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.

The Impact of Service



"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.

For more 2011 feedback click here.

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Partner Campaigns > Survivors of the ... > Advocates > The Srebrenica Fo...

The Srebrenica Forum of NGOs

In 2001, a small number of NGOs formed the Forum of Srebrenica NGOs to coordinate the work of grassroots groups on both sides of the divide, at the encouragement of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), which worked in Srebrenica from 2000 through 2002. The Forum received funding from the Dutch organization Cordaid. Meetings were held each month in Tuzla or in Srebrenica.

In 2003, Peter Lippman profiled the Forum’s member organizations for the AP website: DRINA, which helped returning refugees in the Podrinje region and provided support for most of the villages around Srebrenica; Srebrenica 99, which helped children visit on both sides of the IEBL; The Center for Legal Aid, which provided legal advice for returning refugees; AMICA; SARA; and Bosfam, which provided sweaters and emergency clothing in Srebrenica.

The NGOs avoided politics, and concentrated on charitable work. But Peter observed that they played a key role in rebuilding inter-ethnic trust.
   Novak Simic, president of the Srebrenica Forum of NGOs
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He wrote: “For several years, some groups have been organizing cross-entity multi-ethnic camp programs for children. Such projects are proliferating now and growing into longer summer outings to the sea. Many NGOs provide living proof that reconciliation can work by hiring Serbs and Muslims on their staff. As displaced people, they all share a common language and experience. Often, this seems more powerful than ethnicity.

Their programs are open to all. One example is the Bosfam sweater program. When financial support is available, the women of Bosfam -- both Serbs and Muslim returnees in Srebrenica and displaced Muslim women in Tuzla -- knit sweaters for a small fee. The sweaters are then donated to the needy schoolchildren of Srebrenica, most of whom are from displaced Serb families.

Amica has also been facilitating contact between the displaced Srebrenican women in Tuzla and Serb women living in Srebrenica since 1998. Over 150 women come regularly for classes (English, computers, sewing, and hairdressing) and companionship. Amica was the first ethnically mixed organization in Srebrenica and has plans to expand its services to psychotrauma counseling in schools.

As important as anything else is the way that NGOs provide credible and essential information in a society where information has been distorted, used to keep people ignorant, and spread ethnic hatred. NGOs are filling the gap in several important ways:

  • Coordinating information from displaced persons to housing and refugee ministries, and bringing information on property laws back to displaced people.
  • Informing relief organizations of where assistance is most needed. This includes who needs to return and which houses need to be repaired. They also communicate with international governments, the United Nations, and international NGOs about the material needs of the returnees, including food, tents, generators, blankets, seeds, tools, medical clinics, schools, etc. 
  • Informing their constituency of the practical and legal means to enable them to return. (Most of the beneficiaries are displaced people within BiH, not those refugees already settled abroad and unlikely to return.) This means providing displaced persons in BiH with information about property laws, how to make their property claims, and what documentation they will need. It can also mean organizing group visits to pre-war property and clean-up days. Forum members often coordinate delivery of direct donations.
  • Filling the role of the local press, which was shut down by international organizations in 2001. 

   Zulfo Salijovic, the president of Drina
In 2004, The Advocacy Project secured funding from the Dutch Refugee Foundation to help the Forum create a new website. The following year, AP recruited Sabri Ben-Achour, a graduate student at Georgetown University, to serve as a Peace Fellow and assist Zulfo Salijovic, the president of Drina (a photo on the left). Sabri’s blogs can be found here.









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