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

Heidi McKinnon and the Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi (ADIVIMA)

Heidi will be working in Rabinal, Guatemala as a 2008Peace Fellow with AP's partner organization, the Association for the Integral Development of the
Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achí
(ADIVIMA).

ADIVIMA seek solutions to social, economic, educational and political problems caused by the internal armed conflict in Guatemala during the 1980's.  ADIVIMA fulfills this role through their work filing for exhumations of clandestine graves, supporting a legal clinic for its members, ensuring the fulfillment of the Peace Accords, constructing monuments in memory of the victims, and funding scholarships for girls whose families have been affected by the violence in Rabinal.

There has never been a dam built anywhere in the world that has not imposed a serious cost on the environment or the local community. Chixoy Dam is no different, and, in fact, one of the most violent examples of the human cost of hydroelectric power in the world. Part of Heidi's work in Rabinal will involve preliminary research and development of a traveling exhibit on the history of violence in Rabinal during the civil war period, the Chixoy Dam massacres, and the community's recovery.

Proceeds from this collaborative project will benefit ADIVIMA's work and their scholarship fund. Heidi hopes that her experience working collaboratively with indigenous communities from Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Guatemala, and her familiarity with human rights violations in Latin America and development in post-conflict regions will serve ADIVIMA well.

Heidi holds a BA in anthropology and Spanish from the University of New Mexico and has worked with indigenous communities throughout Latin America since 1997. While working at Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in the late 1990s, Heidi researched human rights and sovereignty abuses in every region of Latin America while developing content for the permanent exhibits at NMAI. She became familiar with ADIVIMA while researching the massacres that occurred before the construction of Chixoy Dam in the early 1980s for inclusion in the permanent exhibits at NMAI, and is honored to have the opportunity to work with them through the AP Peace Fellowship this summer.

In the fall, Heidi will begin coursework toward a Master's in both international relations and museum studies, concentrating on exhibit development with communities facing conflict and those recovering from its aftermath.

Please follow Heidi's work through her blog and consider supporting her Fellowship in Rabinal this summer. Thank you.

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