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

Raka Banerjee and the Nepal Social Development and People's Empowerment Center (NESPEC)

Raka Banerjee is a 2008 Peace Fellow for The Advocacy Project, working with the Nepal Social Development and People's Empowerment Center (NESPEC) in Gaighat, Nepal.  NESPEC is a NGO focused on human rights protection, promotion of peace and good governance, improvement of health conditions, and income generation through skill development training.  Raka will be working to expand NESPEC's outreach among the surrounding community, as well as assisting NESPEC in defining its direction in the service of the Nepalese people.  In particular, Raka intends to increase NESPEC's access to information and communications technology through the creation of a website and newsletter for the organization.

Raka is currently pursuing her Master's degree at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego, where she is specializing in international development and nonprofit Management.  She received her Bachelors of Arts in international studies at age 18 from the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, where she focused on foreign policy and diplomacy.

Raka has spent much of her student and professional life abroad.  In Bangalore for 3 months on a study-abroad program, she conducted research for an academic paper on the living conditions in slums in the area.  This research was eventually incorporated into a report generated by a taskforce that she co-chaired, which was reviewed by a top official at USAID.  Raka also lived in Japan from July 2005 to 2006, where she taught English at junior high and elementary schools in a small town near Osaka.

Raka spent the greater part of this past summer meeting with a variety of nonprofit organizations in India.  She had the opportunity to visit rural villages in West Bengal and Karnataka to witness firsthand the impact of NGOs in improving rural healthcare, sanitation and community involvement.  Raka also taught English to children living in slums near Calcutta and learned about the organizational challenges of funding and operating a nonprofit in a loosely structured governmental environment.  She met and spoke with women whose lives had been transformed by small independent microenterprise institutions that allowed them to become entrepreneurs and access the money they needed for themselves and their families.

Raka hopes to be able to assist NESPEC in its continued struggle for human rights advocacy through her work this summer.  She is honored to be given the opportunity to make a positive impact for the people of Nepal on the behalf of the Advocacy Project.

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