AFS enables people to act as responsible, global citizens working for peace and understanding in a diverse world. It acknowledges that peace is a dynamic concept threatened by injustice, inequity, and intolerance.
AFS seeks to affirm faith in the dignity and worth of every human being and of all nations and cultures. It encourages respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction as to race, sex, language, religion or social status.
AFS activities are based on our core values of dignity, respect for differences, harmony, sensitivity, and tolerance.
In AFS India we believe that intercultural learning is about the whole person, as Asha Kamath (India to USA,1967) states,
“The AFS program helped me develop into a wholesome personality. I was a very shy girl from a small town in South India; today I am a global citizen thanks to my ability to deal and interact with all kinds of people. This would not have been possible if I was not exposed to the idea and ideals of such a multifaceted program which helped me develop my overall character and personality”
Most participants that go on our exchange programs undergo many challenging transitions to a new cultural context; a second language; a very different academic environment and therefore, AFS has an important role to play in helping participants make these transitions across cultures by serving as a cultural bridge for these students.
Understanding culture and its importance in human interaction and communication; being sensitive to persons who are culturally different; recognizing that culturally different persons have their own values and beliefs; and understanding that persons from other cultures may be experiencing the challenges of cultural adjustment, are issues related to cultural awareness that AFS India will take into consideration when running programs.
AFS India will reinforce cultural self-awareness, having students reflect on their own cultural identity, recognize their own cultural values, and consider how these might play out in another culture or a culturally diverse environment. Cultural self-awareness is clearly one of the learning goals to take into consideration when running programs at AFS.
AFS India will promote openness to other ways of thinking and to cultural differences as well as empathy, defined as the capacity to view experience in the manner of the other, ‘people-skills’ necessary for working, communicating and interacting with persons from other cultures and will promote the ability to negotiate differences by understanding more than one cultural context and also by being self-reflective and being flexible and adaptable to new cultural circumstances and persons.
