Happy Friday, everyone! I am most certainly very happy this Friday because I have handed in all my final papers, finished 3 fellowship applications, and am officially DONE with Fall Quarter 2009. Yep, I’m one step closer to graduation (and hopefully one step closer to getting an awesome fellowship/job and not one step closer to living in a cardboard box…)!
Sunitha Krishnan
She is an absolutely amazing, amazing woman. I know this is the week of TED Talks on my blog, but I swear this one is worth it — it’s probably one of the best TED Talks I’ve ever seen. Sunitha Krishnan has started a really wonderful organization called Prajwala which rescues girls from the commercial sex trade in India. Her talk is beautiful, swelling with passion, and absolutely heartbreaking. She herself has gone through a lot and has been beaten up 14 times because of her work - but she is incredibly courageous and singlemindedly pursues her goal of bringing women and children out of the sex trade and into society as thriving, independent and happy individuals. Her main point? That we, as society are her biggest barrier. While we nod our heads and say, oh, it’s so great that you’re helping to end human trafficking, we ourselves don’t accept these girls into our lives, or treat them as full human beings. Society’s discrimination is sad and sadly, it’s a prevalent part of life in many countries. Watch this talk, and by the end you will be angry and fired up and ready to get out there and DO something about it.
The first thing to do is, as she says, to change ourselves. She’s not asking us to be MLK or Gandhi. All she’s asking is for us to change our own conceptions and perceptions. Eradicate any forms of discrimination, whether it is against sex slaves/prostitutes, LGBT people, or people of different races, ethnicities, religions, or socioeconomic classes. Changing ourselves in this way is the first step towards societal transformation.
This week’s links..
And of course, here are some of my favorite links from this week.
My awesome Twitter friend @MsAmaka writes on her great new blog (you should subscribe!) about a new Amnesty report regarding shocking levels of police brutality in Nigeria
Okay, I think that’s enough for now. I’ll be at home relaxing (aka filling out applications and working on my thesis - not very relaxing) and will have more time to write. I’m excited because I’ll be putting up some more opinion posts up rather than these short pieces. Have a wonderful and warm weekend!
From now on, I’m going to keep Feature Fridays shorter and add on a list of my favorite links from the past week or so I constantly run across so many fascinating articles and blog posts to share that I felt I should start sharing them over here, too! Here goes…Enjoy!
Feature Friday: Asylum Access
I recently heard of Asylum Access, and love their innovative approach. When most refugees flee, they usually go to neighboring countries throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America first - not immediately the U.S. or U.K. Asylum Access fosters the development of refugee rights projects & puts trained legal advocates around the world to connect with refugees who are seeking asylum. The organization also advocates for other human rights for refugees, like the right to work, send kids to school, and gain access to healthcare through international and national level policymaking and advocacy. They also educate refugees on their rights, educate local communities to understand the rights of refugees, and educate those in the U.S. to encourage action on behalf of refugees. Learn more about this great organization here!
I first heard about Hagar International over a year ago while reading the book “Not for Sale,” about human trafficking. Human trafficking is a tough issue to combat, especially since the solutions aren’t exactly clear, and require investment in long-term assistance and systemic change. But Hagar International has a really innovative and effective model, and is doing great work to attack the roots of human trafficking.
Hagar International is committed to individualized and long-term assistance for its beneficiaries, and they use the social enterprise model as a tool for social rehabilitation and economic empowerment. Hagar works with women and children from devastating backgrounds of violence, abuse and trafficking and supports them in their recovery, rehabilitation, job readiness and ultimately community reintegration.
Hagar International first began working in Cambodia, where about 80% of their beneficiaries have been successfully reintegrated into society. Hagar first provides shelter, accommodation, trauma recovery, therapy, education, literacy classes, and skills-training for women who need it, and then slowly helps them reintegrate into society. And what makes Hagar most unique is their development of social businesses; Hagar has begun several self-sustaining businesses which provide funds for the organization and meaningful employment for women who come from difficult backgrounds. For instance, in Cambodia Hagar runs Hagar Catering and Hydrologic - which provide jobs, the opportunity to learn new skills, and the chance to reintegrate into society for many of the women from Hagar’s programs.
I’d encourage you to visit their website to learn more about the innovative ways they are making a difference and combating human trafficking.
Today I’d like to highlight a wonderful organization, HEAL Africa, which provides holistic care to people in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As some of you may know, the DRC has been called the “worst humanitarian disaster since WWII” since about 5 million people have died since 1998. Despite the unstability of the country and the ongoing conflict, not as much international attention is given to the situation as is to Darfur. Yet, many have heard of the mass violence, especially sexual violence, which is widespread in the DRC as a result of the conflict.
