At Shoshama, we see education as being more than simply academic learning or preparation for a vocation - it’s a lifelong journey toward purpose, connection, and collective wellbeing.
We believe learning can unlock human potential, restore hope, and lay the foundations for peaceful, empowered communities. Whether we're working with young people, families, educators, or grassroots leaders, our mission is to reimagine learning as a relational, transformative force for personal and social change.
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"Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom."
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About the Shoshama Ecosystem
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Shoshama is a values-driven ecosystem made up of three interconnected entities - a social enterprise, a not-for-profit, and a consulting and innovation practice - working together to advance learning, wellbeing, and systems change.
We are incorporated in both Singapore and Australia, with an international footprint that supports local action and global collaboration. Our structure allows us to remain flexible, community-led, and ethically grounded, while growing a global network of changemakers and learning practitioners.
Through our programs, we support lifelong learning, build grassroots leadership, and co-create solutions that empower, include, and heal. All our work is guided by the Collective Inheritance Framework, which places consultation, participation, intercultural dialogue, and individual and collective wellbeing at the heart of everything we do.
We are incorporated in both Singapore and Australia, with an international footprint that supports local action and global collaboration. Our structure allows us to remain flexible, community-led, and ethically grounded, while growing a global network of changemakers and learning practitioners.
Through our programs, we support lifelong learning, build grassroots leadership, and co-create solutions that empower, include, and heal. All our work is guided by the Collective Inheritance Framework, which places consultation, participation, intercultural dialogue, and individual and collective wellbeing at the heart of everything we do.
Meet our founder
Preethi Vergis is an educator, facilitator, and community engagement specialist with 20 years of experience in curriculum development and 15 years in the not-for-profit and international community development sectors. She has worked across Australia, Southeast Asia, and East Africa - partnering with families, educators, youth, and grassroots leaders to create learning experiences that are inclusive, purposeful, and transformative.
Beginning her career in human rights and international development settings, Preethi was drawn to issues surrounding the rights and wellbeing of children. But it was through her work on the ground - in classrooms, communities, and cross-cultural settings - that she came to recognise education as the most enduring and empowering path to social transformation, for children and communities as a whole.
Her experience spans formal classroom teaching, community-based learning, curriculum and program design, facilitation, capacity building, and systems-level thinking - always with a focus on learning as a tool for both personal and collective growth.
Preethi founded Shoshama to help reimagine education as a lifelong, relational process - not just a means to personal success, but a foundation for community wellbeing and societal progress.
She holds a Master of Education from the University of Melbourne, along with a Bachelor of Arts (International Relations), Bachelor of Laws, and a Diploma in Arabic. She also completed her teaching qualifications with the University of Moreland in Washington, D.C.
In addition to her work leading the Shoshama ecosystem, Preethi currently serves in an interim role leading the governance work of the Edusymphony Consortium, and is actively launching Return to Genius initiatives as Principal Coach. She is also a Community Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Social Equity Institute, where she is developing an Accountability to Affected Persons (AAP) framework for community organisations working with migrant and refugee communities, as part of a broader effort to support inclusive governance, community-led development, and systems change.
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The story Behind Shoshama
LOOKING TO OUR PAST to DESIGN OUR FUTURE
"When I think about what education needs to look like in the future, my mind is inevitably drawn back to a distant past, when education was still seen as the complete training of a mind - a way to prepare a person, not just for a vocation or exam, but for a purposeful existence in which they could fulfil their responsibilities to the communities they were a part of and take their place in our shared responsibility to advance human civilization.
I think back on the wisdom offered by the diverse knowledge systems and faith traditions of our world - all of which saw education as needing to be holistic, and tied to the notion of contributing to the betterment of their communities and societies.
I think back to my paternal grandparents, both of whom were respected teachers, and to my maternal grandmother, who took it upon herself to make sure that her children and grandchildren were armed with the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy from an early age. I also think back to my maternal grandfather - whom I never met, but who I know through the stories I have heard - and of his insistence that girls enjoy the same opportunities for education as boys, at a time when many around him did not share that belief.
Shoshama (pronounced SHAW-shah-mah) was the given name of one of my grandmothers, and the baptismal name of another. It is a name which embodies a commitment to education as the key to our future and our collective wellbeing."
Preethi Vergis
© 2025 Shoshama Institute for Collective Wellbeing. All rights reserved.
Return to Genius® Changemakers Collective® Body Mind Spirit Movement® and Storyful Communities® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Shoshama Institute for Collective Wellbeing in Singapore, Australia and other countries.
Return to Genius® Changemakers Collective® Body Mind Spirit Movement® and Storyful Communities® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Shoshama Institute for Collective Wellbeing in Singapore, Australia and other countries.
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