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 ... > Challenge > The Survivors

The Survivors

The Srebrenica massacre created a vast pool of human suffering, and 15 years later those who survived remain severely traumatized. In addition to the psychological damage of losing a close relative, and not knowing what happened, the women have lost their source of income and livelihood. Widowed heads of households have found it hard to conduct business in a largely patriarchal society. Very few have work, and almost all are haunted by a great sense of guilt at having survived.

Many survivors suffer from so-called "Srebrenica syndrome," which comes from not knowing about the fate of their men folk. They are torn between needing to know on the one hand, and fear of the truth on the other. The upcoming burial of a neighbor, the return to one’s pre-war home, or a headline – all these can bring painful memories to the surface. One young Bosfam member, Magbula Alistahic, was working in the Bosfam center in 2007 when the television began showing footage of his brother’s murder by a Serb death squad known as the Skorpions. She fainted on the spot.
     Bosnian women attend the burial of their male relatives

Younger children who survived suffer from low levels of concentration, nightmares, and flashbacks, as well as the absence of male role models. Some of the children have been born with birth defects because their exposure to shelling.

Srebrenica shows that time does not heal the wounds of a massacre. As AP has noted in several reports, the needs of the Srebrenica survivors – for care, counseling, and company – have if anything increased as the years have passed.

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