Visit the institute’s website here: http://www.amalnakoi.org

The acronym KOI stands for Kapwa/Kindred Outreach and Information. The KOI Institute serves as a popular education, training, and community research resource, emphasizing cultural organizing frameworks, methodologies, and tools. Located in Chicago, it spearheads Amalna’s mission in the United States. KOI Institute’s goal is to contribute to the building and strengthening of the skills and capacities of community organizers using the racial justice and cultural activist lens, primarily utilizing integrated arts and decolonizing methodologies of the Theatre of the Oppressed.

Kapwa is a Filipino word that refers to the unity of the self with others. According to Virgilio Enriquez, founder of the Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino Psychology) movement, kapwa is a “recognition of shared identity, an inner self shared with others”. (Enriquez, 1992)*. It implies a moral obligation to treat another as an equal fellow human being, an acknowledgement of community and shared destiny.

* Enriquez, V.G. (1992). From Colonial to Liberation Psychology. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.

This year from March 28 – May 3, join KOI in its newest exciting project.