Desautels: Human Rights Activist withMission to EducateBy Tawni Swanson | |
Life's Work Kathleen Desautels has been able to successfully commit to anumber of important roles: a speaker for Voices Exchange, a Staff Member at the 8th Day Center and long-time Sister of Providence for the Catholic Church. Desautel’s commitmet to humanitarian rights officially began with her choice to attend St. Mary of the Woods College in Indianapolis, where she studied education and theology. This education helped to develop the aura of curiosity and will to change that still surrounds her decades later.
Desautels refrains from using exciting titles and simply considers herself a “staff member” at the 8th Day Center, and has done so since 1986. The mission of the religiously based organization states: “As religious communities of men and women grounded in the hope of the Scriptures and our Christian faith tradition, we collaborate in the struggle to provide a critical alternative voice to the systems that suppress the human community and environment and to work for the structural changes which will hasten the arrival of a more just world.” The organization has been advocating change since 1974 and has roughly 6,000 supporters worldwide. The main goal of the staff is to create equality for many different groups that have a history of marginalization. This frame of mind is apparent in everyday decisions made at the center according to Desautels. “We work out of a different model; it’s more circular and feminist. Decisions come about by consensus in which we don’t vote,” she said. Global Trouble “She has so many exciting stories to tell and is an extremely interesting woman,” said Voices Exchange co-founder Jean Darling. Every protest has a story, from action in Nicaragua, Haiti, Bolivia, El Salvador, and Beijing; she has been arrested multiple times and even asked to leave the country. Delivery “I
always have an exchange to learn what are their fears, anxieties, and
questions. I want to create an environment that feels safe to say whatever
you feel,” she said. The education cycle continues through the
activism that is provoked in her speeches. “I cannot not know,” she said. |