Home About Services Campaigns Advocates Fellows Blogs Resources

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 "Speaking with locals and living in a country is the best way to learn about the real lives of citizens, not just the stories in the mainstream media. I will be more critical of what I read as a result of this experience. I also feel even more grateful for my education, and I feel a stronger responsibility to assist others who do not have resources or access to opportunities in their communities." Maria Skouras (New York University) volunteered in 2011 as a Peace Fellow for eHomemakers in Malaysia. For more 2011 feedback click here.

Translate this page:

The Fellowship Pr... > Blogging for Peace > 2011 > AP Blogs: Respect...

AP Blogs: Respect, Resilience and Rights, November 8, 2011

*****
AdvocacyNet
Bulletin 212
November 8, 2011
*****

Respect, Resilience and Rights     
Highlights from the Advocacy Project Blogs

This year, thirty Peace Fellows have volunteered for social justice in 15 countries. We encourage you to visit their blogs and share your thoughts on their excellent work.

Speak. Encourage. Move. Curb. Understand. RESPECT.  
Rebecca Scherpelz (Butler University)  

"Understanding that access, opportunity, equality, justice, and support for people with disabilities is not a FAVOR but an inherent RIGHT changes things. If I've learned anything in my three years working with people with disabilities it's that they don't deserve, warrant, or want your pity - they deserve, warrant, and want your respect." Read more  

Rebecca is working with the Gulu Disabled Persons Union (GDPU) in Uganda.

Dale Farm: Travelers Face Eviction in the UK
Susan Craig-Greene (University of Essex)  

"They are facing life on the road, where they could be moved on daily, making it almost impossible to access even basic healthcare or education services. Basildon Council is sending them a clear message that there is no legal place for them in this community. Who will give Travellers a legal place  in society?  And when will the UK government and local councils realize that by further marginalizing them, they are not only ignoring the human rights of an ethnic minority, but also causing themselves on-going problems in the future?"  Read more

Susan is working with the Dale Farm Housing Association in the UK.

*The Dale Farm eviction is currently underway as this bulletin is being written. Susan will provide an update soon.


The Story of Eve: Terror, Stigmatisation and Silent Resilience
Charlie Walker (University of York)
"In five separate attacks since June 1st, Eve has been raped by a total of eighteen unknown armed men... Five attacks? Has she been specifically targeted, we ask ourselves? The perhaps more disturbing answer is 'No'. Eve, it appears, like so many women in South Kivu, has been attacked at random, because she is there, because her attackers have a gun, impunity, and nothing else to their name." Read More  

Charlie is working with SOS Femmes En Danger (SOSFED) in the DRC.


Quilting in Kenya Update (photo right)
Charlotte Bourdillon (Tufts University)

"I mentioned before that one of my goals here is to create a set of advocacy quilts. These will be parallel quilts created by a widows' group and the girls at our school, demonstrating, respectively, the traditional oppression of Maasai women and the opportunities that education will afford young Maasai girls."  Read more

Charlotte is working with the Kakenya Center for Excellence in Kenya.


Approaching Elections in the Congo 
Walter James (University of Maryland)

"This is only the 2nd presidential election in the Congo's history. How is this time different from 2006? ...Overall, the picture that one finds of the opposition is of a squabbling and unorganized group, divided by ethnicity, region, and individual ambition. As the presidential election will be a 1-round, plurality-wins affair this time, it is crucial that the opposition can unite around a common leader if they realistically want a chance to beat Kabila." Read more

Walter is working with SOS Femmes En Danger (SOSFED) in the DRC.   



International Cooperation for Human Rights and Peru's Fight Against Impunity  
Catherine Binet (Univeristy of Ottawa)

"In a meeting last September 5th, Second Vice-President Omar Chehade pledged that his government would finally sign the convention, and that it would support initiatives dealing with the issue of enforced disappearance. This is of crucial importance, as it is the first time that Peru officially recognizes the importance of the issue of enforced disappearance." Read more

Catherine is working with the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) in Peru.

Back