Aral Pinoy is ded­i­cated to edu­ca­tion for life-giving rela­tion­ships (Fuel­len­bach, 1998, Ruether, 2000 & Hornedo, 2009). This is inspired and born out of help­ing and work­ing with the mar­gin­al­ized sec­tors of our soci­ety since my sem­i­nary for­ma­tion days.

And to truly make KALUWAGAN (the ease­ful­ness of mod­ern life), a vital dif­fer­ence in the lives of our fel­low beings (ating mga kababayan), I also envi­sion that one day if God’s compassionate-embrace encloses all of us, more schools for life-giving rela­tion­ships will be built in the rural areas, and these are the schools for life that will sus­tain them.

Lit­tle did I know and real­ize that a 2006 final paper require­ment that gave birth to Aral Pinoy advo­cacy in 2009 will evolve and find its mean­ing, pur­pose and artic­u­la­tion in my 2011 dissertation.

My dis­ser­ta­tion is an off­shoot of a final paper require­ment with my pro­fes­sor, Sis­ter Ann Braudis in a doc­toral sub­ject, Asian Val­ues and Cre­ation Spir­i­tu­al­ity dur­ing my first semes­ter in the Applied Cos­mic Anthro­pol­ogy (ACA) Pro­gram of Asian Social Insti­tute (ASI) dur­ing the school year 2006–2007.  The short study titled, ‘Nakakaluwag: An Affir­ma­tion of A Vision of Per­sons Liv­ing in Peace­ful Har­mony and with Respect for Life and Dig­nity: Towards A Fil­ipino Con­tri­bu­tion to A Sus­tain­able World­view and Global Ethic’ was even­tu­ally pub­lished in Ang Makatao, an ASI Jour­nal (Ingles, 2006, pp.32–43) and has even­tu­ally opened a door of oppor­tu­nity for me to present it in two sep­a­rate con­fer­ences, namely, the Inter­na­tional Con­fer­ence on Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties 2008 (ICoSSH2008), Uni­ver­siti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia on June 18,  2008 and the Pam­bansang Kumperen­siya sa Sikolo­hiyang Pilipino (PSSP2008), Holy Angel Uni­ver­sity, Ange­les City, Pam­panga on Novem­ber 20, 2008. Inspired by this Fil­ipino value nakakaluwag, the fol­low­ing year, 2009, Aral Pinoy was con­ceived as an advo­cacy ded­i­cated to edu­ca­tion for life-giving relationships.

By try­ing to embrace and prac­tice an eth­i­cal ped­a­gogy on how to be just and live in life-sustaining and life-giving rela­tion­ships, even­tu­ally series of Aral Pinoy’s pro­grams, projects and activ­i­ties have been done and will con­tinue to be doing.

On August 11, 2010 I was blessed to for­mally estab­lish ARALPINOY.ORG INC., a non-stock, non-profit orga­ni­za­tion reg­is­tered under the laws of the Repub­lic of the Philip­pines with the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) (with CRN CN201012580 and TIN 007–842-097).

Aral Pinoy sim­ply means a Fil­ipino (Pinoy) Ped­a­gogy (Aral), which is basi­cally a tan­gi­ble man­i­fes­ta­tion of my hum­ble ini­tia­tive to cre­ate ethical-pedagogical bridge in con­crete action for pur­poses of val­ues re-orientation or for­ma­tion pro­gram for sus­tain­able liv­ing based on the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” as an alter­na­tive, truly Fil­ipino ethical-pedagogical frame.

Today, I see that Fil­ipinos need pur­poses in their own par­tic­u­lar con­texts and con­di­tions, in their works and lives. Aral Pinoy tries to respond to these needs by involv­ing Pinoys serv­ing their Kapwa-Pinoys (Fil­ipinos serv­ing her/his own countrymen/women), the peo­ple and the com­mu­nity in the field of Edu­ca­tion, be it Basic or Adult Lit­er­acy. By turn­ing our work into min­istry and ser­vice, focused and ener­gized, in our hum­ble way, Aral Pinoy con­tin­u­ously to work with stu­dents, teach­ers and com­mu­ni­ties. To sus­tain this ini­tia­tive, Aral Pinoy helps stu­dents learn and teach­ers teach. Aral Pinoy has and con­tin­u­ously seeks vol­un­teers (groups and indi­vid­u­als) who can be part­ner with Aral Pinoy through its ongo­ing efforts for the improve­ment of teach­ers’ train­ing, stu­dents’ learn­ing, and class­rooms’ learn­ing. With trust in God and con­fi­dence in the mean­ing and pur­poses of what Aral Pinoy is doing, I am con­vinced that Aral Pinoy can make a vital dif­fer­ence in the life of the Filipinos.

Today also, edu­ca­tion is an urgent call to action for and by the rural poor: the indige­nous peo­ple, the rural women, the fisher folks, the farm­ers, the rural youth, the elderly, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties and the infor­mal sector.

With my hum­ble inten­tion to help schools, teach­ers and stu­dents na hindi nakakaluwag (not expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease), I hope to find peo­ple na nakakaluwag (expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease) who may sup­port this initiative.

Thus, I com­mit myself to the fol­low­ing mis­sion ele­ments as an alum­nus of Asian Social Institute:

1. self-empowerment of peo­ple espe­cially the mar­gin­al­ized sectors;
2. deep­en­ing of spir­i­tu­al­ity from var­i­ous reli­gious persuasions;
3. using and devel­op­ing a tool (social sci­ence, phi­los­o­phy, the­ol­ogy, edu­ca­tion, anthro­pol­ogy) for social trans­for­ma­tion; and
4. keep­ing and shar­ing the wis­dom of one’s cul­tural values;

and to live by the institute’s vision of social trans­for­ma­tive praxis towards jus­tice, peace and integrity of creation.

Anto­nio Ingles, Jr. PhD
Founder
Aral Pinoy