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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

Fellows > Past Fellows and ... > Summer Interns 2004

Summer Interns 2004

Reflections...

Following the successful inauguration of its internship program in 2003, the Advocacy Project sent another nine interns abroad during the summer to work with AP partners.

The purpose of AP's Interns Without Borders program is to provide an opportunity for graduate students or recent college graduates to work on the front lines of the struggle for human rights, while at the same time supporting AP's partners. The 2004 interns worked on a range of projects involving communications, information technology, education, marketing and general NGO capacity-building.

The recruitment started early in the spring. AP contacted selected partners and interested students from universities in the United States. During the application process, The Advocacy Project staff interviewed more than 30 graduate students from universities in the DC area, and Tufts University in Boston, MA. During the selection stage, the Project Manager of The Advocacy Project, Adriana Boscov, made an effort to match the interns' individual interests and skills with the needs of AP's partner organizations. By the beginning of May 2004, AP had selected nine interns, who were paired with eight partner organizations.

Training interns to work on the field

In May 2004, prior to the interns' departure, AP staff organized a two-day intensive training session at its DC office, covering the intern-partner relationship, communication with the DC office, and security issues. Teresa Crawford, former Advocacy Project IT Director and current board member, trained the interns in web log writing and IT skills. Laura Stein, Publications Coordinator, taught the interns how to take photos for the online archive, write articles and collect information for AP's newsletter and website.

One of the main features of the Interns Without Borders program is the weekly online diaries (web logs, or blogs) interns post on AP's website. The blogs describe the intern's work and daily experiences. Interns Without Borders is the first global internship program to employ blogs in this innovative way, and AP encouraged the interns to post as many blogs as possible.

The AP staff drew on the intern blogs to create weekly updates for AP's email subscribers, which were distributed to the AP list. Visits to the AP site increased by 40 percent since the interns started blogging, and visits to partner sites have also increased. Some of the blogs were also picked up by news agencies such as the BBC Czech Republic and the One World Portal.

Donors that made it possible

In 2004, each intern raised funds to cover the cost of his or her trip. AP put interns in contact with private donors, foundations and related organizations who also donated funds to the interns.

The Advocacy Project would like to acknowledge the generous support of Georgetown University, who sponsored Stacy Kosko, Carmen Morcos, Christina Fetterhof, Sarah Schores and Mike Keller to work in the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Ecuador Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, and Tufts University, who sponsored Melinda Willis to work on the trafficking of women in Turin, Italy.

In addition, The Advocacy Project would like to thank the following individuals and organizations: the One Small Step Foundation, who sponsored Ginny Barahona to work on girls' education in Afghanistan; Rana Sadik, for sponsoring Bushra Mukbil to work with MEND in Israel; Claire Halasz, for sponsoring Pia Schneider's work with Bosfam in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the American Fund for Czechoslovak Relief, for sponsoring Stacy Kosko's work with Dzeno in the Czech Republic.

AP particularly wishes to thank the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM), Georgetown University, for helping AP to maintain full-time staff in Washington, to work on the internship program during the summer. This grant ensured that AP was in constant contact with all of the interns, and was able to use their material in a timely and effective manner.

Challenges and Success Stories from "Interns Without Borders"

After two years of running the internship program, The Advocacy Project has learned valuable lessons about overcoming challenges and achieving success with grassroots organizations.

For the graduate students, working directly in the field can be an exciting experience. However, the job requires preparation and calls for a considerable investment from the interns, the partner organizations and AP. Based on the lessons learned from the 2003 program, AP made several improvements in 2004:

• Start the recruitment earlier in the Spring. The sooner interns communicate with the partner organization, the more satisfying their internship. Getting to know the organization and its culture and defining a work plan in advance made the first weeks much more productive.
• Involve the students in the fundraising efforts. Asking the students to secure their own funding ensured that they would be more committed and dedicated to the internship.
• Establish a routine communication schedule to assure security. In 2004, all interns were required to e-mail or call the DC office at least twice a week. Since many of the countries are politically volatile, AP had to be especially concerned about the security of the interns. This regular communication made it possible for the AP staff to prepare for and resolve any problems quickly.
• Emphasize the importance of regular information. By training the interns in blogging, photography and writing, the 2004 internship program was able to compile quality information and first-hand reports on the work of AP's partners'. This information will be vital for future advocacy campaigns.
• Minimize frustration. One of the most difficult challenges was to help the interns overcome the frustration that comes with working for organizations that face constant managerial and financial problems. Initially, all the interns found it difficult to fit into their hosts’ schedules and obtain the information that they would need to work effectively. This is one more argument for initiating the relationship as early in the year as possible.

As with all projects, Interns Without Borders program had its share of successes and failures. Following is a list of a few of the accomplishments of our 2004 interns during their 12 weeks of work.

