main programs—the Tutorial Learning System (SAT), a secondary level educational system used by over 25,000 students throughout the Americas, and the University Center for Rural Well-Being (CUBR). The curriculum aims to develop in its students capabilities in five main fields: mathematics, science, language and communication, technology, and service to the community.
. According to Gustav Correa, director of FUNDAEC in 2002, it was originally inspired by a quotation from Bahá'u'lláh
- "Baha'u'llah talks about man as 'a mine rich in gems of inestimable value.' He says that 'education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom'. Its founding ideals included:
FUNDAEC was instituted as a private development foundation based in Cali
, and has developed a number of development projects centered around a goal that rural populations should not only benefit from higher education, but should also actively participate in creating and generating knowledge and technologies, to improve their quality of life and standard of living FUNDAEC sought to dispel the image of the poor farmer whose life must be planned and managed by more privileged members of society.
by 1996. SAT has been credited, after wide implementation, with cutting the process of urbanization
, increases in democratic behavior and aspects of gender equality, extra curricular activities in communities, stopping migratory movement of populations, and established public-private cooperation. The system has been replicated by request of the government and in 1996 was investigated by the government of Honduras for use there. The curriculum is uniquely formulated for rural students, using a series of highly interactive workbooks, and specially trained tutors who are themselves from rural areas present the curriculum on a flexible schedule to meet the needs of rural students. The curriculum aims at the skills required for living in the countryside instead of abstract sciences but was developed from the ground up for the rural inhabitants. One of the ways to become a tutor of the program is to graduate from its series of workbooks and start offering a class registered with the government. Since the focus stays in the community the community becomes stronger. FUNDAEC has won the Change the World -- Best Practice Award for its SAT program from the Club of Budapest
and characterized as “the best educatory project of the time”, according to Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
. By 2002 the SAT system was in use in Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia and the first phases of the implementation of the program have started in Zambia. Parallel to the SAT project, FUNDAEC began a micro-finance initiative as well.
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
that focuses on training and development in the rural areas of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and other countries in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. It was created in 1974 in Colombia by a group of scientists and professionals led by Farzam Arbab, a renowned physicist who had arrived as a visiting professor to the University of Valle
University of Valle
The University of Valle , also called Univalle, is a public, departmental, coeducational, research university based primarily in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is the largest higher education institution by student population in the southwest of the country, and the third in...
in 1970.
There are two main programs—the Tutorial Learning System (SAT), a secondary level educational system used by over 25,000 students throughout the Americas, and the University Center for Rural Well-Being (CUBR). The curriculum aims to develop in its students capabilities in five main fields: mathematics, science, language and communication, technology, and service to the community.
Overview
In 1974 FUNDAEC was founded by group of professors at the University of ValleUniversity of Valle
The University of Valle , also called Univalle, is a public, departmental, coeducational, research university based primarily in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is the largest higher education institution by student population in the southwest of the country, and the third in...
. According to Gustav Correa, director of FUNDAEC in 2002, it was originally inspired by a quotation from Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh
Bahá'u'lláh , born ' , was the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. He claimed to be the prophetic fulfilment of Bábism, a 19th-century outgrowth of Shí‘ism, but in a broader sense claimed to be a messenger from God referring to the fulfilment of the eschatological expectations of Islam, Christianity, and...
- "Baha'u'llah talks about man as 'a mine rich in gems of inestimable value.' He says that 'education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom'. Its founding ideals included:
- Not seeing the people as masses of undernourished people, overwhelmed by problems and needs-housing, employment, sanitation, education, but instead to consider the participants of its programs as irreplaceable resources in a self-sustaining process of change.
- The strong conviction that every human being possesses great potentialities that an appropriate educational process can help develop and channel towards service to the community and to society at large.
- To analyze problems of poverty and social disintegration keeping an eye on the tendency to reduce people to an object of manipulation by either an unjust market or a deified state, to an insatiable pleasure seeking consumer of goods, or an untiring participant in power struggles.
- An acceptance of two interacting aspects of human nature: the basic drive of material survival and the reality of man's spiritual nature, with infinite potentialities for qualities such as love, justice, and generosity.
