Press Release

Global Horizons Launches Ubuntu Summer Institute:
Addressing America’s Critical Need for Racial Understanding

March 7, 2019

Friends are arguing on Facebook. Families no longer gather for holidays. Christians are feeling that they want to jump in to make changes to bring families and communities back together.

This summer a Minnesota not-for-profit will be doing something concrete to address the problem. It’s called the ​Ubuntu Summer Institute​. It’s designed to give Christians the tools to bring us back together. Global Horizons Inc. will be creating ​an innovative biblical-based curriculum addressing racial understanding.​ It will be designed by a team of Christian professors, and set to be released by the end of 2019.

The Ubuntu Summer Institute will gather experts in the field to develop a curriculum, accompanying training, materials, and survey instruments. The end result will be a practical training tool (self-administered or as part of a consulting relationship) for the learning and implementation of racial reconciliation efforts across the non-profit and church sectors.

Global Horizons Inc. (GHI) is taking a new approach. The new training tool will be designed to produce concrete outcomes. Participants will be provided with action steps, taking new ideas from the training process and applying them to daily life.

Global Horizons Inc. (GHI) is no stranger to these efforts. The organization’s mission is to work with compassionate leaders to restore communities through humility, justice, and faith in God. They provide administrative support to global projects and ministries, and serve as a catalyst for racial reconciliation, education and coaching.

Over the past year, they have leveraged their organization’s experience of promoting reconciliation in very fractured countries to address the deep divisions in American society.

“Almost daily we realize how much our society has become divided and how challenging it is to talk about our differences. Any slight offense can alienate participants,” says Dr. Leon Rodrigues, CEO of GHI and founder of Ubuntu training. “Most people want unity and understanding but lack the tools to grasp each other’s perspective. Even when they are willing to find solutions, dealing with the results of decades of racial disparities and misunderstandings is a very complex undertaking.”

One way GHI has undertaken racial reconciliation in the United States is by running Ubuntu workshops in Minnesota churches, schools, and community groups. “Ubuntu” is an African term for what comes when people learn to live in unity, affirming and recognizing each other’s humanity. These workshops offer an open venue for people of all races to learn from one another, share perspectives and seek understanding.

This new Ubuntu curriculum, however, will make GHI’s local efforts repeatable across the nation.

The Ubuntu Summer Institute will be led by Dr. Rodrigues and will include at least two other professors with expertise in the field, selected by an advisory board of scholars. It will also be open to student research assistants from Minnesota universities and seminaries. Global Horizons is currently seeking partners to financially support these reconciliation efforts. For more information or to learn more about other Ubuntu Training opportunities, contact Global Horizons Inc.

Contact
Dr. Leon Rodrigues, CEO Global Horizons Inc.
Phone: 612-294-0419
Email: leon@globalhz.org

About Global Horizons Inc.
GHI works with compassionate leaders to restore communities through humility, justice, and faith in God. They serve to: provide hopeful, efficient administrative support to projects and ministries, and be a catalyst for racial reconciliation, education and coaching.

GHI is located in Burnsville, MN. Learn more at Ubuntu Summer Institute
and follow GHI on Facebook .