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Fellows > Blogging for Peace > 2007 > Fellows for Peace...

Fellows for Peace Blogs, Issue 7

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AdvocacyNet
Fellow Update, Volume 5 #7, July 23, 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:

• Feeling America's Reach in Bangladesh
• Prostitution Not Legal, But Tolerated in Italy
• Continuous Obstacles for Travelers in the UK
• Macedonian Youths Take Initiative
• Making a 'Bold Statement Toward Reconciliation' in Bosnia
• The Division of Natural Resources in Nepal
• Rubber Bullets Fly in Palestine
• Human Rights Abuses Against Nepal's Dalit Still Prevalent
• Released Prisoners Fill the Streets of Ramallah
• Guilt and Shame Fill the Eyes of Trafficking Survivors in Albania
• Upcoming Elections a Chance for Women's Advocacy in Nepal

Excerpts from some of this week's blogs follow:

Feeling America's Reach 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.
"My failure to participate, even for a split second, in American politics is then a failure not just on a personal, moral level as an individual citizen, but a very real failure to all peoples across the globe. If there is no corner of the globe which remains isolated from the hand of American government, there is no corner untouched by my lack of participation. Then it is clear to me - as an American, I can make no excuses when the livelihoods and lives of so many stand to feel the impact."

Prostitution Not Legal, But Tolerated 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.
"First of all, she stressed the importance of remembering the differences
between the phenomenon of trafficking and prostitution - in the laws and in the degree of choice that exists for the women in both situations. TT recognizes a woman's, or man's, right to chose prostitution as his or her work. TT does not advocate for the criminalization of prostitution, but neither does it wish to see the reopening of brothels."

Continuous Obstacles for Travelers in the UK

Zachary Scott (Georgetown University) is volunteering for Traveler's rights at
the Dale Farm Housing Association in Essex, England.
"When the meeting had finished, I left wondering why I had even come at all.
Not only is the Assembly's timeline for the completion and implementation of
its Travelers' housing needs assessment is too long, but it offers no intermediary mechanism that can be implemented to stop forceful evictions which may occur before legislation on the number of Traveler pitches is established by the British government."

Macedonian Youths Take Initiative

Katie Wroblewski (Indiana University School of Law) is volunteering with the
Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) on their Civil Society
Strengthening Project (CSSP) with the Youth Cultural Centre (YCC) in Bitola,
Macedonia.
"Late in the spring, just before I arrived, a group of students from Taki
Daskalo had organized an event to highlight the deteriorating condition of the
school's athletic facilities. The flyer shows a student shooting a basketball
at a hoop that is missing a rim, and below the picture the caption reads “Where can we play sports?” Clearly, some of these students have a knack for marketing."

Making a 'Bold Statement Toward Reconciliation' in Bosnia

Alison Morse (Tufts University) is volunteering for peace and women's rights
with Bosfam in Tuzla, Bosnia.
"Serbs and Bosnians are buried together on this small hillside surrounded by pine trees. In death they are all the same - innocent victims of war. The
families of the victims made a bold statement toward reconciliation in allowing them to be buried together. Neighbors heard the whispers in the middle of the night when the families gathered to bury the few remains of these young victims. The war allowed no other option. There was no way to gather during the day without attracting unwanted attention."

The Division of Natural Resources in Nepal

Mark Koenig (Tufts University) is volunteering for democracy and human rights with the Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP) in Nepalgunj, Nepal.
"My final attempt to uncover some semblance of community organization was a question regarding the division of water among the farmers, always a huge issue for any village. A man who spoke some English smiled, placed his hand on my knee and responded with a question 'How can you divide rain?' This cryptic response led into a long explanation that Indrapur has no irrigation and no prospects of benefiting from an irrigation project for years."

Rubber Bullets Fly in Palestine

Eliza Bates (Columbia University) is volunteering to support and foster a
democratic labor movement with the Democracy and Worker's Rights Center in the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"If they were shooting live ammunition there would have been no need to rush the man, whose name is Ibrahim, away from the scene leaking unreal redness everywhere. Instead of just a chunk of his skull cracked and missing, he would have been dead."

Human Rights Abuses Against Nepal's Dalit Still Prevalent

Aaron "Ted" Samuel is volunteering to advocate for human rights through the
Jaragan Media Center (JMC) in Kathmandu, Nepal.
"A seven year old boy was forced by his school teacher to lick his own feces in front of his peers. A 12 year old Dalit girl was gang raped and then killed in
the Siraha district. Scholarship money reserved for Dalit children has repeatedly been embezzeled by upper-caste school administrators. There are so many stories of Dalits - men, women, and children - being attacked for entering places of worship and taking water from "public" taps. These human rights abuses sound like something out of a history book - they couldn't have possibly happened in this day and age. But the truth is these incidents all occurred within the past 14 months."

Released Prisoners Fill the Streets of Ramallah

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.
"Little did I know that it would be THE place and THE time. I started to get
suspicious when I saw crowds of people in the central streets. Crowds of people on a Friday! And then I saw the cars, flags, buses, and happy people. The buses with the released prisoners, among them women and youngsters, were heading towards Muqata'a for a meeting with the president."

Guilt and Shame Fill the Eyes of Trafficking Survivors in Albania

Jennifer Hollinger (Georgetown University) is volunteering to support
trafficking survivors with Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking Across Europe
(CHASTE).
"I wish the development specialist could have come with me to that shelter. I
wish he could have seen how many of the girls were so shy and fearful that they could not look you in the eye. I wish he could have felt the palpable, but
unspoken, sense of guilt and shame that hung over these girls, as if everything they suffered had been their own fault. I wish he could have seen how some of the girls tried to shrink into themselves as protection against the hurt inflicted by every person they encountered in their short lives."

Upcoming Elections a Chance for Women's Advocacy in Nepal

Jeff Yarborough (Columbia University) is volunteering for democracy and human rights with the Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP) in Mahendranagar, Nepal.
"There are no radical groups advancing the female cause. No armed insurrections advocating female liberation from patriarchal male tyranny. In fact, on Election Day, many women might be too busy working in the fields, kept uninformed of the election details by their male relatives, or unable to read the newspapers and campaign material to cast their vote, and thus to have a meaningful voice in the shaping of the future Nepal."

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