Education for Change is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 by a group of Canadian students and recent graduates. Our primary motive was to create awareness and change within our communities about both historical and contemporary instances of mass human rights violations. The twentieth century has been marked by unprecedented levels of mass murder and ethnic cleansing: the invention of the term “genocide”¹ in response to the Holocaust indicates the unparalleled nature of these modern human catastrophes.

Sadly, the Holocaust was not the last event of its kind. The lessons of history have been disregarded by the international community, and mass atrocities continue to occur under the world’s gaze. We at E4C cannot let history remain silenced. Through our educational programming, we hope to help students move beyond a theoretical understanding of human rights to a more dynamic engagement with the concepts that inform the international prohibitions on genocide and crimes against humanity. We hope to challenge students to become acutely aware of the grim reality of our history, and to recognize their responsibility as citizens to prevent future atrocities. By connecting education and engagement, we aim to encourage students to recognize and uphold the universality of human rights: every person is born free and equal, regardless of individual difference. We have a responsibility to challenge our world leaders to uphold these human rights and to turn their promises of ‘Never Again’ into reality.

We hope that you will join us in giving voices to the silenced and protecting human rights today.

¹ From the Greek: genos (family); and Latin: ossido (to massacre).