A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

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 8, 2005

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AdvocacyNet
News Bulletin - Number 39, June 8, 2005
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Summer Interns Report from the Field

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.

• Birth Determined Future in Bosnia
• No Choice for Villagers in Nepal
• Intern Views Photographs of Massacre Victims
• International Aid Organizations Doing More Harm than Good for Refugees?

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

"The odd thing is, as I walk around the town, I have no idea who is what race or religion. There are no distinguishing characteristics, no sign that marks one as Croat vs. Serb vs. Muslim. Just your name…I have seen a few women in headscarves that I assume to be Muslim. They are fair skinned and blue eyed. I have seen olive skinned women with dark eyes dressed in Western clothes. Something as chance as your birth and your name determined your life or death here for a period of years."


No Choice for Villagers in Nepal

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

"Those [ordinary citizens] in Kathmandu are not the only ones being caught in the crossfire. Many in the villages are accused by the Maoists as being government supporters; and then when the government comes they are accused of being Maoist supporters. Those in the village can do nothing, but provide food and items to the Maoist, or risk being taken away, beaten or killed; and they have to abide by the government laws in order to avoid being taken away, beaten or killed."

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.

"I went on my first visit to the Community Museum last week. The museum itself is pretty basic but houses an incredible story and represents the pain of many. The first room contains in large part the story of local customs, but also has some exhumed bones on display. Buckets of bones are showcased in a glass-covered display. The image is striking. Even more so as one enters the second room which is a small room plastered with 5 x 7 pictures of those who perished during the massacres which occurred between 1980 and 1984. Men and women, young and old, and children alike, all victims caught in the middle of a brutal internal conflict."

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

"The work of international aid organizations not only preserves poor conditions but in certain instances has exacerbated them. For example, by being forced into the refugee settlements, children are much more vulnerable to recruitment into rebel forces (when I say vulnerable I do not mean to imply choice) because it is often the case that there is limited educational or other opportunities. I have heard that "Right to Play" at least mitigates those circumstances. With meetings regarding the repatriation of Rwandan refugees and on the incompatible concept of justice by the ICC intervention, I am happily absorbing background on conflict and post-conflict dynamics and its impact on forced migration. The situation in the north is still tenuous with over a hundred abductions over the past couple of weeks."