A Voice For the Voiceless

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.

The Impact of Service



"I look at myself as having the potential to be as strong and caring as the amazing women I met in Kenya."

Kate Cummings (Tufts University) volunteered in 2009 as a Peace Fellow for Vital Voices in Africa.

For more 2009 feedback click here.

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Partner Campaigns > Combating Sexual ... > AP Support

AP Support


The Advocacy Project has sent five Peace Fellows to South Kivu. Ned Meerdink (Wisconsin University, right) arrived in DRC in September 2008 and built the foundation for a sustained program. Sylvie Bisangwa (University of Wisconsin Taw School, below left) coordinated the Ahadi Quilt project in 2010. Eliza Garcia-Mingo (University of Deusto, Bilbao, below center) volunteered in Bukavu with AFEM, a women's media group (2009).  Walter James (University of Maryland, below right) spent the summer of 2009 as a Peace Fellow with SOSFED and Arche d’Alliance and returned in January 2011 to manage the current project. Jennica Sehorn and Kelly Payton, below, managed the Ahadi quilt project in the US in 2011. Charlie Walker joined Walter in Uvira in August 2011.  AP are SOSFED are profoundly grateful to them all.


















Ned went to Uvira in late 2008, to support civil society. During 2008 and 2009, Ned worked alongside five Congolese community-based organizations, helping them to produce and disseminate information: SOS-Fed, BVES; Arche d’Alliance; Tunza Mazingira; and Mutuelle Jeunesse.

 Sylvie Bisangwa Elisa Garcia Walter James Jennica Sehorn (left)
and Kelly Payton		 Charlie Walker




Outreach and fundraising




The partnership between AP and SOS-Fed developed in the spring of 2009, when AP successfully nominated Marceline Kongolo, the founder of SOS-Fed for the prestigious Vital Voices Global Leadership Award. Ned Meerdink helped to organize Ms Kongolo’s visit to Washington in May 2009. She received the award jointly with Chouchou Namegabe, another inspiring Congolese advocate for women’s rights. Ben Affleck, the actor, presented the two advocates to a distinguished audience.

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