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 313 graduate students to volunteer for social justice around the world. We have recruited 19 talented Peace Fellows this year in spite of the pandemic, and they have played a key role in supporting 26 community projects in 8 countries. Three bravely chose to work in Africa, including Jeremiah from the Fletcher School (photo), who worked with returned migrants in Senegal. We need your help to scale up in 2022!

$55,000
total goal

$6,359
remaining

99
donors

0
monthly donors

2
fundraisers

6
years

Challenge

AP seeks to empower marginalized communities, and the need this year has been greater than ever. Our current partners include un-vaccinated families in Kenya; survivors of war rape in Uganda; Agent Orange families in Vietnam; girls at risk from marriage in Zimbabwe; and River Gypsies in Bangladesh. All were under pressure from poverty and discrimination even before the pandemic. The question for us was how we could help at such a tough time? We turned to our student Peace Fellows for an answer.

Solution

We asked partners to design a start-up and they came up with 26 bold ideas. We then assigned 19 student Peace Fellows to the projects and asked each one to meet weekly with a partner to offer advice and friendship. This approach has produced sparkling results, ranging from community vaccination campaigns in 4 countries to a composting project for women in the Kibera settlement of Nairobi. All but 3 Fellows worked remotely in 2021, but (as their blogs show) they have all had a rich experience!

Long-Term Impact

This year has shown that short-term Fellows can help lay the foundation for long-term programs, even while serving remotely. We see this happening in Zimbabwe, where Sarina (University of Maryland) has helped 80 girls to sell over 16,000 bottles of Clean Girl soap and secure $40,000 in donor funding. We will recruit 15 Fellows like Sarina in 2022 and ask much from them as well! For example we hope to support more community vaccination campaigns, thus investing in the long-term health of Africa.