A Voice For the Voiceless

The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.

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"Speaking with locals and living in a country is the best way to learn about the real lives of citizens, not just the stories in the mainstream media. I will be more critical of what I read as a result of this experience. I also feel even more grateful for my education, and I feel a stronger responsibility to assist others who do not have resources or access to opportunities in their communities."

Maria Skouras (New York University) volunteered in 2011 as a Peace Fellow for eHomemakers in Malaysia.

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The Fellowship Pr... > Blogging for Peace > 2003 > From the Field, J...

From the Field, June 8-June 15, 2003

Highlights:

More to Learn about Roma Culture

Kimberly Birdsall (Georgetown University) is interning in Prague with The Dzeno Association, an NGO working to promote awareness of, and strengthen, Roma culture.

‘My concepts about the Roma situation and the problems they face are shifting quickly. On Sunday, I attended a meeting of Romany leaders organized by Dzeno ... It was advertised as a discussion about the June 13/14th referendum to determine the Czech Republic´s fate regarding entrance into the EU. The Dzeno Association advocates that Roma citizens should vote YES, as being part of the EU will allow easier immigration to European countries, and greater access to health, education, and welfare services.

‘Ivan Vesely [the chairman of Dzeno] told the participants that it was naïve to think that European countries would not allow the Czechs into the EU based on their sub-standard treatment of Roma, and they should accept it and take advantage of the larger platform to advocate with a louder voice. The meeting quickly turned to passionate discussions of Romany politics. Romany leaders have long, complex histories with one another, and old grievances and power struggles often reappear... I learned more in that six hours about the state of the Roma political situation than I had in all of the reading I had done before I arrived in Prague.

‘However, I find it difficult to put aside my ‘American brainwashing’ as a Dzeno colleague so strongly put it. Roma culture dictates that young women do not express their views, and during an entire day of discussion, not one woman stood up to speak... But I am also absorbing the beauty of Roma heritage. The strength of their familial connections, and the resilience of their language and culture, even after extensive persecution by Communist leaders and the horrors of the Holocaust, is amazing. Their traditions, expressed through song, dance, oral history, riddles and folklore tales, are mesmerizing in their richness. There is still so much more to learn...’


NGO Convention in Nepal

Katherine Kuo (Georgetown University) is working in Nepal with the Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP), a peacebuilding coalition that arose in response to the Maoist insurgency. She recently attended a convention of NGOs from the coalition:

‘The conference in Pokhara went really well. I met all the member organizations, and everyone is doing such interesting, risky work -- from human rights to women's rights to working with the Untouchables, to health and media and natural resources management... All this in a country where human rights abuses are rampant and severe, human rights defenders are persecuted, jailed, tortured and threatened, and women are in general very disempowered. Another Kate from the United States is interning with one of our member organizations, so we hung out in Pokhara. We stumbled upon a Tibetan Refugee Settlement and it was fantastic -- almost exactly as I imagined - huge prayer wheels, and prayer flags everywhere.’


First Encounters

Julie Lee (Georgetown University) is working with TAMPEP in Turin, an NGO working on women's trafficking issues. Below is an extract from her description of her first trip with TAMPEP's 'Search Unit', which patrols the streets of Turin to speak with sex workers, distribute information and materials, and offer assistance to them should they need it in the future:

‘Our first encounter was with an Albanian woman by the side of a major road ... Dyshe and I got out of the van, and approached the woman -- Dyshe with a huge, friendly smile and confident gait, and me, trailing somewhat uncertainly, slightly behind. Dyshe called out in Italian, ‘Buon giorno!’ to which the woman responded in turn. Then Dyshe asked ‘Come va?’. This time the woman responded with a skeptical look and the question, ‘Where are you from?’

‘Dyshe responded that she was from Albania. It seemed to be the magic word, and the woman's expression immediately transformed into a huge smile and a sudden relaxation of demeanor. I observed as Dyshe established a quick rapport with this complete stranger, introducing
ourselves and the organization, explaining in a matter-of-fact way about the items in the kit, and cracking a joke that had the woman laughing in surprise at the words that came out of the mouth of an older, maternal-looking woman. The exchange took no more than five minutes, including satisfying the curiosity of the woman about me-where I was from, how old I was, and how long I had been in Italy. At the end, we all shook hands and exchanged friendly good-byes...

‘The rest of the afternoon we saw prostitutes of other backgrounds -- seven women from Nigeria, and one older Italian woman. For one of the Nigerian women, it was her first day on the job. She said that she was 24 years old but she looked more like 16 or 17 years old. Some of these women sat on folding chairs along the road. An abandoned folding chair
signified that the prostitute had been collected by a client.’


Lebanese Generosity

Courtney Radsch (Georgetown University) is at the Middle East Reporter in Beirut, Lebanon. She explains how Lebanese generosity has helped her settle in without difficulty:

‘Beirut is a fabulous city that blends the best of Europe with its Middle Eastern roots, and adds a flair all its own. As you walk down the streets dodging old Mercedes taxis and brand-new BMWs and SUVs, you can feel the pulse of a city that takes time to enjoy life even as it keeps speed with the latest fashion or business trends. I don’t like the American way of life that barely squeezes in time for a meal and offers you coffee to go. In the evenings you can sit down for a leisurely meal of Lebanese mezza washed down with arak, a clear licorice liqueur that, when mixed with water, becomes cloudy. The mezza are small plates of delicious appetizers, from baba ghannouj (smoky eggplant dip) to fattouch (Middle Eastern leaves, tomato, cucumber and mint).

