Justice and Human Rights United States Project #24013

Support International Service In The Era Of COVID

by The Advocacy Project

Summary

The Advocacy Project is seeking funds for our fellowship program, which has sent 316 graduate students to volunteer for social justice around the world and empowered hundreds more undergraduate interns. This year we are funding 18 projects in 8 countries. We have resumed deploying Peace Fellows (like Jeremiah to Africa - photo above) and recruited eleven more talented Fellows to provide remote support from the US. The pandemic is worsening in the South, making this work more urgent than ever.

$45,000
total goal

$9,774
remaining

91
donors

1
monthly donor

2
fundraisers

5
years

Challenge

AP seeks to empower marginalized communities and the need is greater than ever. Current partners include survivors of war rape in Uganda; Agent Orange families in Vietnam; girls at risk from marriage in Zimbabwe; and people with albinism in Kenya. All were vulnerable even before the pandemic. Our job is to help their leaders surmount the current crisis and build for the future. After this turbulent year we feel we have a solution and that students from the North can make a major contribution.

Solution

We ask partners to come up with innovative responses, and they are responding! This year we expect to fund up to 20 start-ups in 8 countries and recruit up to 20 Peace Fellows from the Global North to provide support and encouragement. Most will work remotely, although we are also deploying three Fellows to Africa (with caution). The past year has shown that remote service can provide a rich educational experience for students while also strengthening partner organizations.

Long-Term Impact

Peace Fellows have played a key role in helping AP's partners turn ideas into sustained, long-term programs and 2020 shows that this can also be done through remote service. Fellows have helped our partner in Zimbabwe to secure over $100,000 from donors (video), launched two micro-businesses in Uganda (soap and face-masks), and developed a successful global program to tell the story of COVID-19 through embroidery. Our brand of remote service also opens up exciting possibilities for research.