McLane Harrington (Fletcher School at Tufts University) served as a Peace Fellow in 2019 at the Women Advocacy Project in Zimbabwe, where she helped girls to launch a soap-making business. The girls made and sold 16,000 bottles of soap in 2021 and are turning their attention to the environment. Want to help? Apply for fellowships #1 or 7 now!

The Advocacy Project is recruiting 12 Peace Fellows to support community-based partners in Nepal, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda this summer. Other fellowships may be added. Some fellowships will be in-person and some remote. Fellowships will last for ten weeks between May 15 and August 31 and can be extended into the Fall by mutual agreement. Please allow a month for applications to be processed.

To apply, send a cover letter, resume and name of a referee to iain@advocacynet.org. Call +1 202 422 2479 for further information.

Eligibility

AP Fellowships are open to all students and we welcome applications from High School students, undergraduates and graduates. There are no restrictions based on nationality, age, gender, race, religion etc. All applications will be judged solely on their merits.

Stipends

Fellows deployed to the field will receive a lump sum of $1,000, plus $300 to cover additional insurance if needed. Remote Fellowships carry a monthly stipend of $150.

Responsibilities

Peace Fellows play a vital role in helping us to support community-based partners in the Global South. This year, they will support around 15 projects which are summarized on the next tab. Five Fellows will be deployed to Nepal, Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, to coordinate all projects supported by AP in each country. Seven Fellows will provide remote back-up from home or from the AP office in Washington. Precise goals will be set out in MOUs and budgets with partners, which will be ready by March. The specific responsibilities of each fellowship will be listed in a letter of engagement.

Qualifications

Personal: In selecting Fellows we look for experience of the issue and country and language skills (if relevant). We also value personal qualities because our partners work under constant pressure with limited resources. Our job is to help them spot openings and come up with imaginative answers. As a result, we value in particular the following: friendship, enthusiasm, teamwork, creativity, innovation, curiosity, adaptability, and a commitment to communicate regularly. A big part of the Fellow’s job is to listen, advise and sympathize. We make every effort to accommodate any special talent and encourage creativity.

Technical: AP provides the following support to partners through Fellows: a) WordPress website development and maintenance; b) Social media (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn); c) Managing content on Dropbox and Google Drive; d) Photo management (Pikmonkey and Flickr); e) Story-telling through embroidery and advocacy quilting; f) Design (Canva, Photoshop etc) for brochures, flyers, catalogues, and reports; g) Podcasting; h) Video footage and photography (taking; editing; posting); i) grant-writing and fundraising (especial GlobalGiving); j) adaptability and an ability to adjust to changing circumstances; k) determination and professionalism. Please let us know your interests and skill levels.

Writing: All Fellows will be required to produce blogs.

The Application Process

Contact our staff at DCOffice@advocacynet.org for more information: Iain Guest (Executive Director); Abby Hack (website); Delaney Rogers (projects); Bobbi Fitzsimmons (quilting and embroidery); Jonathan Bramell (social media and publications).

Apply by March 15, 2022 by sending a resume and cover letter to iain@advocacynet.org indicating your top three fellowship preferences. Offers will be made by March 30.

On receipt of an offer, sign a contract and waiver by April 15. Once an offer is accepted, we will ask for a $95 deposit from Fellows being deployed abroad. This will be refunded before departure.

Fundraising: We will pay half of the stipend up-front and the rest on completion. We will also work with Fellows to secure additional funding.

Starting in April, meet remotely with other Fellows, AP supervisors and the partner organization.

Draft a work plan by May 15.

Deployment: Ten weeks between May 15 and August 31, 2022.

Evaluation: You will be asked to submit a comment on our website. We will help with school requirements.

Stay in touch! We remain in contact with many past Fellows and are happy to help with letters of reference.

For more information read our 2020 Annual Report

APPLY NOW!

#1 Empower girls in Zimbabwe through soap and education

Soap-making at WAP in Harare

Location: Harare, Zimbabwe

Partner: Women Advocacy Project (WAP), Harare.

