Sunday, February 28, 2010
training
All Right! Training is going great. I am forming a pretty good understanding of the realities of my coming work and feel as though I am on track for being prepared. I have a few days left and am kinda sad about that. I feel the training is very intense but very good. I feel that the people I am here with are quite exceptional individules with a great deal of Moral Strength and dedication. All in all it is being a very fruitful experience and I feel full of life as I move one step closer to the work for which I have been preparing to do for so long. farewell for now all my loved ones.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Article in my local Tribune
In case you are tired of reading about violence, here is a story about non-violence.
That doesn't mean pacifism.
Also, it doesn't mean violence is absent from the story, but quite the contrary. In a story about nonviolence, violence is almost always a part of the story. It's just not the whole story because there also will be people countering violence with a peacemaking force called nonviolence.
The main character of this story is 23-year-old Patrick Robbins, who is really just one of many characters doing this work around the world. But since he's a local fella -
La Crosse-born, a Central High grad - his story makes the larger story more relevant.
OK, so next month, Patrick will be leaving La Crosse for job training in Spain, which will include nonviolent tactics. Then in mid-March, he'll go to Nepal, where he'll work with Peace Brigades International, an organization that uses a tactic called "protective accompaniment" to shield local human rights workers from threats by military, political or other power structures.
Patrick will spend his 15 months in Nepal doing the simple yet courageous work of being with people who are under the threat of physical violence for their effort in rectifying human rights abuses.
Peacebrigades.org describes the tactic like this:
"The accompaniment volunteer is the embodiment of international human rights concern, a compelling and visible reminder to those using violence that their actions will have repercussions nationally and internationally."
Accompaniment works on several levels.
By obviously coming from a foreign country (Patrick is Caucasian with long hair and will not be mistaken for a Nepali), the volunteer's very presence deters violent actions by serving as a sign of international support. At the same time, the volunteer can serve as a witness, or even a physical obstacle, should someone attack or detain the human rights worker. More broadly, the volunteer is connected through Peace Brigades to a network of international organizations and individuals that respond to reports of violence with diplomatic or economic pressure, or with stories in the media.
Since 1981, Peace Brigades hasn't lost a single volunteer.
"They don't advocate for this group or this political party or even this organization," Patrick said of Peace Brigades. "We're just here to make sure you don't kill them."
Patrick majored in conflict resolution at Salisbury University in Maryland, graduating in spring 2008.
In fall 2007, he studied abroad in Nepal, where he researched grass roots peace-building efforts and volunteered for an organization that worked with internally displaced youth, many of whom had been tortured or whose family members had been killed during the recent decade-long civil war there.
While in Nepal, Patrick also met a lawyer from Advocacy Forum, which investigates, files and seeks to prosecute cases of torture, disappearances, killings and other human rights abuses in that country.
It is one of three groups in Nepal that Peace Brigades helps protect.
"This is their lives," Patrick said of the local people he'll be working with. "They're raising their families in this. They don't get to go home like I do after their job is done. ... Part of what makes this so powerful and makes it work is the fact that you're voluntarily going into this situation and sharing the fear with these people."
Indeed, another aspect of the accompaniment model is that it strengthens the international peacemaking movement. The local human rights worker feels she is not alone in her work. After his 15 months of volunteering, Patrick will come home with on-the-ground experience in peacemaking.
"The more I learned in my studies about the field of peace studies and conflict resolution, the more I found out about organizations that do just incredibly inspiring work," Patrick said. "There are so many more than I ever thought."
In La Crosse Tribune on Sunday, January 24th
That doesn't mean pacifism.
Also, it doesn't mean violence is absent from the story, but quite the contrary. In a story about nonviolence, violence is almost always a part of the story. It's just not the whole story because there also will be people countering violence with a peacemaking force called nonviolence.
The main character of this story is 23-year-old Patrick Robbins, who is really just one of many characters doing this work around the world. But since he's a local fella -
La Crosse-born, a Central High grad - his story makes the larger story more relevant.
OK, so next month, Patrick will be leaving La Crosse for job training in Spain, which will include nonviolent tactics. Then in mid-March, he'll go to Nepal, where he'll work with Peace Brigades International, an organization that uses a tactic called "protective accompaniment" to shield local human rights workers from threats by military, political or other power structures.
Patrick will spend his 15 months in Nepal doing the simple yet courageous work of being with people who are under the threat of physical violence for their effort in rectifying human rights abuses.
Peacebrigades.org describes the tactic like this:
"The accompaniment volunteer is the embodiment of international human rights concern, a compelling and visible reminder to those using violence that their actions will have repercussions nationally and internationally."
Accompaniment works on several levels.
By obviously coming from a foreign country (Patrick is Caucasian with long hair and will not be mistaken for a Nepali), the volunteer's very presence deters violent actions by serving as a sign of international support. At the same time, the volunteer can serve as a witness, or even a physical obstacle, should someone attack or detain the human rights worker. More broadly, the volunteer is connected through Peace Brigades to a network of international organizations and individuals that respond to reports of violence with diplomatic or economic pressure, or with stories in the media.
Since 1981, Peace Brigades hasn't lost a single volunteer.
"They don't advocate for this group or this political party or even this organization," Patrick said of Peace Brigades. "We're just here to make sure you don't kill them."
Patrick majored in conflict resolution at Salisbury University in Maryland, graduating in spring 2008.
In fall 2007, he studied abroad in Nepal, where he researched grass roots peace-building efforts and volunteered for an organization that worked with internally displaced youth, many of whom had been tortured or whose family members had been killed during the recent decade-long civil war there.
While in Nepal, Patrick also met a lawyer from Advocacy Forum, which investigates, files and seeks to prosecute cases of torture, disappearances, killings and other human rights abuses in that country.
It is one of three groups in Nepal that Peace Brigades helps protect.
"This is their lives," Patrick said of the local people he'll be working with. "They're raising their families in this. They don't get to go home like I do after their job is done. ... Part of what makes this so powerful and makes it work is the fact that you're voluntarily going into this situation and sharing the fear with these people."
Indeed, another aspect of the accompaniment model is that it strengthens the international peacemaking movement. The local human rights worker feels she is not alone in her work. After his 15 months of volunteering, Patrick will come home with on-the-ground experience in peacemaking.
"The more I learned in my studies about the field of peace studies and conflict resolution, the more I found out about organizations that do just incredibly inspiring work," Patrick said. "There are so many more than I ever thought."
In La Crosse Tribune on Sunday, January 24th
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