A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

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

Fellow Blogs: Memories of a Missing Man in Nepal...

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AdvocacyNet
Fellow Update
July 16, 2008
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Thirty-four Peace Fellows are volunteering this summer in 21 countries or territories with community-based partners of The Advocacy Project (AP). AP issues a weekly digest of their blogs.

Highlights:

Memories of a Missing Man in Nepal
Eye-Opening Work in Bangladesh
Bones in a Back Office in Peru
Serbian Women Mark Srebrenica Anniversary
Riding the Bus Like a "Real Nepali"
Bringing the Plight of African Pygmies to America
Karaoke Caps Busy Day in Vietnam
Worming Their Way to Success in Malaysia
A Dalit's Luck in Nepal


Excerpts:

Memories of a Missing Man in Nepal
Shubha Bala (Columbia University) is advocating for human rights and democracy with the Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP) in Baglung, Nepal.
"She told me, unprovoked, about the first time she met her husband. The tears of her damp eyes were not that of someone talking about the terrible injustice she suffered. The tears, contrasted by her smile, came as she relived moments of love...I could not bring myself to stop the slow creation of her husband in my mind and notebook, the chiseling of contours that formed his identity and theirs together, to ask her such questions as 'What sort of monetary compensation do you want?'"

Eye-Opening Work in Bangladesh
Danita Topcagic (University of Denver) is working with the Blind Education and Rehabilitation Development Organization (BERDO) in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
"Upon the visit to National Institute of Ophthalmology, it was decided that three out of seven BERDO's students qualify for cataract surgery which could improve their vision up to 20 percent. This was great news for them because it gives them a possibility for navigational vision which would allow them to move around more freely... Of course I jumped at this opportunity and spent days at the NIO with the students and wonderful doctors and staff who agreed to provide free cataract surgeries, including all medicine prior and post surgery."

Bones in a Back Office in Peru
Ash Kosiewicz (Georgetown University) is working with the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) in Lima, Peru.
"On my first tour of the EPAF office, I remember being led to a back room, next to two other rooms with long tables where forensic examinations take place. In the room, I saw a handful of boxes, marked 'CANTUTA.' I turned to my guide Silvia, and asked her, "Are those the bones of those killed in Cantuta?" She said yes. It has been a strange feeling at times to have read about Cantuta and find myself working now just two offices down from the remains set for burial Saturday."

Serbian Women Mark Srebrenica Anniversary
Janet Rabin (Georgetown University) is working with the Women in Black Network from Serbia in Belgrade.
"On June 6th, Women in Black, Belgrade held an interactive street performance protesting gun violence as part of the Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence. The theme of the action was "Mobilize! Organize! Resist!"... It was a good warm-up for a much larger and more controversial event happening this week: in the same place, the main public square in Belgrade, Women in Black Serbia will present a film featuring widows of the Srebrenica massacre giving their testimonies, as well as their messages to the citizens of Serbia."

Riding the Bus Like a "Real Nepali"
Jes Therkelsen (American University) is advocating for Dalit rights with the Jagaran Media Center (JMC) in Kathmandu, Nepal.
"There aren't any seats left on the bus to the Hetauda settlement, so Prakash and I sit in the aisle on bags of rice. This is a new experience not only for me, but for my fellow travelers who stare in unabashed curiosity. An old man comments I'm a real Nepali as he steps around me to get to his seat. A father who sits with his young son offers me space. I smile and say 'tikcha,' which means I'm fine. It seems to worry everyone that I'm traveling like this, like I deserve better than to sit in the aisle. Another man offers me his seat. I decline again. There are Nepalis traveling on the roof of this bus, I want to say. Why are you not offering them seats?"

Bringing the Plight of African Pygmies to America
Juliet Hutchings (American University) is working to raise awareness of the plight of pygmies with the World Peasants and Indigenous Organization in Central Africa.
"After speaking with Freddy, I realized that if everyone back in the states were to send a message on behalf of The WPIO, the pygmies, the indigenous people and the peasants of eastern Africa, perhaps United States African policy could be affected positively to help bring social justice and equality to the people that Freddy and Pascal so diligently and tirelessly work for."

Karaoke Caps Busy Day in Vietnam
Chi Vu (Columbia University) is working alongside survivors of landmine injuries with Survivor Corps (formerly the Landmine Survivors' Network) in the Quang Binh province of Vietnam.
"It was along afternoon of conversations and presentations in sweltering conditions. You must know that the temperature in the mountains is even hotter and drier than in Dong Hoi (which already averages 98 degrees Fahrenheit). So at the end of the day, we unwound with a dinner of dishes special to the area, and of course, karaoke. What meeting would be complete without karaoke?"

Worming Their Way to Success in Malaysia
Rebecca Chon (Columbia University) is working with eHomemakers in Malaysia.
"Mr. W. believes that certain worms can be utilized to provide as an ecologically friendly solution to address the problem of wasting felled trees by helping to utilize all parts of the tree, as well the worms themselves provide many other benefits. So how does this related to eHomemakers? Well the utilization of trees in such a way is an invention by Mr. W, but the focus is on the worms. Who would have thought that rearing worms could generate income? And in doing so address an environmental problem? This is called innovation."

A Dalit's Luck in Nepal
Libby Abbott (Brown University) is advocating for women's rights with the Uterine Prolapse Alliance in Nepal.
"I try to suggest that Dinesh is lucky that he has the opportunity to now work with Radio Jagaran, to make a difference on an issue that is so important to him and to reach out to the community (Dalit and non-Dalit) to educate them about the persistent ills of discrimination. But it comes out all wrong. 'I am not lucky,' he says, with glassy eyes. So I try again. 'You should be proud, then, that you are working so hard for social change.' In quiet agreement he drops his head."