Tasks and Duties

– Support the production and sale of 16,000 bottles of Clean Girl soap by 80 girls (photo)
– Reduce the amount of plastic used in making Clean Wash soap, through recycling or re-using bottles
– Help WAP open a permanent soap-making center in Harare
– Expand the market for Clean Girl soap inside Zimbabwe
– Ensure the use of renewable energy by WAP
– Help AP and WAP to secure new funding for 2023
– Help WAP and AP to launch an education fund for the girls
– Produce a project web page for the AP and WAP websites
– Post a microproject on GlobalGiving (July)
– Help WAP to maintain the WAP website
– Work with a High School in the US to make and sell Clean Girl soap
– Update the WAP folder in Google Drive in particular: profiles of the girls, education database, weekly output tracker.
– Photos, video footage, blogs

More information: Watch this video; Read this report.

#2 Help women in the informal settlements of Nairobi to compost; advocate for vaccinations; sell embroidery; and combat albinism

Campaigning for vaccinations in Kangemi

Location: Nairobi

Partners: Shield of Faith, Kibera; the Kangemi Advocacy Self-Help Group (KASG) (photo); the Albinism Society of Kenya (ASK).

Composting in Kibera: 

– Help 21 beneficiaries to manage bins and compost half a ton of kitchen waste in 2022
– Collect weekly data on composting
– Make and sell 1,000 liters of lecheate/wormy fluid in 2022
– Find a High School partner to compost (in US)
– Launch a microproject on GlobalGiving in July

Vaccine advocacy

– Support advocacy by the KASG to increase vaccinations against COVID-19 and HPV
– Update vaccination trackers

Embroidery with Shield of Faith and KASG

– Help produce embroidery for sale in the US
– Collect stories of embroiderers

Albinism Society of Kenya

– Design a start-up with Shield of Faith and ASK to make and sell bucket hats
– Design an advocacy campaign with ASK to protect people with albinism against skin cancer, using advocacy quilts

Overall Tasks and Duties

– Strengthen organizations: Shield of Faith, KASG and ASK
– Photos, video footage, blogs

More information: Read this newsletter.

#3 Help pastoralists in Northern Kenya to end conflict and resist climate change

2017 Peace Fellow Talley Diggs in Northern Kenya

Location: Nairobi and Samburu County, Kenya

Partner: Children Peace Initiative Kenya.

Tasks and Duties

– Support CPIK’s pioneering program to build resilience among pastoralists against conflict and climate change in Baragoi sub-county
– Nominate CPIK for the Nobel Peace Prize
– Strengthen CPIK’s presence and 501c3 in the US
– Photos, video footage, blogs

More information: View these pages: Read this bulletin. Read these Blogs:

#4 Support persons with disability and survivors of conflict in Northern Uganda

Mama Cave makes her signature Mama masks

Location: Gulu, Uganda

Partners: The Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU); HIVE-Uganda; and Women in Action for Women WAW).

GDPU

– Help GDPU to install a WASH package (accessible toilets, handwashing and inclusivity training) at the St Martin Lukome Primary School in Gulu District
– Produce 750 liters of Clean Wash soap for the school
– Produce 950 Mama face-masks for students at the school (photo)
– Support a GDPU campaign to vaccinate persons with disability in Gulu District
– Photos, video footage, blogs

HIVE UGANDA (Production and sale of honey by persons with visual impairment)

– Help HIVE’s stakeholders to meet their honey targets for 2022
– Develop a phase-3 business plan and identify new funding
– Photos, video footage, blogs.

WAW (Women in Action for Women)

– Make embroidery (for sale through AP online store)
– 2-year business plan and budget
– Open an embroidery center
– Submit request for reparations to the International Criminal Court, using the advocacy quilts.
– Photos, video footage, blogs

More information: Watch this video; View these pages; Read these Blogs: Read this news bulletin.

