<incom> US Students to Intern with Civil Society Abroad

[Geert Lovink]

> From: "The Advocacy Project" <apdc at speakeasy.net>
> Date: 24 May 2006 8:00:43 PM
> To: advocacynet1 at advocacylists.org
> Subject: [Advocacynet] 18 North American Students to Intern with Civil  
> Society Abroad
>
> ******
> AdvocacyNet
> News Bulletin 64, May 24, 2006
> ******
>
> 18 NORTH AMERICAN STUDENTS TO INTERN WITH CIVIL SOCIETY IN 14 COUNTRIES
>
> May 24, 2006, Washington DC - The Advocacy Project (AP) has selected  
> eighteen graduate students from North American universities to intern  
> this summer with AP partner organizations around the world.
>
> The interns will help their hosts to work with grass-roots  
> constituents and strengthen their advocacy. AP partners are engaged in  
> issues of great importance, including girls’ education in Afghanistan,  
> the rebuilding of democracy in Nepal, the trafficking of women from  
> Africa, the future status of Kosovo, and Palestinian civil society.
>
> "Civil society holds the key to social justice in these countries,"  
> said Iain Guest, Director of AP. "This program allows Americans to  
> engage with some very brave people in a constructive, helpful, and  
> unthreatening manner. We are very proud of our interns."
>
> AP’s intern program has grown fast since it began in 2003 with 8  
> students from three universities. This year’s recruits were selected  
> from over 140 applicants and are studying at nine universities in the  
> US and Canada.
>
> On Monday, they completed four days of training, aimed at preparing  
> them for assignments and building a sense of shared purpose. While  
> they will be working in very different locations, all of their hosts  
> suffer from a common shortage of resources and organizational  
> constraints which make it hard to put out a consistent message. As a  
> result, AP interns will be helping their hosts to produce newsletters  
> and content for websites, as well as assess their IT needs. As in past  
> years, the interns will also blog directly to the Internet.
>
> As well as helping AP’s partners, interns make it possible for AP to  
> work around the world on a small core staff. Three interns will be  
> helping AP to complete projects:
>
> * Yvette Barnes (Georgetown University) is working with the Bosnian  
> organization Bosfam to help widows of the Srebrenica massacre build a  
> weaving business.
> * Greg Holyfield (University of Arkansas) will help the Home for Human  
> Rights in Sri Lanka to rebuild Tamil communities that were devastated  
> by the Tsunami.
> * Alison Long (American University) will help the Oruj Learning Center  
> (formerly Omid) to promote girl’s education within Wardak province,  
> Afghanistan.
>
> Several interns will be working on three ambitious new projects, to be  
> undertaken by AP during the next project cycle (2007-8). These seek to  
> support women’s groups in Nigeria, Europe and the US who are fighting  
> to curb the trafficking of women from Nigeria; to help disadvantaged  
> women in Malaysia work from home; and to strengthen an international  
> campaign by European Roma activists against evictions.
>
> One of AP’s goals for this year is to help partners better integrate  
> interns into their work, and this will be a task for some of AP’s own  
> interns. Interns are a valuable resource for community-based  
> organizations, but they can also put a strain on overworked staff and  
> leave a gap when they leave. Nicole Cordeau and Stacey Spivey  
> (Georgetown University) will be helping the Jagaran Media Center in  
> Nepal, which works on caste discrimination, to develop a program.
>
> This year’s interns will also build links between AP partners abroad  
> and American community groups. Those participating in the US include  
> the Sri Lankan and Nigerian diaspora, a weaving center in Virginia,  
> churches in New York and Boston, and several schools.
>
> The AP interns may also explore the possibility of setting up an  
> informal network among AP’s 20 partner organizations, which have much  
> to learn from each other. Several have asked AP to facilitate some  
> sort of exchange.
>
> Past AP interns have found that the experience can help at school and  
> also in finding work. Pia Schneider, who interned in Bosnia for AP, is  
> now in Indonesia with the International Committee of the Red Cross.  
> Michael Keller (who interned in Sri Lanka) and Christina Fetterhof  
> (Ecuador) have found jobs with the US Peace Corps.
>
> * For more information contact AP’s Intern Coordinator Stacy Kosko:  
> stacy at advocacynet.org
>
> * For intern blogs (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) visit the AP website:  
> http://www.advocacynet.org/cpage_view/ 
> interns03_Introduction_22_62.html
>
> * To meet our interns, visit the About Us page and see "Who We Are":   
> http://www.advocacynet.org/who_we_are.html