Education
Education is all about producing, disseminating and using knowledge and information in a way that benefits our communities.
It is about listening to our community. It is about sharing with our community. It is about telling stories.
Education is key to what we do at Adhikaar Aotearoa. We want an Aotearoa where LGBTQIA+ persons, especially South Asians, can be themselves, free of fear and stigma, and explore their potential while challenging discrimination against them. We use education to make sure that we meet this vision.
Education is key to filling the information gaps that many in our community, and more generally, society, has. We have four focus areas when it comes to education.
- We want to provide information for LGBTQIA+ people of colour. Often, LGBTQIA+ people of colour grow up in circumstances of erasure, and this means that some do not know where to go for help or for further information.
- We want to provide information for the families of LGBTQIA+ people of colour. For many of our families, this is new terrain, and in many cases they want to get information so they can support the members of their family who are LGBTQIA+.
- We want to enhance the level of awareness of LGBTQIA+ among the South Asian community. Our communities are closely connected by kinship relations. Collectivism runs in our blood. We care for each other even if we are not related by blood because, at the end of the day, we are all related by our ethnic identities. Therefore, we hope to nurture the desire to learn about LGBTQIA+ related issues in our communities.
- We wish to provide education for broader society. When people think queer and/or gender diverse, a particular image, one that does not include people of colour, comes to mind. This happens because of design, not coincidence. We will highlight the experiences of LGBTQIA+ from South Asian backgrounds significantly with the hope that their stories are never to be overlooked and/or erased.
Please use the contact form and we will get back to you to talk through your specific situations.