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

Pia Schneider and BOSFAM

Pia Schneider, a Swiss and US national, graduated from Tufts University in 1994 with a BA in International Relations. After a trip around the world, she worked for three years as a Financial Analyst for Baita International LLC, a real estate company, in Atlanta, Georgia. She then took a year to study French at the Sorbonne in Paris. Deciding to remain in Europe, she then took a job with Andersen in Switzerland as a Consultant in the Corporate Finance Division. After three years with Andersen, she decided to pursue a Master’s Degree at Georgetown University, and graduated in May 2004 with an MBA.

As part of the Advocacy Project's 2004 Summer Internship Program, Pia Schneider, a 2004 graduate of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, worked with BOSFAM, an organization based in Tuzla, Eastern Bosnia that assists women survivors of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica.


AP summer intern Pia Schneider, right, with Zefa, a Bosfam weaver.

A place of refuge and support, BOSFAM trains women in clothes making and the traditional Bosnian craft of carpet weaving. The sale of these items is the only source of income for many of the women.

Pia worked with BOSFAM director Beba Hadzic to develop a business plan for the organization's carpet and clothing sales. The aim of the plan was to help BOSFAM become more self-sufficient and achieve its goal of opening a second weaving center in Srebrenica, where many of the women hope to return. AP is currently seeking to raise 10,000 Euros for the center.

The national Bosnian radio station interviewing Nura, one of BOSFAM’s weavers, in preparation for the anniversary burial on July 11.

During the summer, Pia posted weekly reports in the form of web logs (blogs). The blogs offer a unique view into the day-to-day operations of a grassroots organization, and into Pia's own personal experience as an intern.

The Advocacy Project has worked closely with BOSFAM on numerous projects, and has organized sales of BOSFAM carpets in the United States. AP has also profiled BOSFAM as part of a report on rebuilding Srebrenica. Last summer, Marta Schaaf of Columbia University interned with BOSFAM as part of The Advocacy Project's 2003 Summer Internship Project.

338 coffins await burial at the ninth anniversary memorial of the Srebrenica massacre.

• Pia Schneider's blog