Our Story
Founded by filmmaker turned education activist, Leslee Udwin, this global initiative was the result of the insights she discovered during the making of her documentary, India’s Daughter. The film, which in itself sparked a global movement to end violence against women and girls, is centred on the brutal gang rape of a medical student on a moving bus in Delhi.
Through 31 hours of interviews with the perpetrators of this brutal crime, it became abundantly clear that the root cause of this violence was socio-cultural programming of inequality, which ascribes lesser value and different rules to the other gender. Understanding that all inequalities, racial, religious, ethnic or any other, spring from the same root cause, and that the only way to change the discriminatory mindset is through education, Leslee began a journey in exploring what ‘education’ is and discovering what it should be.
Leslee concluded that there is a missing third dimension to education: Social and Emotional Learning which must be taught alongside numeracy and literacy. Neuroscientists are clear that the optimal time to change mindsets, attitudes and behaviour, is prior to the age of six.
Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all
– ARISTOTLE
