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AdvocacyNet
Fellow Update, Volume 5 #4, July 2, 2007
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Fellows for Peace Blogs

Thirty Peace Fellows are volunteering this summer in 18 countries or
territories with community-based partners of The Advocacy Project (AP). AP
issues a weekly digest of their blogs.

Highlights:

• Divided Families in the Middle East
• NGOs Fill the Void in Nepal
• Sex Work Becoming More Democratic in Italy?
• Understanding the Communist Insurgency in Nepal
• Social Enterprises Not Well Understood in Malaysia
• Sri Lanka: Paradise Has Problems Too
• A Lonely but Hopeful Journey in Italy
• Desperation Seen in Kenyan Street Children's Actions
• Women on the Shopping List in Albania?
• Billed For Security in Israel
• Disabled Workers Face Discrimination Challenges in Bangladesh
• On the Lookout for Suicide Bombers in Afghanistan

Excerpts from some of this week's blogs follow:

Divided Families in the Middle East

Tatsiana Hulko (Georgetown University) is volunteering for women's rights,
community development and peace at the Women's Affairs Technical Committee (WATC) in Ramallah, Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"Can anybody explain to me how and why it became acceptable for a mother with two of her children to live in Ramallah while her husband with three sons stays in Amman and there is no chance for the family to unite?"

NGOs Fill the Void in Nepal

Nicole Farkouh (UC Berkeley) is volunteering for peace and democracy with the Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP) in Gaighat, Nepal.
"I had a light bulb go off today that the reason there are so many NGOs is
because the 'G' is effectively missing from the country. NGOs have developed to fill the void that has been created by an ineffective or non-existent government."

Sex Work Becoming More Democratic in Italy?

Michelle Lanspa is volunteering to prevent and protect victims of human
trafficking with the Transnational AIDS Prevention among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe Projects (TAMPEP) in Turin, Italy.
"They say that girls and boys trafficked into Italy are not treated as badly as
before. Perhaps before, girls received zero or very small percentages of their
earnings from their Madams. Now, the girls might receive as much as 40 percent of their earnings, they are also beaten less and not treated as poorly...What has happened? Has trafficking in Turin, for SOME, essentially become more democratic?"

Understanding the Communist Insurgency in Nepal

Mark Koenig (Tufts University) is volunteering for democracy and human rights with the Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP) in Nepalgunj, Nepal.
"Most of the population of Bardiya District is made up of impoverished
families, the chronically unemployed and people who have been socially and politically discriminated against. Knowing and seeing this takes away the mystery of why a communist insurgency would garner so much support."

Social Enterprises Not Well Understood in Malaysia

Mariko Scavone (Georgetown University) is volunteering to empower women with eHomemakers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"Just as Ching Ching could not imagine firing a weaver for poor quality, a
business would not entertain the idea of keeping low-quality workers. We
finally agreed that social enterprises are so new that the term has not been
well-defined and is not well understood."

Sri Lanka: Paradise Has Problems Too

Madeline England (Columbia University) is volunteering for human rights and as an advocate for torture victims with the Home for Human Rights (HHR) in Sri Lanka.
"Sometimes when I stop looking to recover from my dizziness, I wonder: how can an island this truly jaw-dropping stupendously amazingly awe-inspiring
beautiful, this wonderfully diverse, and filled with so many kind people, how
can a place like that be so troubled? How can paradise have problems? I know the academic answer, but it just doesn't seem congruous with my surroundings."

A Lonely but Hopeful Journey in Italy

Leslie Ibeanusi (George Washington University) is volunteering to prevent and protect victims of human trafficking with the Transnational AIDS Prevention among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe Projects (TAMPEP) in Turin, Italy.
"What do you say? - 'Its ok'...'Oh, don’t worry!' No, you can’t possibly say
those things to her. I moved beside her and gave her a long hug. If I could, I
would have moved my stuff in to stay with her...but I can't...no one can. Angel
has to start this journey, some of which will be alone. I stood up and looked
back at her as I walked out. The door closed and that was it."

Desperation Seen in Kenyan Street Children's Actions

Jonathan Homer (George Washington University Law School) is volunteering for children's rights and issues related to HIV/AIDS with the Undugu Society in Nairobi, Kenya.
"Usually, after giving a few coins to a begging child, they leave. But not
these children. They continued to beg. A couple of them wailed with wide-open mouths in an attempt to grab our attention. They weaved between us as they tugged at our jackets and reached up to grab our arms. They aggressively cut us off and stared at our faces. They felt the outsides of our pockets for contents and they put us in a general state of confusion. These children were desperate."

Women on the Shopping List in Albania?

Jennifer Hollinger (Georgetown University) is volunteering to support
trafficking survivors with Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking Across Europe
(CHASTE).
"In some ways, it is hard for me to acknowledge that the streets full of
imported Italian fashions (at ridiculously high prices, I might add),
well-dressed young people, new Mercedes and Gucci knockoffs are also home to traffickers and their victims. I start to wonder if the young guys driving that new Mercedes are buying and selling women as if they are handbags."

Billed For Security in Israel

Erin Wroblewski is volunteering for transatlantic cooperation in support of
global human rights with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) in East
Jerusalem.
"We drive to West Jerusalem and find a café and catch up on stories from home over beer, wine and apple tobacco. When the check comes we guess at the Hebrew. 17 Shekels for beer, 25 for wine and a mysterious charge for something in Hebrew we cannot decipher. When the waitress comes we ask her why we have been charged for this mysterious thing. 'Security.' She says candidly. It’s part and parcel of every patron’s bill."

Disabled Workers Face Discrimination Challenges in Bangladesh

Caitlin Burnett (American University) is volunteering for the development and
protection of the disabled community with the Blind Education and
Rehabilitation Development Organization (BERDO) in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
"Not only is unemployment among the general workforce a huge problem, there are few safeguards to protect disabled persons in Bangladesh from discrimination. 'When I go with my application,' Monju states, 'they just tell me, there is no job for you.'"

On the Lookout for Suicide Bombers in Afghanistan

Audrey Roberts is volunteering for women's rights with the Afghan Women's
Network (AWN) in Kabul, Afghanistan.
"I wish I could easily spell out for you what it feels like to be on the look
out for something that seems very obvious but is so very abstract in reality –
the suicide bomber."