November 18, 2008, Washington, DC: The Advocacy Project (AP) honored its 2008 Peace Fellows Friday at a reception designed to showcase their work abroad and connect them to ambassadors from the countries where they served.

About 13 Fellows attended the Ambassadors’ Reception, which was also attended by representatives from the Embassies of Serbia, Jordan, and Bangladesh, and many supporters of AP. The reception was hosted by Her Excellency Claudia Fritsche (below, right), the Ambassador of Liechtenstein, who is also on AP’s board.

“As an ambassador in Washington, there comes a time when you are grateful that you can do something different,” she said. “And this is something truly different.”

This year’s Peace Fellows worked in many countries emerging from conflict, including Nepal, Kosovo, Bosnia, Sri Lanka, and the DRC. Among their accomplishments, they supported key environmental projects involving waste recyclers in Delhi, helped women in Nepal to expose the devastating condition of uterine prolapse, and taught street children in Kenya to blog about their lives.

The reception focused on the theme of international service, and the value of volunteering with community-based groups. Guests perused photos and short essays from each Fellow describing their work abroad, as well as an AP-produced slideshow about their experiences. They also heard from an AP partner organization about the program’s impact.

Jose Pablo Baraybar (right), the executive director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF), spoke at the reception about what the Fellows for Peace program had meant to his organization. EPAF exhumes mass graves and works to identify victims of Peru’s 20-year internal conflict and bring justice to the families of the disappeared. Ash Kosiewicz, a graduate student from Georgetown University, volunteered with EPAF this past summer.

“I overwhelmingly support this project,” Mr Baraybar said. “I want more. Don’t send me one (volunteer) – send me five. The multiplying effect that this kind of work has is amazing.”

Mr Baraybar said he was surprised by the potential audience for EPAF’s message outside of Peru, and that AP was instrumental in getting the voices of Peru’s disappeared heard.

“When you are there, in your own problem, in your own country, you cannot see beyond that,” he said. “You think nobody really cares. The reality is, we have to force people to care.”