‘The Mishlawis took me to an elegant restaurant in the newly developed downtown where I sampled different types of hummus, little fried fish, and kibbeh nayeh (raw meat paté). But you can also get a quick saj or manakeesh from a sidewalk vendor to take home or even eat on the street, although thankfully the American habit of eating on the run has not yet infested the area.’


Scars of War Remain 

Marta Schaaf (Columbia University) is working with Bosfam and the Srebenica Forum of NGOs. She writes of the scars left by the war on the community she is living amongst.

‘I have worked in other post-conflict situations, but am struck by how omnipresent the ghosts of war are here. Everyone with whom I have spoken has mentioned the war and the myriad of ways in which it affected their daily lives... Friends from Bosfam explained the layout of Tuzla to me as a map of war tragedies and changes - the site of a massacre, the site of destroyed buildings, the site of a former Yugoslav monument...

‘At the same time, many of the very visible scars of war are gone; most buildings, churches, and mosques have been rebuilt. People’s discussion of the war and the present situation are not urgent and fresh, but are more descriptions of how life is now refracted through the lens of past violence. Loved ones are gone, jobs are scarce, social dynamics are changed, old neighbors have been replaced with new ones, and many war profiteers are still on top. Some of this is irrevocable. One new friend explained to me that Tuzla is a nice place to live, but that the city has lost some of the vitality that made it special. Residents are tired and traumatized, and are not as friendly or open as they were before the war.’


The Sadness of 'Legitimate' Violence

Caitlin Williams (Georgetown University) is working with Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy in Jersualem. The latest suicide bombing took place just ten miles from her house, and she writes of her sadness that violence continues to be considered a legitimate means of resistance:

'I seem to be in a hot spot right now. As I watch the pictures of the attacks on Gaza and the suicide bombing on TV I feel strangely disconnected from it all, even though the suicide bombing took place within 10 miles of my house. I was actually relaxing on the shores of the Dead Sea when the bombing and the Israeli retaliation took place... I find it strange that I can spend my afternoons by the Dead Sea or horseback riding in Jericho or even just sitting quietly on my veranda reading while all this violence is taking place. I suppose I feel that I should be more immediately affected by it than I am...

'[However, despite not being physically threatened,] it breaks my heart to see what's going on. What I find perhaps saddest about this recent cycle is the seeming inevitability of it all. After the assassination attempt on Rantisi, no one wondered if Hamas would retaliate, they just wondered when. After the suicide bombing occurred the general attitude among the Palestinians I spoke with was, "So, what did they expect?" That's exactly why I think MEND's work is so important. I try to imagine what it would have been like if, instead of the "expected" reaction, Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian population had responded with coordinated, creative, active, nonviolent measures. This is not passivity that I'm preaching, but the strategic rejection of the use of violence in a conflict where violence is obviously not working for anyone.'


African Feminism

Erica Williams (Yale University) is working in Lagos at the Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON), an organization trying to combat human trafficking. In her third diary entry, she outlines her thoughts about African feminism, inspired by her experiences at a workshop on Women's Rights at the University of Ibadan.

‘Since my early exposure to Black Feminism, I've often wondered what an African feminism rooted in African women's experiences and cultures would look like. Interestingly, the participants in the workshop never once used the word ‘feminism’ in their discussions. This made me wonder if Nigerian women activists, professionals, and academics who place gender at the center of their analyses consider themselves feminists. Have they shunned feminist ideology, theory, and practice as a Western women's thing - as something that is foreign and alien to their cultures? Or have they created their own unique version of feminism and christened it with a different name, just as women of color feminists have done in the U.S. and Europe? On the other hand, I realize that naming oneself a feminist may not be as important as simply doing the work, as many of the participants in this conference were doing.’


Initial Impressions of Prishtina

Claudia Zambra (Georgetown University), is working with the Kosovo
Women's Network, gave her initial impressions of Prishtina:

‘Finally set foot in Pristina this afternoon. One would think they were rebuilding a city entirely from scratch...the roads leading to the city are lined with construction materials...modest brick houses often appear, mostly unfinished. I can't understand the signs, but that short ride was enough for me to know that coffee is a staple of the land...I am very pleased. After trying one at an adorable, new cafe outside the city I was even more pleased. There I met some of the board members of the KWN...loud, smiling, laughing women mixing a little business and pleasure.

‘As for the city, satellite dishes dot every house and building. Something about it reminds me of Latin America... UN cars block streets and crowd the sidewalks. There is definitely some tension in their relationship to the local people. There are marked differences between their living quarters and everyone else's. Their modern-looking apartment buildings stand out in a city that seems frozen in the communist period...the Cuba of Eastern Europe. Even so, people seem good natured, friendly and optimistic.’

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