• Stacy Kosko wrote news articles on the rights of the Roma population for Dzeno’s website that were picked up and published by community newspapers in Massachusetts. In addition, Stacy and Evelina Gueorguieva, The Advocacy Project Outreach Coordinator, launched a campaign against Dictionary.com’s racist definition of the word “Gypsy” that attracted the attention of several prominent international Roma rights groups and the media. The Czech edition of the BBC picked up the story and ran an article about it. Romea.cz, a prominent Roma news service, also featured the campaign.
• Thanks to the hard work of Melinda Willis, the Turin-Italy branch of the Transnational AIDS Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe Project (TAMPEP) finally has a website in both English and Italian. Melinda worked on the site’s content, made arrangements for its translation into Italian and helped TAMPEP register its domain. The website went live at the end of 2004.
• The Home for Human Rights (HHR) and The Advocacy Project have strengthened their partnership, as the result of a communication plan developed by intern Michael Keller. Thanks to Michael’s hard work, HHR and the Advocacy Project now exchange information on a regular basis. In November of 2004, Francis Xavier, HHR’s head and Executive Director, visited AP's office in Washington, DC, and was able to meet with a variety of individuals and organizations (including the US branch of Amnesty International) in order to raise support for their work.
• After starting three schools for girls in Afghanistan, Sadiqa Basiri, Executive Director of the Omid Learning Center received help from Ginny Barahona, a Georgetown graduate student to establish a more efficient monitoring and evaluation system. Following the completion of Ginny’s project, Sadiqa was able to create detailed monitoring reports that has helped AP allocate project funds and send detailed information to the the donor.
• Pia Schneider, a graduate of the Georgetown MBA program, helped the women of Bosfam develop an income-generating plan for marketing and producing carpets, and strengthening the organization. Pia wrote content for Bosfam's website which they will use to market their products. Pia also helped Bosfam develop a proposal for a weaving training center in Srebrenica, which will hopefully open in early 2005.

Challenges Overcome and for the 2005 Program

Most community based organizations (CBO's) face severe institutional challenges. Often staff members are part-time volunteers, the head of the organization is flooded with new projects, lobbying, and fundraising. As a result, it is often difficult for interns to determine their role in a small organization in a short period of time. In this situation, interns are often tempted to create their own work, or they decide to work parallel to the organizations on a completely new project. To solve this problem, The Advocacy Project initiated contacts between the partner organizations and the interns earlier in the spring so that once interns were deployed to the field, the relationship was already established. The interns then worked with the partner organization to design an work plan by the second week of their internship.

Communication is also a potential problem whenever sending interns abroad, particularly to countries in a post-conflict environment. Many partner organizations have limited access to the Internet and even electricity.

More importantly, some organizations have not developed a regular means of communicating with international partners like AP. As a result, one of the main goals of the Interns Without Borders program is to create a communication culture within each organization. It is AP's hope that the interns' work over the summer of 2005 will strengthen the flow of information between AP and its partners, creating relationships that continue well beyond the summer.

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The following pages provide a summary of each of the internships, along with the related blogs. The views expressed by the interns are not those of The Advocacy Project or partner organizations. Anyone interested in the work of a particular intern is encouraged to contact them directly (their email addresses are included with their blogs).

Organizations:

Afghan Women's Network: Education Project (AWN): The AWN is one of the foremost groups lobbying for the rights of Afghan women. Two AP interns worked with the AWN this summer on two separate projects. Ginny Barahona, from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, worked on an AWN initiative to build three schools for girls.

Afghan Women's Network (AWN): Voting Project: The second AP intern to work with AWN, Sarah Schores, focused on an AWN initiative to register women to vote before the elections that were held in October 2004.

Bosfam: Bosfam is a women's organization in Eastern Bosnia that teaches women to weave traditional Bosnian carpets as a means of income and support. Pia Schneider, a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Business, worked with Bosfam to develop a sales and marketing plan for their carpet sales.

Center for Economic and Social Rights (CDES): Based in Quito, Ecuador, CDES is engaged in human rights and development issues with regard to indigenous tribes. Christina Fetterhoff, a student in the Latin American Studies program at Georgetown University worked with the CDES.

Dzeno Association: Based in Prague, Czech Republic, the Dzeno Association is a news agency that serves the interests of the Roma people, probably the most marginalized minority in Eastern Europe. Stacy Kosko, of Georgetown University, interned with Dzeno this summer.

Home for Human Rights (HHR): HRR is a human rights organization in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Mike Keller, a student in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, worked with HHR.

Middle East Nonviolence and Democracy (MEND): MEND promotes non-violent resolutions to conflict in the Middle East. Bushra Mukbil, a Palestinian refugee studying at Georgetown University, interned with MEND this summer.

Rights Action (an ADIVIMA partner): Rights Action is involved in a variety of human rights campaigns in Guatemala. Carmen Morcos worked with community projects in the indigenous town of Rabinal. She is pursuing a joint degree from Georgetown University: a Masters of Science in Foreign Service and an MBA with a concentration in international development.

TAMPEP: The Turin, Italy branch of the Transnational AIDS Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe Project (TAMPEP) works to assist women from Nigeria who have become trapped in the sex trade. Melinda Willis, a graduate student from Tufts University, worked with TAMPEP this summer.

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