GALE The Global Alliance for LGBT education
The Global Alliance for LGBT Education (GALE) will complete its starting phase by the end of 2007. The website will become gradually operational as a working platform for members. Members will be recruited and become involved. Projects in Brazil, Namibia, Asia and Europe will start. Some of these are supported by a transnational Development Group which focuses on teacher training.
To support smaller LGBT organizations in organizing educational projects, GALE will develop a capacity building program. GALE will start the development of a Worldwide Information Campaign against Prejudice and Ignorance which should be implemented in 2009.
GALE explores the opportunities to collaborate with UNESCO, ILGA, International AIDS Service Organizations and women's organizations and works on its visibility and reputation with international and local educational organizations.
In 2006 and 2007 GALE was founded formally and a website platform for collaboration was created Also, strategy groups were started in Europe, Africa and Asia. In 2008, GALE will make her real start with recruiting members and developing concrete activities. A members recruitment campaign will be launched and two newsletters will be published regularly. After plans in Latin America and the Caribbean (and maybe in Australia and North America) have become more clear, GALE will develop a strategy plan for the organization as a whole. A decision on this document will be made in Colombo in October.
The mission of GALE is to collect, enhance and share learning experiences about LGBT education. Transnational, GALE will collect experiences by doing a quick scan on interventions and their contexts. The quick scan will in many cases be accompanied by the collection of life stories of LGBT people, which will illustrate human rights abuse and social exclusion. These stories will be published in the context of a Worldwide Information Campaign Against Prejudice and Ignorance and also be part of a basic body of educational materials. Together with the quick scan results, the stories will be analyzed and put forward to discussion to mainstream NGOs and authorities. It is hoped such contacts will lead to further collaboration and a need for training.
GALE will enhance storytelling by developing formats to collect stories and to train storytellers. This part of the GALE action plan focuses specifically on LGBT issues. In a series of mainstreaming initiatives, GALE will write an opinion article on an educational framework, develop a format for teacher training, collecting good practices of police training and exploring how to deal with LGBT issues in Islamic communities.
In addition, GALE strategy groups work locally or regionally. In Africa a group develops a tool and training for media workers, in Asia a group intends to work on training for feminist NGOs and on collaboration with UNESCO, in Europe, a group works on storytelling and teacher training and in Latin America a strategy group is being created. In Brazil, GALE will collaborate with the Ministry of Health in organizing an expert meeting on teacher training, sex education and safer schools.
Read the full working plan 2008.