A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to produce social change by helping marginalized communities to become advocates for social justice and claim their rights

From the Field, July 26, 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 online 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.

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

“…Afghanistan is definitely a hard country in which to work. Apparently, there are often miscommunications between the aid agencies’ offices and the registration sites themselves. We had called the office of the agency running the registration site twice to confirm the time and place of the registration site, yet the site had already closed. I couldn’t help but think that if I had been confused as to the time and place of registration, then the same thing had probably occurred with Afghans wanting to register. I wondered how many people were unable to register, not because they did not want to, but because they were uninformed about the process.

…Of course, these are the first free elections being held in Afghanistan, and there are bound to be problems and inconsistencies. Afghanistan is also a hugely complicated country. It has experienced over twenty years of war, and many people know nothing else besides war and instability. It is unrealistic to think that the election process could run smoothly and be completely peaceful. Every time I get frustrated in Afghanistan, I just remind myself that three years ago the Taliban were in power, and women could not even be on the streets. Today, they are holding positions in the government and are able to vote and voice their opinions.”

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

"In the evening I am invited to a barbeque with some friends in Tuzla.... Today I am surprised, as there are three Serbs from Belgrade who have been invited. I am astonished at my own reaction to this. Immediately I distrust them and I don't even know a thing about them! It takes me all night to come to terms with my emotions. I realize that I have inevitably taken sides by working primarily with Bosniacs (Bosnian Muslims) during my time here. 

I watch my Bosniac friends interact with them as they do with me or anyone else. I question this on the way home, commenting on the fact that I was affected by the fact that they were Serbian. “They are good people,” they tell me, “just like you and me." Yet they do say that there are no problems with them only because these guests were Serbian, not Bosnian Serbs. That's a different story. There is such a fine line between the different ethnicities here and it takes much more than a summer in Bosnia to understand it all.

But as I get home and think about my day, I realize that everything I do here… will bring me closer to understanding this country. I also understand that if I can manage to create ethnic barriers in my own mind in such a short time, breaking the ethnic walls down among the locals will take years. But, as I witnessed tonight, it is happening slowly and maybe in time, even Bosniacs and Bosnian Serbs will refer to each other as 'good people.'"

Christina Fetterhoff (Georgetown University) is working with the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CDES), an organization in Quito, Ecuador that works on issues of human rights and development.

“…On July 6, 2004, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights passed down a decision in favor of [the] Sarayaku [indigenous people] — a legal decree that the Ecuadorian government must guarantee the life and personal integrity of the members of the Sarayaku community. We can only hope that Gutiérrez and his state will abide.

The Sarayaku case is important not only because it represents such a milestone achievement for both CDES and its clients, and for indigenous peoples in the Americas in general, but also because it is representative of each area in which CDES works. It is really a keystone example of the importance of Amazonian issues, economic, social and cultural rights, and the destructive effects of globalization. The struggle of these people will now go down in the history books and perhaps the next generation of human rights advocates will read about it and wonder about the people who lived and breathed the Sarayaku cause. I feel lucky just to have had contact with some of them and have realized that each history—whether current or ancient—was at one point real.”

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.

"There is a gigantic, bureaucratic wall that has succeeded in completely and utterly preventing me from making any progress whatsoever on any of those pesky projects I was sent here to complete. 

While we little folks down here at wee international organizations …try to organize and network our way into the international system, the international system is so organized that it’s worked us right out. Getting a response from some of these people can be a nightmare of tail-chasing as person numero uno refers us to person numero dos, who then recycles us right back to person numero uno because “I’m afraid this is not our department” …Then, of course, Uno is away from her desk for the next seventeen weeks and will not be answering any e-mails.
 
I am, after all, still an unknown writer from a fairly small organization in what is still a fairly small country. I guess I can cut these busy folks some slack. Though my pile of “dern things gotta git did” numbers in the dozens, I am certain that most of those whose responses I await are staring down the barrel of “dern mountains that gotta git climbed.” As one
exasperated World Banker I know recently (and accurately) commented: We could probably all benefit from some streamlining."