#5 Support the Tharu people in Nepal by: a) Helping families of the disappeared market embroidery in Bardiya; b) Profiling community initiatives to commemorate the disappeared and c); Launching a start-up for dishwashers in Dang District

Making Tiger bags at the NEFAD shop in Bardiya

Location: Kathmandu, Bardiya District, Dang District, Nepal

Partners: Backward Society Education (BASE) and Network of Families of the Disappeared, Nepal (NEFAD).

Tasks and Duties

– Help BASE profile innovative community initiatives to commemorate those who disappeared
– Research and write a paper on commemoration to the UN Human Rights Council
– Help fiber artists in Bardiya to produce embroidery for sale in the US and manage their tailoring business (photo)
– Launch an embroidery start-up for dishwashers in Dang, through BASE
– Photos, video footage, blogs

More information: Watch this video; View these pages; Read this blog.

#6 Support River Gypsies in Bangladesh

River Gypsy children at Mayadip Island

Location: Remote

Partner: The Subornogram Foundation, Sonargaon, Bangladesh.

Tasks and duties

– Meet Subornogram’s 2022 targets for fish catch, employment and feeding
– Coordinate assembly of COVID stories for an advocacy quilt
– Support a vaccination campaign to benefit River Gypsies
– Collect and test recipes from Bangladesh for a cook-book
– Support efforts to regenerate the production of Muslin fabric
– Maintain weekly output trackers and folders on the Google Drive
– Make project web pages, including profiles, blogs, social media content

More information: Read this news bulletin.

#7 Support Peace Fellow and partners in Zimbabwe

Location: Remote

Partner: Women Advocacy Project (WAP), Harare.

Tasks and Duties

– Research recycling of plastic and clean energy in Zimbabwe and the US
– Develop a High School soap project in the US (in solidarity with WAP)
– Organize bi-weekly Zoom chats between WAP and US students
– Update education database and profiles
– GlobalGiving appeal
– Update weekly output trackers
– Project web pages, blogs, social media content

#8 Support Peace Fellow and partners in Nairobi

Location: Remote

Partners: Shield of Faith, KASHG, ASK

Tasks and Duties

– Research composting and vermiculture in the US
– GlobalGiving appeal for composting project
– Research albinism
– Develop partnership with international and UN albinism advocates
– Kangemi vaccination drive
– Project web pages, blogs, social media content

#9 Support Peace Fellow and partner in Kenya, working with pastoralists

Location: Remote

Partner: CPIK

Tasks and Duties

– Support all aspects of CPIK’s field work
– Nobel Peace committee research
– Liaise with CPIK’s West Coast 501c3
– Build pastoralist partnerships and networks (US, East Africa)
– Research fundraising
– Update weekly output trackers
– Project web pages, blogs, social media content

#10 Support Peace Fellow and partners in Uganda

Location: Remote

Partner: GDPU, WAW, HIVE.

Tasks and Duties

– Research the LRA, ICC and war crimes; education and hygiene in Uganda; the COVID pandemic in Uganda
– Update weekly output trackers for all projects
– Social media content
– Make and update project web pages
– Manage a GlobalGiving appeal (July)
– Support the Clean Wash soap project; Mama masks

#11 Support Peace Fellow and partners in Nepal

Location: Remote

Partners: NEFAD and BASE.

Tasks and Duties

– Research transitional justice in Nepal and internationally; US/DOL forced labor law
– Liaise with UN human rights rapporteurs
– Manage a GlobalGiving appeal for dishwashers
– Update weekly output trackers for all projects
– Project web pages, blogs, social media content

# 12 Support the AP embroidery and quilting program

Location: Remote

Tasks and Duties

– Work with us to develop and manage a new online embroidery store
– Post and market the embroidery
– Post profiles of all embroiderers
– Develop one to three (in-person and digital) 2022 exhibitions of COVID quilts
– Support the making of a COVID quilt catalog
– Design a Sister Artists 3 quilt challenge (US and Uganda)
– Project web pages, blogs, social media content

** We are reviewing partnerships with CBOs in Vietnam (Agent Orange families); Senegal (migration by sea); and Mali (survivors of GBV). These may result in additional fellowships in 2022.