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

For One Summer, Fellows Spread Peace

Nine Students Work for Social Justice Abroad

By Virginia Boyce
Special to The Hoya
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Standing in a somber crowd of thousands of people on a July day, dressed entirely in black, Gail Morgado (GRD '08) knew that all eyes were on her.

Morgado was one of only a few dozen Serbs at the ceremony, which commemorated the 12th anniversary of the killing of 8,000 Muslim men at the hands of Serb forces in the Srebrenica Massacre.

Surrounded by families of the victims, Morgado described the moment as one of the most intense of her life, but said that, as the crowd began to part when the ceremony ended, she found herself being hugged and thanked by many members of the crowd.

"It [was] such an expression of solidarity," Morgado said. "They really appreciated us."

Morgado was not the only Georgetown graduate student to have a unique foreign experience this summer. She was one of nine Georgetown post-graduates participating in the Advocacy Project, a D.C.-based organization founded nine years ago by Georgetown professor Iain Guest. The program forms partnerships with community-based human rights and advocacy organizations around the world, and each summer sends a group of graduate students abroad as fellows, pairing each of them with a local non-governmental organization. This summer, the program sent 31 students, nearly twice as many as last year, to 18 different countries.

Morgado was partnered with Women in Black, an NGO that works in the Balkans to promote reconciliation between Serbs and their neighbors using tactics such as participating in protests, monitoring special courts on war crimes and publishing books on their findings.

"Our mission is to support community-based advocates all over the world in their work for social justice and human rights," said Amy Burrows, the fellowship and intern manager for the Advocacy Project. Burrows kept in touch with the fellows throughout the summer, tracking their progress with their respective NGOs.

"They are very passionate, very dedicated and very hardworking individuals," she said after working with them. "They have a sincere interest in social justice."

Other fellows from Georgetown worked in different countries, traveling to places including Peru, Israel, Malaysia and Albania. Zachary Scott (GRD '08), traveled to the United Kingdom to work with Dale Farm, an organization that represents the 'Traveler' population. Traveler communities, transient groups of people in Britain, are currently faced with the threat of eviction from their homes, as local communities seek to rid their towns of their presence.

During his fellowship, Scott witnessed the discrimination and racism the Travelers face firsthand. "Travelers need to be allowed to both purchase land on which to live and obtain planning permission in order to build upon the land they own," Scott said. "Local councils throughout England need to realize that Travelers are British citizens as well and are entitled to the same rights as everyone else."

In his work with Dale Farm, Scott helped to organize protests against eviction proceedings. He also spoke on behalf of the Traveler community at local town-hall meetings, a process which he found somewhat discouraging since area governments, he said, were generally unreceptive to his cause.

"I [was] part of a very small but extremely dedicated group of individuals who continually overcame enormous odds to stave off eviction proceedings," he said.

The Advocacy Project trains its fellows in information production and dissemination, networking and outreach for the NGOs. This summer, fellows helped develop Web sites for their NGOs and also maintained blogs detailing their experiences abroad, further spreading awareness about their NGO.

Morgado said that the Internet was especially crucial to Women in Black. In a country with strong national sentiment, the apologetic message of the Women in Black is not widely accepted, she said; instead, the women are often shunned, spit upon in public or intimidated by death threats.

"Women in Black relies on international organizations and others who are interested in their mission to pressure the Serb government and to show their support," Morgado said. These international groups remain updated through newsletters and the group's Web site, and their support protects Women in Black from government interference. "The Serb government knows that they cannot crush us because the international community's backlash would be so strong," she explained.

Stephanie Gilbert (GRD '08) also worked for an organization that she felt was lacking local support. She served as a fellow to the Association for the Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women, a women's rights organization in Macedonia. In a country where domestic abuse is widely accepted and women are often viewed as inferior, Gilbert said she found it difficult to advocate for women's rights.

"[ESE]'s mission is to improve the status of women in Macedonia, which they do by empowering them through information and awareness," Gilbert said.

Despite the daily challenges, Gilbert still worked on building partnerships with women's right organizations and drafted two reports, one comparing regional governments in their reactions to domestic violence and another on the effect membership in the European Union would have on Macedonian women.

However, Gilbert said that she gained her most memorable experiences while she was actually interacting with people. Through gaining hands-on experience, she said, she encountered the greatest challenges but also saw the greatest potential for progress.

"My favorite thing was working with high school students, particularly in the minority Roma community, to raise awareness of gender issues and domestic violence," she said. "It was great to watch these kids think about issues which no one had ever talked to them about before, and it made me optimistic that things might be starting to change."