History
The non-profit association KAIOS is a young non-profit organization which was created in 2019 within the municipality of Saint-Gilles, one of the most diverse municipalities in the city of Brussels in terms of culture and population. The non-profit organization was founded by permanent members who have more than 15 years of experience in social action using capacity building as a lever for awareness and socio-economic development. The etymology of the word KAIOS comes from the DAMARA language, a language spoken in Namibia (Southern Africa) and which means “THANK YOU”. It is in the exchange, valuation and gratitude of humans that KAIOS bases its values to strengthen its missions of empowering beneficiaries with few opportunities.
We use non-formal education as a learning methodology within our projects in order to complement the traditional education system but also to promote the inclusion of people excluded from formal education.
Non-formal or lifelong education is a learning process that offers a journey where participants leave their comfort zone in order to develop critical thinking and a plural perspective on our society but also on their environment. A development that requires collective, bottom-up and inclusive participation of beneficiaries where we educate through project, through action, while confronting them with their realities. Our audience is an adult audience aged between 18 and 45 years old.
Vision
Make collective socio-cultural animation an emancipating and unifying tool for citizens in order to support citizen participation and thus transform the status of “subjects-subjects” into “subjects-actors”.
This transition must be a permanent dynamic between the emancipation, awareness and action of individuals thanks in particular to their life experiences on a social, political and cultural level. Our vision is also to aspire to a fairer society by inspiring the desire to create and act together through action, through collective and bottom-up development projects. Projects that address social issues that are closely linked to the realities of the participants.
However :
• Our environment is threatened due to our lifestyle based on over-consumption of natural resources. Furthermore, the effects of climate change are intensifying and especially weakening the most vulnerable populations ,
• The complexities of identity and socio-economic environments have pushed individuals and newcomers to the emergence of stereotypes, encouraging withdrawal into oneself and thus promoting fear of others;
• Society continues to evolve in a selective and competitive manner in power relations which always generates and maintains a relationship: “dominated and dominant”. Unfortunately it will always be to the detriment of the most disadvantaged populations and to the benefit of the most elite.
It is therefore necessary to support a vision that dynamically aligns: EMANCIPATION-CONSCIENCE-ACT
Mission
KAIOS uses socio-cultural animation in a logic of continuing education to promote responsibility and civic autonomy among young adults and adults both in the social (learning to live together) and cultural (decoding and expression on society) dimensions. ). In our missions, social relationships between individuals are no longer based on economic capital, but rather on CULTURAL capital.
KAIOS also allows learning through project action in order to promote questioning, deconstruction, participation, emancipation, confrontation and transformation of beneficiaries to allow them to act individually (making the participant an “ACTOR”). and collectively. This ongoing process allows individuals and groups to transform the power of submission into the power of collective action.
Beyond our mission and through our projects, KAIOS is also:
Fight against prejudice and social discrimination by providing the educational tools necessary to strengthen their identity and view the future in a critical, responsible, active and supportive manner,
Promote civic spirit for better societal participation in a rapidly globalising world,
Raise awareness about our environment which is threatened due to our way of life based on overconsumption of natural resources and production of unsorted waste,
Support non-formal education as an inclusive and participatory learning methodology.
Values
Different values support the missions of KAIOS. In particular, they make it possible to reinforce our objectives and our work with the least privileged populations while respecting their cultural and socio-economic environments. Inspired by the life experience of its founders, KAIOS advocates openness to diversity, to the wealth and potential of others. An opening that is accompanied by various partners both in the north and in the south.
Gender
We mainstream gender equality in our organization through the permanent staff and occasional volunteers, but also in the design and execution of projects. We want to overcome the gender barriers to the empowerment of young and old in order to minimize the root causes of gender discrimination as much as possible.
Aware of the environment
We integrate the environment into our organization, the design and execution of the projects we develop. For a more sustainable vision, we have also developed a “healthy and sustainable food” center which allows less waste and efficient budgets. We are committed to limiting the negative impact we have on the environment through our actions.
Commitment / Volunteering
KAIOS was born out of a solidarity commitment project between its founding members who have always been involved in a voluntary and voluntary way towards their neighbor.
Participation/Inclusion
It is ``Together`` that we obtain better results, especially when young people are involved in the start-up of projects with responsibilities specific to their profiles. Their differences of opinion are then used as a lever for development in order to promote the emergence of the project.