The activities of Shicol focus on two areas, namely alternative education on the one hand, and the links between ecology and economy on the other hand.

At the heart of our work on educational alternatives lies our philosophy of using single activity streams that unite learning, research, and real-life action. We advocate the unity of head, hand and heart for learning, and practice hands-on sustainable living on our campus as part of holistic education. Therefore, Shicol is neither a conventional education venture nor a Research and Development think tank, but combines aspects of both in creative ways.

With our ecology-economy work we advocate an alternative approach to development. We do not start from a deficit-led model based on identifying and solving “problems”. Instead, we advocate is a strength-based model that builds on the positive valuation of resources. These resources, whether environmental, human, social, material, or spiritual, are the starting point of our work.