Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007 - (Page 18)

in-country transportation, small stipend, project support. www.artcorp.org African Impact Opportunities in teaching & education, sports coaching, wildlife & conservation, healthcare, orphans, community development or HIV/ AIDS are available in southern and eastern Africa. No experience is required, but medical projects seek skilled personnel. Programs vary widely from a few weeks to several months, and travel is encouraged. Program fee covers lodging, food, project supplies, related expenses. www.africanimpact.com. American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative Judges, attorneys, law professors and legal specialists with five or more years of experience can join the International Pro Bono Legal Specialist Program, which operates in most regions of the world. Areas include anti-corruption, criminal law and trafficking, gender issues, human rights & conflict mitigation, judicial reform, legal education and legal profession reform. Volunteers serve an average of 12 months, but terms can vary widely. Benefits: lodging, meals, incidentals, incountry travel, business expenses, some insurance. www.abanet. org/rol/programs. American Jewish World Service Jewish professionals partner with NGOs to provide technical support and skills training in a variety of fields. Terms are two to 12 months in one of 14 countries in Asia, Africa or the Americas. AJWS also leads short-term service delegations for groups. Benefits: airfare, some insurance; possibility of added need-based funding. See Page 14 ad. www.ajws.org. American Refugee Committee Skilled volunteers work four to six months in positive. People respect you for what you know and have learned. It’s not always like that back in the States. A sense of humor is more than a plus. Be able to laugh at yourself. e bottom line, which certainly isn’t age-related, is your comfort level: in unfamiliar surroundings, people speaking a language you barely recognize, or being able to function if your host doesn’t show up when you arrive. Last of all, the food resembles nothing you’ve seen or tasted before. Otherwise, you’ve got it made. And listen to the people you serve. If ever I’m feeling low and need to recharge my batteries, I read the comments of the extension workers in Rumbek. Kerubino Dut John wrote that my class was like giving birth to a daughter. He compared the experience to the work of his former commander, John Garang, “who was fighting for freedom … .” What Kerubino Dut John was learning was like “fighting starvation through economic growth.” Nowhere else in the world will anyone compare me to John Garang or make me feel so special. I still shed a few tears when I read this, and I will take the praise with a grain of salt. But 15 agricultural extension workers at a Rumbek workshop surely made my day. Beth Oliver worked in southern Sudan for six weeks for ACDI/VOCA. She has worked for 15 years on short-term contracts as a business advisor in Africa and the Middle East and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana from 1985 to 1987. Letter from Yekaterinburg URAL LAWYERS Arguing for mental patient’s rights Y by Douglas Kramer ekaterinburg had just celebrated its 300th anniversary when Judith Ahrens and I arrived to work with some human rights organizations in western Siberia. In Soviet times, this Russian city was the center of intense defense research and still possesses many academic institutions and a highly educated population. e old city, designed by German architects and built by Peter the Great, is a set of gracious public buildings and spaces now surrounded by huge Soviet apartment blocks, manufacturing zones, and atomic, biological and chemical warfare research facilities. e latter facilities remained off-limits, as was much of the city during the Soviet Union, when the city was called Sverdlosk. Although a general distrust of foreigners prevails in the once-closed city, my wife, Judith, and I were welcomed warmly. Because Yekaterinburg is the major city in the Eastern Urals, surrounded by immense natural resources, it is a magnet for peoples from such economically depressed countries as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and the nearby Russian republics such as Chechnya and China. Many of the economic refugees claim Russian citizenship. Passports in the Soviet Union did not distinguish between countries, so many refugees cannot provide evidence of country of birth. As a result, housing and legal employment contracts are hard to come by. Many in the underground economy are ripe targets for exploitation and official abuse. In the heady days of rising democratic impulses, courts and bureaucrats began to enforce laws that protect the constitutional rights of its citizens. Sergie Belyaev, a former government lawyer, established an organization called it Sutyajnik. e name means e Litigious One. Sutyajnik attracted recent law graduates–you can practice without attending school if you can pass a bar exam–and some financial support from the Ford Foundation, among others. e Sutyajnik staff was well-trained and most were genuinely dedicated to advancing human rights. In its first decade, it achieved some notable legal successes, but the lawyers were more opportunistic than strategic. Fresh from our experience as Peace Corps volunteers in Aitos, Bulgaria in 2003, we were asked to help Sutyajnik’s staff create a strategy for institutionalizing their victories into everyday practice and to give them some practical training in organizational management. I’m a trial lawyer whose civil rights work began in the summer of 1966 in Mississippi. Judith had taught computer science, strategic management and information systems at the graduate level and served on the board of NGOs. We were sent to Russia by the International Senior Lawyers Project, a non-profit that provides free legal services performed by practicing and retired attorneys who volunteer to advance democracy and the rule of law, protect human rights and promote equitable economic development worldwide. 18 Fall 2007 http://www.artcorp.org http://www.africanimpact.com http://www.abanet.org/rol/programs http://www.abanet.org/rol/programs http://www.ajws.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007

Worldview - Fall 2007
Contents
Presiden'ts Note
Lafayette Park
Introduction
Interview
Commentary
Editor's Note
Letter from Rumbek, Sudan
Listings
Letter from Yekaterinburg, Russia
Letter from Codaesti, Romania
Letter from Catia La Mar, Venezuela
Letter from Gumare, Botswana
Letter from Ridder, Kazakhstan
Letter from Rincon, Cape Verde
Letter from Port Au Prince
Another Country
Community News
Giving Back
Opinion

Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007

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