23 December 2008
Program Introduces Ordinary Americans to Human Rights Work
University of Minnesota offers opportunities for human rights advocacy
Washington — Teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, community leaders and activists are gaining practical experience in promoting human rights, either in the United States or abroad, thanks to a unique 10-week fellowship program offered by the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Center.
According to Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, co-director of the center, fellowship participants are required to take what they learn back to their communities, either through presentations to schools and civic groups or by volunteer work at local organizations. Fellowship participants, she told America.gov, find that their experiences at human rights organizations influence their lives and work.
“I think [former fellows] are using a lot of what they’ve learned in the work that they’re doing, even if it may not be a traditional human rights advocacy job,” Rudelius-Palmer said. “In reality, a lot of people have put into practice what they’ve been learning and are then able to use it in creative ways in their own work.”
Human rights work can cut across many traditional occupations and encourages people “to go beyond their own comfort zones in learning to really think through how human rights can impact the work that they’re doing and their purpose in life,” she said.
Some find the experience a catalyst for changing careers, according to Rudelius-Palmer and center co-director David Weissbrodt, both fellowship alumni.
“Both of us were involved in human rights fellowships when we got started, and so we’ve seen from a firsthand basis that it definitely can make changes and has in our own lives,” Rudelius-Palmer said.
WORK ROOTED IN COMMITMENT AND PASSION
Since its founding in 1989, the Human Rights Center has sponsored more than 380 fellows to work with human rights organizations in more than 70 countries.
Participants focus on a variety of issues: refugees and displaced individuals, women’s rights, prevention of torture, indigenous peoples’ rights, the rights of children and documentation of human rights violations.
Fellows in the 2009 program work with groups including the Community Aid Network-Uganda; the Center for Public Interest Law in Accra, Ghana; the Minneapolis-based Center for Victims of Torture; Green Empowerment/AsoFenix in Managua, Nicaragua; and Human Rights Watch in New York.
The center awards grants ranging from $1,000 to $4,500 to help pay for transportation, lodging and food. Because the grants are insufficient to finance the entire cost of the fellowship, applicants are encouraged to apply to other sources for additional support.
Some fellows, Rudelius-Palmer said, spend their own money to complete their fellowships.
“It’s not a job; it’s really showing their commitment and their passion,” she said. “If people are used to living on higher means, this probably isn’t going to be the fellowship for them.”
People with full-time paying jobs must arrange for time off. “We found that teachers have great potential for these fellowships if they do have summers off because they are able to go out in the field and they can bring back what they’ve learned directly into their classrooms and be energized as well,” Rudelius-Palmer said. Others, she said, “have to sacrifice.”
“Most recently, a trend that I’ve noted is that we have more immigrants applying for these fellowships,” Rudelius-Palmer said. “Some of it is to go back to their home countries that they’ve either been refugees from or are in rather difficult situations. They really want to be trying to give back to their communities — or at least the regions of their origin.”
Even with the financial constraints, the center has more applicants than it can fund, Rudelius-Palmer said. “We’re constantly trying to find creative ways to build an endowment for the fellowship so we can fund even more applicants.”
Lucy Arimond, an attorney, educator and longtime activist with extensive experience in pastoral ministry, recently became director of the Human Rights Center’s fellowship programs.
“The need for this sort of volunteer labor in human rights organizations is so enormous, and the pool of people interested in engaging it is so broad, that the only real issue is finding the grant money,” she told America. gov. “If we had the money and the staffing, we could multiply this program a million times over and not begin to meet the need.”
Funding, Arimond acknowledged, is especially difficult to secure in the current global financial crisis.
In these times, human rights fellowships might seem like a luxury, she said, but she urged a focus on the long-term effect of these efforts.
“These are the kinds of programs that build hope. These are the kinds of programs that build networks of friendship that can keep our world from blowing itself to pieces,” Arimond said.