HEAL Africa tackles the challenges of working in rural and resource-poor regions of eastern DRC head on, and more than that is taking an effective and unique approach. Here are some of their programs, all of which are very innovative:
Gender-based violence: The program trains village women as counselors, who become the first stage in the process of healing and refer victims of sexual violence for treatment. There are now over 300 counselors in North Kivo and Maniema provinces. 28 safe houses for women have also been constructed to provide a safe environment for women, including those traveling to access medical care. The program also provides women with the opportunity to learn new skills like literacy and crafts, and can receive small business training.
Health care: HEAL Africa has a well known teaching hospital in Goma which provides quality care. Community-based healthcare initiatives are also being pioneered, through which health professionals travel to rural areas to provide medical support and supplies. This is one of the few hospitals conducting research in the war-torn area.
Micro-grants: Thousands of micro-grants have been provided for vulnerable people who live on less than a dollar a day. This is accompanied by financial training, savings collectives, small business training, and community accountability to maximize the impact of the grant.
HIV/AIDS: This program educates people about HIV/AIDS through education seminars throughout churches in the province. They have a children’s AIDS program which provides children with ARV drugs along with a nutritional supplement to ensure that the children are not malnourished. They also provide home care for those severely ill.
Gender and Justice: HEAL Africa also works through the law to try to ensure a more fair judicial system to support female empowerment. They work with the American Bar Association to reinforce the justice system, and then work to bring together community members and leaders in a coalition to support gender equity. They also teach gender equity in the classroom, and work to change the attitudes of men (which I argued was so important in my last post.)
Children Like Us: HEAL Africa actually sends specialized staff into communities to search for disabled children who may need assistance. Then, these children are provided with support and/or surgery, and their families provided income generation grants.
As you can see, their range of programs and services are incredible - not only varied but also each innovative and effective in its own right! I am honestly amazed by how much a grassroots organization is able to accomplish. Beyond just the innovative programs, HEAL Africa takes such a holistic approach to its work and ensures that all the needs of the community: medical, social, and spiritual, are met. This in itself is innovative and proving that such an approach (opposed to specialization) works is significant. Moreover, the organization is setting the foundation for long-term impact rather than short-term fixes. They hire local staff who have an intimate knowledge of the region, and engage in leadership training.
HEAL Africa is doing amazing work to transform communities in eastern Congo even while conflict is ongoing. I encourage you to visit their website (which is also beautifully done) and learn more about them. I only wish more organizations took this approach since it seems to be highly effective.
Beyond Good Intentions is a wonderful ten-part film series investigating the effectiveness of international aid. According to the website:
The Beyond Good Intentions film series follows the round-the-world journey of first-time filmmaker, Tori Hogan, as she investigates how international aid can be more effective. Shot on location in eight different countries, the ten-episode series takes viewers along for the ride as Tori meets with countless aid workers and recipients to uncover more innovative approaches to helping communities in need.
The film series is great because it brings to light a lot of the criticisms of international aid that are often unknown to the general public. People assume volunteering abroad is great — but perhaps it’s not truly sustainable. People assume the Peace Corps is wonderful — but is the program really effective? With the advent of Muhammad Yunus’ innovative approach to ‘banking for the poor,’ microfinance has almost universally began to be viewed as a panacea to the world’s poverty…but is it really delivering for the world’s poorest communities?
Tori explores these, and many more important, controversial, challenging questions. What’s more, she presents the information in a series of engaging and enjoyable short films which are accessible to the general public. These films don’t use grandiose rhetoric or useless jargon…which is what is usually employed in these debates, often put forth by academics. Tori makes these issues interesting and easily understandable, thus reaching a large proportion of the population and drawing in young people.
Check out the clip below, where Tori investigates the practices of Kiva and microlending. Click here to access their YouTube channel and watch the rest of the videos.
I'm Akhila, a 20-year old Northwestern University undergraduate double majoring in economics and political science. I'm a bookworm and total poli sci junkie. I'm passionate about human rights issues, writing, blogging, poetry, social enterprise, new media, and webdesign. Read on for my random thoughts on human rights, int'l issues, work, and life. Check out my portfolio for more information!
"I hope you choose to broaden, and not contract, your ambit of concern. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where you are, although you do have that debt. It’s because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. And because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential - and become full-grown." - Barack Obama
"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in a square hole, the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” - Steve Jobs
Well behaved women rarely make history. - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. - Cecil Beaton
I constantly run across so many fascinating articles and blog posts to share that I felt I should start sharing them over here, too! Here goes…Enjoy!
