Visiting Scholars Discuss Human Rights Advocates Program With Bollinger

Human rights advocates gathered on Thursday for their own version of a fireside chat with President Lee Bollinger.

The participants, all members of this year's Human Rights Advocates Program, met with Bollinger Thursday to discuss the success of the program thus far.

Now in its 16th year, the semester-long program provides scholarships and living expenses for a select number of applicants involved in human rights advocacy in their native countries. Eleven people were chosen this year from all over the globe, including Ecuador, Indonesia, and Ghana.
"The meeting was very much a chance to thank President Bollinger for his support and to give him an idea of how things are going," said program director Margaret Ladner.

Participants' responses have been very positive so far, she said.

The program, which costs a quarter of a million dollars, is funded by a bridge grant allocated by President Bollinger, as well as by grants from the Ford Foundation and the General Service Foundation, among other organizations.

Over the year, participants attend workshops on a variety of topics including fund-raising and maintaining sustainable organizations and meet with international corporations and foundations to try to gain financial support for their home organizations. They are also given the opportunity to study theory in fields of their choosing at Columbia.

J.S. Datuama Cammue, a Liberian journalist, said he is enrolled in three classes, one of which is Professor Jeffrey Sachs' Sustainable Development course. In addition to classes, Cammue said he hopes to make the most of the opportunity to network.

"I am establishing connections with human rights organizations all over the world," he said.

"All the skills I learn here will help me with the work I do back home," said Ida LeBlanc, who is taking classes in the Law School. LeBlanc, the General Secretary of Trinidad and Tobago's National Union of Domestic Employees, said that the program has also given her the chance to meet other human rights advocates from around the world.

Benedicto Q. Sanchez, program coordinator for the Broad Initiatives for Negros Development, Inc. in his native Philippines, agreed.

"This is a great opportunity to share experiences with fellow advocates," he said.

Sanchez's non-governmental organization seeks to help marginal communities gain land ownership and access to social services.

Claudia Patricia Juan Pineda, a Mexican lawyer who organizes independent unions for laborers and also works for gender equality, said she hopes to learn diverse methods of human rights activism and to adopt them into her own work.

"I'm getting a global vision by doing this," she said of the program.