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.
Mendi Njonjo was Director of Africa programs for AP during this project, based in Kampala. Before joining AP Mendi was a founder of FAWERS – a network of African Women who work for post-conflict reconstruction and end to the use of gender-based violence as a tactic of war. Prior to that, she worked for the International Federation of the Red Cross in Nairobi, Kenya and The Center for the Prevention of Genocide in Arlington, Virginia. Mendi is fluent in English, Swahili and Kikuyu. She has a Master’s degree in conflict resolution from the University of Massachusetts in Boston and has written on the impact of humanitarian aid on conflict resolution; the influence of women’s rights in post-conflict resolution in Africa. Email Mendi!
Africa Program Associate
Robert Mugisha (AP and Survivor Corps) Robert played an important role in supporting the GDPU from Washington, on the staff of AP (2008) and then with Survivor Corps. Robert has an LLB from NUR Rwanda, a post-grad diploma in humanitarian law (UL, Sweden), an LLM in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa (UP, South Africa), and a Master of Professional Studies in Legislative Affairs from George Washington University. Between 2004 and 2008 Robert worked as a Country Specialist at Amnesty International USA focusing on the Great Lakes Region of Africa. He has also served as an Associate Legal Officer with the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a Coordinator of the Center for Human Rights and Democratization in East Africa, and the head of the Human Rights Division in Rwanda's Ministry of Justice. Email Robert!
Country Program Coordinator – Uganda
John Francis Onyango was the Survivor Corps Country Program Coordinator for Uganda. He is an advocate of the high court and all subordinate courts in Uganda. He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Makerere University and a postgraduate diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Center-Kampala. Before joining Survivor Corps, Mr. Onyango worked with Human Rights Network-Uganda as Acting Coordinator for the Uganda Coalition on the International Criminal Court. He is interested in Human Rights Law and Advocacy as well as International Criminal law and how these can be used to improve the quality of life for survivors of conflict. Email John!
Dorah Mwima (Miss Uganda, left) and Annelieke van de Wiel emceed a fundraiser in February 2009. Here they raffle Air Uganda tickets to help disabled IDPs return home.
Outreach and Fundraising
On February 18, 2009 Annelieke organized a fundraiser for government officials, business people and stars of Uganda's entertainment industry. They event raised $3,000 for the GDPU. The sponsors included some of Uganda's leading corporations and attracted widespread media coverage. Watch video coverage (below) of the event and meet the artists, some of whom themselves have a disability.