- Avoiding an unbalanced obsession with industrialization unattainable by and undesirable for the majority of humanity. Not romantic conceptions of traditional untechnological societies of subsistence and peasant economies but a search for a scientifically and technologically modern society, which, however, would base its educational, economic, administrative, political, and cultural structures on the concept of the integral nature of man rather than his mere material needs.
- The rural university would be a social space in which two systems of knowledge, a modern one (in all its sophistication) and a traditional one pertaining to the people of the region would interact in a healthy way to produce important development processes from within the rural population itself.
- The Rural University would have to pursue its goals with the understanding that all the processes of rural life, production, simple construction and repair, marketing, the development of human resources, socialization, the flow of information, adaptation and the improvement of technologies, health care and sanitation, and decision making are in need of structures that may connect them to the corresponding structures of the political, social, economic, and cultural life of an evolving global society.
FUNDAEC was instituted as a private development foundation based in Cali
Calì
Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...
, and has developed a number of development projects centered around a goal that rural populations should not only benefit from higher education, but should also actively participate in creating and generating knowledge and technologies, to improve their quality of life and standard of living FUNDAEC sought to dispel the image of the poor farmer whose life must be planned and managed by more privileged members of society.
Projects
Projects of FUNDAEC began with the Centro Universitario de Bienestar Rural, CUBR (“University Center for Rural Well-being”) in 1980 to serve as a basis of expertise for development and review of programs and projects. Then in 1987, the "System for Tutorial Learning" or "SAT" (the Spanish acronym for "Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial") was established which has been used in 13 of the 30 Departments of ColombiaDepartments of Colombia
Colombia is an unitary republic formed by thirty-two departments and a Capital District . Each department has a Governor and a Department Assembly , elected by popular vote for a four-year period. The governor cannot be re-elected in consecutive periods...
by 1996. SAT has been credited, after wide implementation, with cutting the process of urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
, increases in democratic behavior and aspects of gender equality, extra curricular activities in communities, stopping migratory movement of populations, and established public-private cooperation. The system has been replicated by request of the government and in 1996 was investigated by the government of Honduras for use there. The curriculum is uniquely formulated for rural students, using a series of highly interactive workbooks, and specially trained tutors who are themselves from rural areas present the curriculum on a flexible schedule to meet the needs of rural students. The curriculum aims at the skills required for living in the countryside instead of abstract sciences but was developed from the ground up for the rural inhabitants. One of the ways to become a tutor of the program is to graduate from its series of workbooks and start offering a class registered with the government. Since the focus stays in the community the community becomes stronger. FUNDAEC has won the Change the World -- Best Practice Award for its SAT program from the Club of Budapest
Club of Budapest
The Club of Budapest is an international organization founded in 1993 by Ervin Laszlo to expand beyond the exclusively scientific purpose of The General Evolution Research Group to try to mobilize the full cultural resources of humanity to meet the challenges we face.-Club's mission:“The Club of...
and characterized as “the best educatory project of the time”, according to Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker is a German scientist and politician.He is son of the physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and nephew of the former German President Richard von Weizsäcker....
. By 2002 the SAT system was in use in Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia and the first phases of the implementation of the program have started in Zambia. Parallel to the SAT project, FUNDAEC began a micro-finance initiative as well.
See also
- Socio-economic development (Bahá'í)Socio-economic development (Bahá'í)Since its inception the Bahá'í Faith has had involvement in socio-economic development beginning by giving greater freedom to women, promulgating the promotion of female education as a priority concern, and that involvement was given practical expression by creating schools, agricultural coops, and...
- History of Colombia from the 1970s
- Ruhi InstituteRuhi InstituteThe Ruhi Institute is an educational institution, operating under the guidance of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'í Faith in Colombia. The general idea of an institute in Bahá'í terms originates with the beginning of the Nine Year Plan designated by the Universal House of Justice...
- Bahá'í Faith in ColombiaBahá'í Faith in ColombiaThe Bahá'í Faith in Colombia begins with references to the country in Bahá'í literature as early as 1916, with Bahá'ís visiting as early as 1927...
External links
- Official Website
- LazosLearning Association, offering online FUNDAEC courses