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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 > Blogging for Peace > 2004 > From the Field, J...

From the Field, July 12, 2004

Summer Interns and AP Director Report from Partners Abroad

The Advocacy Project's summer interns, graduate students from Georgetown and Tufts Universities, are reporting on-line about their work with partners abroad in Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Italy, the Palestinian territories and Sri Lanka. AP Director Iain Guest is also traveling and working with partners this summer, and issuing his own reports.

Excerpts of some of the most recent blogs follow, and will be sent weekly. Read an overview of all 2004 programs.

Ginny Barahona (Georgetown University is working with the Afghan Women's Network (AWN) a network of NGOs committed to women's rights in Afghanistan.

"...here's what I'm learning: (1) Always respect the chador (head scarf). Foreign women are not expected to wear it, though we are significantly harassed without it. If you do, Afghan women have more respect for you and can be much friendlier. One day at AWN, I was plugging away on some project when we were called for lunch. In my hunger, I started walking downstairs without my chador and my arms exposed - practically pornographic in these parts. One of the workers took a book and hit me with it before I made the bottom. She told me to put something on since there were men downstairs. Later, she asked me whether she was right or wrong and reminded me that Afghanistan is a conservative country. How could I answer? Yes, you were right to hit me for not abiding by an Afghan dress code. Or, no you were wrong because your dress code is wrong. ...I said neither. I said it wasn't a matter of right or wrong since there was nothing wrong with the dress code and as a foreigner, I simply forgot.
 
...Since then I have come to my own realization that the women in AWN fight staunchly for women's political rights but shy away from social rights. They must remain conservative since they are pushing the boundaries of an entire country. They're security risks are higher than some other NGOs simply because they are women."

Sarah Schores (Georgetown University) is also working with the Afghan Women's Network (AWN). 

"...AWN wants to hold a six month training session for 30 women to teach them print and radio journalism, as well as photography skills. There was a successful journalist training program completed in 2003 in Peshawar, Pakistan, where 50 female journalists were trained in print and radio journalism. This proved to be successful not only for the journalists themselves, who were able to parlay their new skills into successful careers, but also for AWN, who was able to employ the most talented journalists to work on their website, newsletter, and magazine.

Similar training sessions were attempted in Kabul, but were not successful, because they were unable to employ a professional trainer with the salary allotted to them. The [new] proposal is important because it is essential to have female journalists in Kabul to research and write stories on issues taking place in Afghanistan that journalists in Peshawar do not have access to. Hopefully, the proposal will be successful and AWN will be able to train a new generation of female journalists. Free press is such a new idea in Afghanistan, and many journalists have suffered under previous regimes. The idea that now women can research and write stories that are of interest to them is a new and exciting prospect."

Pia Schneider (Georgetown University) is working with Bosfam, a support group and weaving center for women in Eastern Bosnia.  

"...I will join the hundreds or thousands of mourners on Sunday [July 11, the 9th anniversary ceremony and reburial of victims' remains at the site of the Srebrenica massacre]. I have no idea what to expect nor how to properly pay my respects to the dead. I am also a little nervous about intruding in such a personal ceremony. I have heard so many different stories about previous similar events, yet I am sure nothing will prepare me for the actual thing. I have been to funerals before, but I have never been to a funeral where over 300 families bury their loved ones at the same time, the cause of death being almost the same for all of them. Killed because of a war which to me seems to have been so pointless.

Bosnia still needs to heal. These ceremonies are aimed at facilitating this process. I am not sure it is - while some families find closure by finally saying goodbye to those long missing, others find that the pain of not knowing what has happened to their missing is stirred up all over again. Yet this ceremony is essential. It reminds the world of what happened nine years ago and maybe one day, we will learn from this to prevent similar tragedies. But until then, this ceremony is aimed at helping those directly affected. I will join them on Sunday, witness their pain and suffering and spend next week reflecting on
what it all means."

Stacy Kosko (Georgetown University) is working with Dzeno Association, an NGO working to promote awareness of, and strengthen, Roma culture in Prague, The Czech Republic.

"...I spend my days at the computer, pouring over dozens of news flashes on as many Roma themes, and writing articles for our English news column. While Romany will be the language of empowerment for the Roma people, English is the language in which the world will listen. Too many people on this small planet have never heard of the Roma. Too many do not know that the Carmens of their operas are not flamenco-dancing caravan dwellers at all. They are the poorest, least educated, and shortest-lived class of European citizens. For many of us living easily in the Free World, Europe's 'gypsies' do not exist at all. It is my job in part to give another voice to this fight, to shake the English-speaking world awake.

But then, it is not only in the U.S. that this battle seems far away. Ivan sees this phenomenon much closer to home, in the post-revolution complacency that he had feared ten years ago. 'The Roma are sleeping,' he tells me, radiating sadness from his sympathetic face. 'The Roma are sleeping because they haven't the problems of existence. When you have [these problems] you are interested in political change.'"  

