alhamdoulilaah, i have an internship! so the group i was waiting on just took too long, so we (my directors and i) gave up on ever joining them. first they said, wait til the beginning of feb. then they said, now wait til tabaski is over. then they said, um, we have a funding problem and we dont know when we will be able to finish the building we are moving into. well. at least in my two months of waiting for them i managed to drink one hell of a lot of attaya, learned more wolof, went dancing a lot, and learned what it is like to be extremely bored all the time. when i dont have anything to stimulate me for weeks and weeks i get kind of stupid and lethargic and blas�. you might think dancing would be stimulating, but since they play basically the same variety of african salsa, mbalax, zouk, and american rap/rnb at every club you pretty much have the same sort of good time every time you go. i definitely do better when i am engaged in activities that are brain-stimulating and have a broader context than just my daily meanderings. of course, i dont like to be without any downtime either..the middle way between asceticism and indulgence...anyway. so, instead i have just started researching a group called Rencontre Africaine pour la D�fense des Droits de l'Homme (RADDHO); that roughly translates as African Junction/Meeting/Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights. It's not a coalition, its an organization, but the word "rencontre" doesn't easily translate in English. It was founded in april of 1990.
*****DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATION*******
According to their statutes;
RADDHO an independent, secular, non-governmental, non-partisan, non-profit organization created to promote, defend, and protect human rights and is a watchgaurd:
-for the respect all life and human dignity
-to fully exercise citizens rights and powers
-for the emergence and consolidation/solidarity of the State and the right to democracy in Africa
-for the reconciliation/connection of the people of Africa in favor of peace, friendship/good relations, and solidarity
-to respect economic, social, and cultural rights and all human rights
Their ACTIONS:
-protection and surveillance of human rights
-organizing seminars and workshops associated with human rights
-campaign against impunity (case of Hissene Habr�)
-campaign against the use of "mines antipersonnel" (translates to landmines, i think) and "armes l�g�res" (literally translates to light arms)
-election monitoring
-conflict mediation
-promotion of women and children's rights
-campaign in support of the participation of women in decision making processes
-directing, advising, and defending the rights of refugees and "personnes d�plac�es" (displaced persons is the literal trans, not sure if the terminology is the same in english)
-investigation of refugees and personnes d�plac�es in Casamance (a region in southern senegal where there has been neither peace nor outright war for years)
-promoting & creating unity in the voice of africa to say no to the war in iraq
Their structure:
its a member operated org (although there are also paid staff), there is a national headquarters in dakar (the office i'm at) and then there are 10 other offices for each of the 10 regions in dakar; the regional offices do not necessarily all have the same programs. its more a national group than international (although it does international work) in the sense that it does not have offices in other countries to my knowledge; i think this is because it is so young.
***DESCRIPTION OF WHAT I'M DOING THERE************
basically i'm researching how it is they do what they do; how they function as an organization to accomplish their goals. This means i study the governance and decision making, finances, outreach, program execution, how things are supposed to work and how they actually do work, etc. I'm looking to get a global understanding of how the org operates; sort of a chance to impartially know the workings of a human rights organization. ive had a few years of involvment/experience with MPIRG (minnesota public interest research group, www.mpirg.org) and this is my chance to learn from another org., but from an outsiders perspective
**OTHER INTERNSHIP STUFFS******
since i basically plan to dedicate my life to human and environmental rights (currently a lot more interested in human rights; you have to be at a certain point of priviledge before you can really give a shit about the environment in more than an abstract way) i kind of see the research project as a natural contination of what ive been doing into wherever it is i'm headed. the actual work im doing currently (drawing up a document clarifying the governance, regional and national) is kind of boring, but important in the long run and important for me to know before i get into some of the more interesting things like program work and funding and outreach. i say funding and outreach are interesting because i think they are some of the harder things to accomplish in an organization and the more knowledge i can collect about them the better.
in the context of senegal, for example, how do you get people that cant afford the extra money to take a car rapide downtown to go to an event? how do you get information to people who dont check their email frequently; and since calling is so expensive phone banking (collecting peoples numbers who are interested at one time and telling them about a future meeting/event via telephone) is out of the question.
*****SENEGALESE and the WAR ON IRAQ*****
yea.. so yesterday i did just about the coolest thing since i've been here - participated in a two-hour march against the war in iraq. (la geurre en irak). i really suck at estimating numbers but i think there was like 700 people there. considering its a work day and although everyone i talk to is against the war most of them dont have the money to take public transportation and outreach is so hard, i think that was a lot of people. i was carrying a banner that said "non au diktat du bush" (no to the bush dictatorship). on television the night before there was a panel (with my boss at RADDHO as one of the panelists) discussing the war, and i was struck by the comments they were making - the same shit a lot of us have been saying all along; that bush is using 9/11 to manipulate the public; i.e. to create fear and hatred and acceptance of revenge and association of 9/11 with saddam hussein and villainization and that he just wants control over oil reserves and that the american govt is seeking total world domination; and just all this shit that would be considered *so* left wing and even be considered paranoia in america and here it is on national television, the only free station (which means a LOT of people watch it - i swear people watch television more here than in the US), primetime. normal information, not a special report on some obscure cable station at 3am. they also showed a good ten minutes of footage of worldwide pro-peace marches and such. everywhere, masses gathered against the war. imagine that live at five.
whats the info like in the states right now?
