A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to produce social change by helping marginalized communities to become advocates for social justice and claim their rights

AP Interns Roll Up Their Sleeves and Get Down to Advocacy, July 19, 2006

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AdvocacyNet
Intern Update, Volume 4#7, July 19, 2006
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The Advocacy Project's 18 summer interns are blogging on the AP website about their summer assignments. The interns are working with community-based partner organizations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Italy, Guatemala, Nigeria, Fiji, Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and India. Excerpts from their blogs follow. Read more information on AP's 2006 internship program.

Highlights:

• Commemorating the Victims of Srebrenica
• Providing Temporary Relief in Kabul
• Dalit Abuse Routine in Nepal
• Rocking the Boat in Kabul
• Overwhelmed by the Slums of Delhi
• The Fine Line Between Trafficking and Smuggling in Nigeria
• Gaining a Voice in the UK
• Frustration Simmers in Nepal
• Witnessing Tsunami Rehabilitation in Sri Lanka
• Educating About Human Trafficking in Lagos

Commemorating the Victims of Srebrenica

Yvette Barnes (Georgetown University) is working for women refugees and survivors in Bosnia with Bosfam.

"As the mullah calls out the prayers for the martyrs of Srebrenica, everyone bows in unison, at the waist then on to their knees, head to the ground. It's a powerful image and the first time I have witnessed a Muslim ceremony. As the ceremony ends, the burials begin. The bodies are laid out end to end in their coffins, which are a wooden frame and a green cloth stretched over as the top. They are numbered from one to 505, and the graves have already been dug."

Providing Temporary Relief in Kabul

Erica Isaac (NYU) is working for womens' rights in Afghanistan with the Afghan Women's Network.

"Seeing a woman and child on the dusty, dark streets of Kabul - knowing that they are violating every cultural norm and risking their lives - is to witness indescribable desperation. When I reach into my wallet, pull out money and slip it into the hand reaching out from under the burqa I am fully aware that I am providing only the most temporary of relief. I know that I am neither fixing nor protecting. I know that I am neither solving nor preventing."

Dalit Abuse Routine in Nepal

Stacey Spivey (Georgetown University) is working for lower caste Dalit with the Jagaran Media Center.

"So while I contemplate the fact that the routine in my life revolves around a nine to five office day, life for many Dalits continues to revolve around violence and abuse. Appallingly, this is not the first case that JMC has documented of Dalits being forced to eat excrement. So, it seems, the routine of abuse continues."

Rocking the Boat in Kabul

Alison Long (American University) is working for girl's education with the Oruj Learning Center in Afghanistan.

"I may be an NGO worker who is an international, but I am an international who works with a local NGO. It's true that local organizations may rock the boat, just as international organizations do; but the former owns and inhabits the boat that they are rocking. And that makes a great deal of difference, both with regard to security - as local organizations better understand the boundaries they are pushing and the cultural meanings attached to their strategies and actions - and with regard to efficacy and sustainability - as they have no easy out, they are innately more invested in bringing about practical and lasting development."

Overwhelmed by the Slums of Delhi

Donna Laverdiere (Duke University) is working for street children with Butterflies in Delhi.

"In a tunnel under the roadway were the homes of hundreds of people. It was much hotter below the road as compared to outside. Trash lay everywhere. I could only imagine what would happen if a fire started in that tunnel. I was speechless."

The Fine Line Between Trafficking and Smuggling in Nigeria

Jessica Sewall (Georgetown University) is working for women's rights in Nigeria with the Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON).

"She would not define herself as a trafficking victim, but rather a victim of having her plans of working in Italy foiled and now held against her will at a rehabilitation center when she wishes to return home. She is outraged and determined."

Gaining a Voice in the UK

Lynne Engelman (University of Calgary) is working to combat the eviction of Roma and Travellers from their land with the UK Association of Gypsy Women.

"As we walked out of the town hall, one of the staff of UKAGW told me that when the two women had joined the UKAGW Board, they were afraid to say much of anything - condition to silence by their past experiences with authority and how that authority did or did not deal with them...In any event, I could not believe the same women who spoke so eloquently and openly and confidently were the same ones being described to me as once fearful and silent." 

Frustration Simmers in Nepal

Nicole Cordeau (Georgetown University) is working for Nepal's Dalit (lowest caste) with the Jagaran Media Center.

"In the last two weeks or so the mood in Kathmandu has shifted palpably. The triumphant elation that dominated the first two months after Jana Andolan II ("People's Movement 2," the first being the violent pro-democracy protests of 1990) first gave way to stagnation, and now appears to be shifting into a sense of simmering frustration and deep foreboding."

Witnessing Tsunami Rehabilitation in Sri Lanka

Greg Holyfield (University of Arkansas) is working to preserve and protect economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights with Home for Human Rights in Sri Lanka.

"It was very gratifying to finally get to 'the field' and see tsunami rehabilitation firsthand."

Educating About Human Trafficking in Lagos

Laura Cardinal (Columbia University) is working for victims of human trafficking with the Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON).

"Dressed alike in our t-shirts that read, 'Human Trafficking is Modern Slavery,' we grabbed our banner and marched directly into the heart of the market."