Michael Keller (Georgetown University) is working with the Home for Human Rights (HHR), a human rights organization in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  

"Thursday morning I found an interesting e-mail in my inbox. It was from the US Embassy, warning me to avoid Batticaloa on the east coast - the scene of an assassination two days earlier - and informing me of Wednesday's suicide bombing in Colpetty, Colombo.

Funny, I thought: I'd just returned from Batti, and I live in Colpetty! 

...After two days in the east, we arrived back in Colombo less than 12 hours after the suicide bombing - Colombo's first since 2001 - at the police station up the street. Again, beyond the station's blown out windows and the gruesome photos of body parts on the front pages of the papers, nothing had changed in the city... no panic, no shock. It seems as though Sri Lankans are all too familiar with this sort of violence. I, meanwhile, am not, and being so close to all the madness for the first time has finally exposed me to the reality of life in Sri Lanka."

Carmen Morcos (Georgetown University) is working with Rights Action in Guatemala, a human rights organization working throughout the country.  

[Discussing the history of ASCRA, a Rights Action-affiliated organization in Pacux, Guatemala] "Back in 1982, Pacux began as a model village, which was a counterinsurgency strategy used by the military to control the civilian population. The military established these model villages within or along military bases. Daily life was very militarized and under military control. The communities were required to have civil patrols and military commissioners, as well as judicial authorities (all civilian-based).These people were often abusers of human rights, often of their own community members. Some say they were forced by the military to commit these violations, otherwise their own families would have faced the consequences.

...After the massacres and displacement, as Pacux became more involved in the struggle to obtain compensation due to the construction of Chixoy Dam, the community leaders realized the debilitated state of their community after having been a model village for so many years. They wanted help in creating democratic institutions that had been destroyed by the military. 

...Rights Action got involved in their struggle and hired experts in popular education to conduct workshops within the community. The objective was to have everything discussed as a community, not so much to document it. As previously mentioned, some community members were involved in human rights violations, therefore there was an attempt to reconstruct relationships and memories and discuss how the community could function together in a healthy manner."

Melinda Willis (Tufts University) is working with TAMPEP, the Turin, Italy branch of the Transnational AIDS Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe Project.

"This week I went out with the mobile street unit. At 10:30pm, I met up with Laura, a member of the TAMPEP staff, and Precious, one of the Nigerian cultural mediators, at the TAMPEP office to prepare the materials we would be handing out to the prostitutes. The materials included brochures on STDs, handling dangerous clients, accessing health care without residency documentation, condoms and lubricant. 

With the materials in hand, the three of us hopped in the Fiat minivan and drove to a major stretch of road that remained busy for the entire 3 hours we spent doing outreach. Whenever we spotted a prostitute, Laura pulled the van over a few feet away and we would walk over to introduce ourselves. Some were familiar faces and chatted easily with Laura and Precious as the latter tried to collect some basic information. 

The reactions to the encounters ranged from hostility to gratitude. But only one told us very bluntly to "give her what we had to give her and go away." To be honest, I expected more responses like that - we weren't great for business."

Iain Guest has worked with the International Roma Women's Network (IRWN) and Bosfam, AP's partner in Eastern Bosnia this summer. He's now in the Middle East, researching the use of information technologies (ICTs) by civil society, and meeting with a number of AP partners in the region.

"My quest starts on a familiar, and awkward, note. As soon as I ask that my passport not be stamped, the Israeli immigration officer becomes defensive. I know, and she knows, that an Israeli stamp will get me barred from half the countries in the world. But she does not like to be reminded of Israel's isolation and I feel uncomfortable reminding her. I mumble something about "hoping that it will change some day." She just shrugs. I then submit to questioning by a young security official. He is alert and sharp, but happy enough at what he hears. I start to relax, and he starts to become friendly. "Compare this to the US," he says. "There you will wait in a line for hours, be finger-printed and have your photo taken. Here in Israel - a country which is under threat from suicide bombers - you're allowed to enter without any hassle." He reminisces about a visit to New York, and we have a pleasant talk before he lets me through.

This is a good start. It is also a reminder that behind Israel's intimidating military apparatus, there are ordinary people with very deep fears for their personal and national security. Everyone visiting this region needs to remember this. Many people who work with the Palestinians are so appalled at Israel's tough tactics that they tend to develop a visceral dislike of everything Israeli - even individual Israelis. This alarms them deeply, and rightly so.

I will certainly be making an effort to stay emotionally neutral, and appreciate the company of my Israeli friends as well as Palestinians. Will I be politically neutral? That's a different matter. Palestinians and Israelis share a love of politics - and everything here is political. Let's see if this extends to information technology..."

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