A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. Since 1998, AP has supported 117 community-based organizations in 52 countries.
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Ned Meerdink and Arche d’Alliance
Ned Meerdink will be working for AP between September 2008 and March 2009 as the AP Fellow For Peace in Eastern Congo. He will be working with AP partner Arche d’Alliance, a human rights organization working to defend human rights in Eastern Congo (Uvira\Sud Kivu Province)and promote peaceful conflict resolution. Arche d’Alliance also advocates for victims of gender-based violence and at-risk youth throughout Sud Kivu, and Ned will be working with them to increase their visibility and voice in the international community through web-development and increased networking abroad.
Ned is a graduate of the History and African Studies Departments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he focused on Central and Eastern Africa and humanitarian efforts throughout those regions. In the past, he has worked for other NGOs working in defense of human rights both in the United States and in Congo. Ned’s last work was with Mutuelle Jeunesse Active (MJA), another Congolese organization advocating for human rights and greater educational opportuties in Sud Kivu, and he recently returned from six months of field work in Sud Kivu assisting MJA with educational, IT, and peace-building program development.
Ned looks forward to returning to Congo in September to be working as a Fellow For Peace with AP partner Arche d’Alliance. He hopes to apply lessons learned in his past work in Sud Kivu to aid Arche d’Alliance in their attempt to have their work recognized and supported on a larger scale by the international community and all who share an interest in working together with Congolese to catylze the transition to peace after decades of conflict and instability throughout Eastern Congo.
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