Where am I going?
Lira, Uganda. Lira is a town in northern Uganda. It takes a bit over 4 hours by car ride from the capital city Kampala.
Who will I live with?
The first couple nights will be at AYINET, the Uganda chapter of the Africa Youth Initiative Network. AYINET will be the main partner with CTA. The first week will be spent ironing out expectations, staff work, and signing an MOU. They have a place for visitors to stay, so Jessie (the CTA co-founder) and I will crash there for a couple nights. Then I will look into staying with a local contact they have who has hosted students before at her house. Depending on how I feel when I meet her, etc., I will make a decision then if I will continue to stay at AYINET or with this local woman. On occasion I will need to stay in other communities, and those will just have to be context specific.
Why am I going?
The majority of Fletcher students have internships between the two years of school. Many are either excited to return to the field and others such as myself still need more field experience. Some stay in the states, but overall Fletcher students go across the globe.
Is this a Fletcher program?
No, however, in my internship search I spoke with a beloved professor who co-taught “Gender, Culture and Conflict in Humanitarian Complex Emergencies” which I took his spring. I was reaching out, asking her for any ideas or leads for internship opportunities working in post-conflict societies with the issues of ex-combatants. Psychosocial trauma, and transition. All of a sudden it clicked—she said she had a great group, she had mentored one of the women in undergrad on her thesis. The gals, Rachel and Jessie, went on to form Collaborative Transitions Africa (CTA) out of the work they did in undergrad. So, while not a Tufts program, it is a Tufts connection.
What does CTA do?
The beauty of the beast is that CTA works to build upon and enhance community peacebuilding initiatives. The only drawback is that the entire process is community driven, CTA just facilitates, so we can’t say exactly what we will be doing as this is to be determined by the community. This is one of the reasons I wanted to work for CTA or a community-based organization, because I think the most robust and meaningful peacebuilding programs are community-driven projects. The goal is to increase community information integration into the work of local peace agents. The hypothesis (as built from the successful pilot model) is that sustainable peace is better achieved if communities have access to and understanding of critical information about the war and its effects. Rachel and Jessie found in preliminary research that many people living in northern Uganda had little to no access to information that directly impacts their lives.
What will I do?
My position as Interim Program Director covers a broad range of responsibilities. I will be working with an AYINET colleague (still to be determined who) who I will train over the summer and pass the baton off to in August when I leave. Presumably they will become the full time Program Director when I leave. I will work with Jessie and the AYINET colleague to do an “environmental scan” for a number of communities. Essentially this is a information gathering exercise, quick and dirty, just getting the basic who, what, when, where, and how of the community. From there I will summarize preliminary findings and parse out the local leaders we might be able to work with. Once CTA picks 2 communities to work in, I will return and lead a variety of focus groups with locals corroborating that we have selected the right leaders. Then, I will work to enter into a working agreement with these leaders. After that, I work with them to come up with a large community-wide needs & assets mapping event. I will facilitate this and record the conversations that arise from the exercise. We are looking to find out from the community what they feel they still need in order for peace in their community, and in their hearts, and what they feel is already being done well to contribute to peace. Then I summarize those findings, and report it to CTA and the local leaders. From there CTA and I come up with some suggestions for the community—ways in which teaming up with CTA to incorporate multimedia tools into their work would help the leaders meet the outstanding needs of the people. From there on the Program Director will take over and begin this creative process with the leaders.
How will I do this?
I do not speak the local language, so either the AYINET colleague will need to translate or I will have to find a translator. There should be some people that can speak English. As for transportation, it has been recommended that I always get a driver that has been cleared by a CTA contact. Sounds good to me! As for in the town of Lira, the taxi is a bike—boys put a plan of wood over the back tire as a seat and you pay for a ride on the back as they peddle and sweat away. So awkward. I will be doing lots of walking :)
Do I know anybody?
Yes! There is a large Fletcher community in Uganda. My friend Emily is working for the World Food Program in Kampala and she has already told me that she has made lots of plans with the other 2 Fletcher students living in the city. I won’t be close to them, but I will try to connect some weekends. One of the students, Richard, is from Lira. It will be very helpful having a last name to throw around if I were to get in a fix. He is working in Kampala this summer. I have another contact based in Lira, former Fletcher grad, and then a friend who lives a bit further north who returns in July. Yay!
Can I contact you? Can you contact me?
Yes and Yes! I will have access to email and will check it periodically at the internet café in town. I will also be given a phone and have a number. Please email me or my mom if you would like to get that phone number. Also, I can see about Skyping from the café.
When do I come home?
August 29th.
Where do I fly to?
Omaha, I will have 2 days of downtime to get sleep on track again and repack for Boston.
When’s school start?
September 7th.
How am I getting there?
Dad and I are driving out to Beantown together. He will help me unload at the house (same house as last year) and get set up. Then he will catch a flight to Minneapolis and join Mom for Labor Day weekend. It will be a crazy fall for the Nohners, as Mitch will be getting all moved into college in Spokane too!
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