Join us in changing lives and building communities.
Born amidst war, Amalna Foundation continues to deliver life-saving assistance to at-risk populations, particularly in hard-to-reach and high risk areas.
AMALNA FOUNDATION
Amalna is the Arabic word for “our hope.” Amalna was first founded in 2018 in response to the appeal for support from communities experiencing humanitarian crises in Iraq and the Middle East. Since then, it has grown worldwide by affiliation with local communities.
Amalna Foundation’s work focuses on psychosocial support for war-affected families, women empowerment, education for vulnerable children and youth, and rights advocacy, primarily in crisis
locations like Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine.
Our vision
Our vision is a society that protects the vulnerable, empowers communities, ensures access to education and information for the marginalized, and defends the rights and dignity of all human beings.
Our mission
Our mission is to build programs on transformational education, inclusive research, information dissemination, and community engagement.
KOI INSTITUTE
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. 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.
KOI INSTITUTE'S CORE PROGRAMS
Film, Archives, and Community Theatre (FACT) Program
FACT is a cultural organizing initiative dedicated to presenting, curating, and sponsoring community-led storytelling through film, archives, and community theatre. The program aims to elevate marginalized voices, preserve historical narratives, and provide platforms for social justice storytelling. By supporting artists, independent filmmakers, community archivists and theatre practitioners, KOI Institute hopes to foster cultural activism, memory preservation, and movement-building through the arts.
Program activities will include co-producing and sponsoring films that highlight social justice struggles, using films and videos as a tool for advocacy and movement-building. Additionally, through community theatre initiatives, FACT will support participatory performances that empower historically silenced communities and transform storytelling into a force for collective action. FACT will also support community activities towards the development of archives to preserve oral histories, artworks, and records, ensuring that stories of migration, activism, and resilience are remembered and used for education and advocacy. Together, these components are envisioned to make the FACT program a powerful platform for cultural resistance and social change.
The FACT program shall also build upon the long history of partnerships among community groups and concerned individuals that have served historically silenced communities for decades, particularly the immigrant workers, elderly, youth, women, children, disabled, and LGBTQ segments. By continuing collaborative initiatives through the FACT program, KOI Institute aims to participate actively in cultivating a cultural movement where storytelling serves as a force for justice, collective memory, and self-determination.
A2-STEM-LEAF (Arts Approach to Science-Technology-Math Learning Enrichment Across Families) Program
This program shall utilize the foundational elements of cultural work, i.e., using the integrated-arts approach to interrogate, analyze, and challenge assumptions about our communities or the larger world around us and creatively figure out solutions to problems confronted by our families, neighborhoods, or society, in promoting learning enrichment in the STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) fields among marginalized communities and families.
Program activities will focus on using innovative methodologies pioneered by organizations such MathXplorers (mathxplorers.org) and CIRCA-STEAM (circasteam.science) such as storytelling for developing critical thinking and joy in learning complex math and science concepts.
TECH4KAPWA is an innovative community-centered program leveraging technology to advance health equity, inclusion, and racial and disability justice. Rooted in decolonizing methodologies and the pedagogy of the oppressed, the program shall utilize and popularize digital tools and platforms that empower marginalized communities to share their stories, access critical resources, and organize for systemic change. By integrating community-driven research, digital literacy, and participatory technology design and use, TECH4KAPWA ensures that technology serves as tools for community organizing and self-determination rather than barriers to access and human rights.
Among the program’s primary goals are to equip communities with digital tools for self-advocacy and health, increase access to fact-based and critical public information, strengthen the capacity of community organizers through digital platforms, challenge oppressive tech structures, and promote community-controlled digital spaces. A core component of TECH4KAPWA is VRXG (Virtual Reality for eXtraordinary Good), a health initiative providing virtual reality technology access and literacy among the underserved segments of the disabled, veterans, and survivors of war and gun violence. Building upon Amalna’s extensive work in war-torn areas in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine since 2018, the program shall collaborate primarily with Amalna’s NGO partners in Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S., and Avatar Uju Consulting, a technology social enterprise-joint venture with expertise on developing virtual reality software for physical and occupational rehabilitation and mental health.
