A Voice For the Voiceless

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The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

From the Field, June 2, 2005

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AdvocacyNet
News Bulletin - Number 39, June 2, 2005
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The Advocacy Project's summer interns, graduate students from Fordham, Georgetown, NYU, Tufts, UC Berkeley, and Yale, are reporting online about their work.

The interns are paired up with partner organizations abroad in Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, Nepal, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Uganda.

Excerpts of some of the most recent blogs follow, and will be sent weekly. See an overview of all 2005 programs.

Carrie Hasselback (New York University) is working with the Afghan Women's Network, a network of NGOs committed to improving women's rights in Afghanistan.

"Visions of Burqas and Landmines. I am getting down to my final days before I head to Afghanistan for the summer. I have never been to Afghanistan. I have never even been close. I am picturing myself withering under a burqa in heat I have never before experienced. Though in reality, I will not be wearing a burqa and I have been told that the heat is tolerable. It might not be your typical dream internship in Paris or Rome, but it is MY dream internship."
Read more at Carrie's blog

MacKenzie Frady (Georgetown University) is working with Bosfam, a support group and weaving center for women in Eastern Bosnia.

"My main goal this summer is to help Bosfam update their website to a more attractive and more lucrative site. I will also be helping coordinate the commemoration activities both in the US and Bosnia in honor of the 10th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica. I can't imagine the emotions and passion the commemoration ceremony will elicit. I am both anxious and nervous to share these life changing moments with these women."
Read more at MacKenzie's blog

Anne Finnan (Fordham) is working with the Collective Campaign for Peace, (COCAP), a peace-building coalition that promotes democracy rights in Nepal.

"COCAP can also be complemented for its "practice what you preach" approach to their work. They are demanding that everyone have equal rights, equal representation, government transparency and accountability. COCAP has all of these. Their office staff are 2 male and 2 female, that come from the terai and hill regions, and come from different cultural backgrounds… Their budget is transparent and for all to see, either on their website or at their office. "
Read more at Anne's blog

Sarosh Syed (Georgetown University) is working with the Home for Human Rights (HHR), a human rights organization in Colombo, Sri Lanka. HHR has developed a project to rebuild village communities after the tsunami that hit the island nation in December, 2004.

"Regardless of whether the summer will be a light-hearted breeze or a grueling misadventure, I know it will be meaningful. Many of the briefings and reports I read to prepare myself for the summer identify tsunami reconstruction and abatement of the government/LTTE conflict as the two major hurdles to Sri Lankan development. How often does one get an opportunity to work with an organization that's working on both?"
Read more at Sarosh's blog

Paula is working with Rights Action in Guatemala. In partnership with the local group Adivima, they are documenting the investigation following the Chixoy Dam massacres.

"My First Exhumation. I headed out to the exhumation in the afternoon, accompanied by Don Felix and Rutina. The exhumation site consisted of the two forensic experts, the 2 diggers who were hard at work, two observers from ECAP, and 2 police officers, along with a few local folks and family members who sat by and watched the men at work. One of the forensics experts oversaw the actual digging, documenting what they were finding, while the other expert conducted interviews of the surviving family members. They started at 5.5 m depth this morning, and made it to 7.68 m by day's end."
Read more at Paula's blog

Eun Ha Kim (Georgetown University) is working with the Refugee Law Project, an organization providing refugees and IDPs in Uganda with legal services.

"With currently approximately 200,000 officially registered refugees from Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi and 1.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), the topic of forced migration in Uganda is inimitable. The work of the RLP is nuanced and multileveled, fulfilling a role which is essential to protecting the rights of refugees and IDPs, but its mission is simple. It comprehensively addresses problems left unanswered and largely neglected by the government of Uganda and the UNHCR."
Read more at Eun's blog

Ewa Sobczynska (Georgetown University) is working with TAMPEP, the Turin branch of the Transnational AIDS Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe Project.

"In my application to the Advocacy Project Summer Internship I wrote that I'm passionate about human rights, democracy and advocacy… So this summer I'm heading to Turin, Italy to see for myself whether these words can be translated into a true commitment on my part to TAMPEP's cause... Will I be able to work in an under-resourced, poorly funded organization that has to make do with the limited resources and be happy and feel like I'm achieving something? The idealist in me says yes."
Read more at Ewa's blog

Lia Mayson (Tufts University) is working with the Women's Consortium of Nigeria, an organization trying to combat human trafficking.

"The countdown is almost complete: only two more days until I am off to sunny Nigeria to begin my internship with WOCON. I'm ready, I'm excited and I just can't wait to get out of here. I have just recently started my graduate studies in economic development and international migration so I truly look forward to experiencing first hand some of the concepts I have only learned in the classroom."
Read more at Lia's blog