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

“…The LTTE’s territory has been reduced to a strip of land just south of Jaffna; since the signing of the cease-fire, people have been free to transit through the area. However, they have to deal with four extensive checkpoints; two for the LTTE and two for the government at both entry points.

“…Apparently US soldiers have been training the military in the north, so [at the LTTE checkpoint] I came under suspicion, despite having brought along only my Swiss passport. …[The checkpoint agent] came out with such memorable and utterly irrelevant questions as “Why do you have a beard, man, are you trying to look like Bin Laden?” I felt like asking him “Wait, who’s the terrorist here?” but luckily between those questions Mrs. Xavier [of HHR] was scolding him in Tamil to mind his own business. The best part was when he ordered me to unroll the sleeves of my t-shirt, because “Now you’re entering an LTTE area and you have to respect Tamil culture”! Considering the fact that he was wearing jeans, a polo shirt, a baseball cap and shoes, while I at least had flip-flops on, I’d say I was doing the better job of respecting his culture.

Carmen Morcos (Georgetown University) is working with Rights Action in Guatemala, a human rights organization working throughout the country. This week Carmen blogged with quotes from Barbara R. Johnston, the lead researcher on of the Chixoy Dam Legacy Issues Study, a joint project of Rights Action and three other organizations. This fall, the project will conclude a comprehensive study of the human and environmental costs of the Chixoy Dam, a development project funded in the 1970s and 80s by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The dam project resulted in the uncompensated relocation of many indigenous communities, and acts of mass murder committed by the military against indigenous groups were linked to the government’s desire to move people off the land. The communities Carmen has been working with this summer are still fighting, decades later, for reparations and justice on these issues.

[Johnson states] “Though representatives from [the World  Bank and IDB] have suggested interest in funding, with  Guatemalan government participation, some sort of remediative economic development comprehensive package for the region, no one is [on] record to indicate a commitment to provide 'reparations'. [From our understanding] bank officials are interested in reviewing the work we are completing, and are  especially interested in something that outlines community-wide remedial needs and development priorities.”

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

"Eight weeks into this internship, I am confronted with the  possibility that some of the hopes I had for the summer as a whole will be unrealized. For example, the website. It is finished and resting on this hard drive, but for a variety of logistical reasons, it may be left unpublished for some time. The thing is, I need to see  this site up. Not because it is the most stellar piece of web artistry  humankind will ever lay eyes upon (my web design skills are best  described as fledgling), but because TAMPEP is so close to finally  having it.

So I am poised, waiting for the opportunity to say it’s finished. I  have moved my deadline for a completed site back so many times  that I don’t even bother putting a date on it anymore. My internship is over in two weeks, but until the wheels go up on my flight home, there’s always a chance!"

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 (ICT) by civil society, and meeting with a number of AP partners in the region.

“Today I visited Tel Aviv to meet with the Israeli branch of the  Independent Media Center, or Indymedia, as it is known.  Indymedia is one of the great innovations of this new information era. It emerged during the 1999 protests in Seattle against  globalization. The organizers posted a new website to manage the protests and allow anyone to publish without being edited. Known as the “Open Newswire,” this was the fulfillment of a  dream for many die-hard supporters of the Internet, who had always envisioned the Internet as an escape from the conventional media (with its connections to big business), and a vehicle for free expression.

More than 200 Indymedias are now in operation around the world… But the formula has also raised some serious questions about the limits to free expression.

…Indymedia is not alone in struggling to find tolerable limits to  free speech. It is perplexing enough for societies at peace. For  societies at war, where lives are at stake, the dilemma is particularly acute. I’m curious to see how both sides are dealing with it here. I’ve visited the Palestinian Indymedia, in Bethlehem. Now it’s time for Tel Aviv….”