Dear Friends and Family,
I hope this letter finds you smiling. Here I am, taking on 2011 with a renewed energy and passion for my work in Latin America. I am writing to you because I have reached another critical junction in my life, both personally and professionally. I have moved to Colombia and accepted a position with the USA branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. This e-mail is coming to you while I myself am still in the process of digesting a lot of information about what changes in my life are about to take place. Here are some quotes about FOR from people you may have heard of. ;)
“Your goal is, in my opinion, the only reasonable one and to make it prevail is of vital importance.”
Albert Einstein, in a letter to FOR
“I joined FOR because of the people who represented the Fellowship. They were really for nonviolent action and were penetrated deeply with the sense of humanism with which Buddhists are familiar. What makes FOR meaningful to me is the presence of open-minded, deeply humanistic, and creative people.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, author, poet
“The Fellowship of Reconciliation, with its message of peace and active nonviolence, grounded in faith and tested over many years, is uniquely equipped to speak to the present age and the universal longing for peace and justice.” Richard Deats, writer and activist
So, I am about to start a position with the U.S. chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), working on the ground in their Colombia human rights accompaniment program. What does that mean? More than any other job I have ever had, I would like to explain a bit more about the organization, the work and the reality of working for human rights in Colombia. There are so many things on my mind, but foremost are 1.) the building of a network of support for me as I enter this chapter of my life and 2.) how to create solidarity between you- my friends and family (and your friends and family and everyone they know)- all over the world and the communities of peaceful resistance with whom I will be working here in Colombia. Before I get ahead of myself, a bit of background… FOR has been working in peaceful resolution to conflict for nearly 100 years. Here are some highlights. This information and additional information on everything I am about to talk about can be found on IFOR and FOR USA’s websites, which I provide below.
The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR):
In 1914, a conference was held in Switzerland by Christians seeking to prevent the outbreak of war in Europe. Before the conference ended, however, World War I had started and those present had to return to their respective countries. At a railroad station in Germany, two of the participants, Henry Hodgkin, an English Quaker, and Friedrich Sigmund-Schultze, a German Lutheran, pledged to find a way of working for peace even though their countries were at war. Out of this pledge Christians gathered in Cambridge, England in December 1914 to found the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The FOR-USA was founded one year later, in 1915.
Today IFOR has 85 branches, groups, and affiliates in 51 countries on all continents. Although organized on a national and regional basis, IFOR seeks to overcome the division of nation states which are often the source of conflict and violence. Its membership includes adherents of all the major spiritual traditions as well as those who have other spiritual sources for their commitment to nonviolence.
Peace Prize Laureates
IFOR also has six Nobel Peace Prize Laureates among its former and present members. Jane Addams (1931), Emily Green Balch (1946), Chief Albert Luthuli (1960), Dr. Martin Luther King (1964), Mairead Corrigan-Maguire (1976), Adolfo Perez Esquivel (1980) have all been or are actively contributing to dissemination of the teaching of non-violence.
IFOR also has six Nobel Peace Prize Laureates among its former and present members. Jane Addams (1931), Emily Green Balch (1946), Chief Albert Luthuli (1960), Dr. Martin Luther King (1964), Mairead Corrigan-Maguire (1976), Adolfo Perez Esquivel (1980) have all been or are actively contributing to dissemination of the teaching of non-violence.
The power of Nonviolence
IFOR members share a vision of a world where conflicts are resolved through nonviolent means, where systems that foster fear and hatred are dismantled, and where justice is sought as a basis for peace. While coming from diverse religious backgrounds, we have a common belief in the transforming power of nonviolence and reconciliation.
IFOR members share a vision of a world where conflicts are resolved through nonviolent means, where systems that foster fear and hatred are dismantled, and where justice is sought as a basis for peace. While coming from diverse religious backgrounds, we have a common belief in the transforming power of nonviolence and reconciliation.
IFOR members
IFOR members carry out public education efforts, organize training programs, and coordinate campaigns. We provide encouragement and support to people throughout the world who are promoting nonviolence in their home communities and nations. IFOR members work together primarily through their local branches and groups. Representatives from these organizations meet every four years at an IFOR Council, to decide on policies and develop international programs. An elected International Committee meets regularly between Councils
IFOR members carry out public education efforts, organize training programs, and coordinate campaigns. We provide encouragement and support to people throughout the world who are promoting nonviolence in their home communities and nations. IFOR members work together primarily through their local branches and groups. Representatives from these organizations meet every four years at an IFOR Council, to decide on policies and develop international programs. An elected International Committee meets regularly between Councils
FOR USA History: Some Highlights
- 1916-1917: Helps organize the National Civil Liberties Bureau, now the ACLU. Supports World War I conscientious objectors (CO) and contributes to legal recognition of CO rights.
- 1920s: Helps organize the National Conference of Christians and Jews (now the National Conference on Community and Justice). Sends a peace delegation to meet Sandino in Nicaragua.
- 1930s: Works to strengthen the labor movement in its drive to secure better working conditions. Sponsors Ambassadors of Reconciliation to visit world leaders.
- 1940s: Encourages nonviolent resistance to World War II. Leads the struggle against internment of Japanese Americans. European FOR members rescue Jews and other political refugees fleeing Nazism. Sponsors an interracial team on the first “freedom ride” to test court decision outlawing discrimination in interstate travel. Organizes extensive campaign to prevent the Pentagon from extending wartime conscription into universal military training.
- 1950s: Helps organize the American Committee on Africa (now part of Africa Action) to support the movements for African independence. Conducts six-year Food for China program in response to Chinese famines. FOR staff work with Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Montgomery bus boycott, and hold workshops in nonviolence throughout the South. Produces a full-color comic book, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, that sells over 250,000 copies. OJO! This recently surfaced in Egypt, translated and distributed to peaceful protesters there leading up to the resignation.
- 1960s: Launches Shelters for the Shelterless, building real shelters for homeless people, in response to increasing public demand for fallout shelters. Makes contact with Vietnamese Buddhist pacifist movement and sponsors world tour by Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. Forms International Committee of Conscience on Vietnam with 10,000 clergy in 40 countries. Raises money for medical aid for both sides in Vietnam.
- 1970s: Founds Dai Dong, a transnational project linking war, environmental problems, poverty and other social issues, involving thousands of scientists around the world. Seeks to reverse the Cold War and the arms race with campaigns, marches, educational projects and civil disobedience. Opposes death penalty in concerted campaign with ACLU.
- 1980s: Takes the lead in initiating the Nuclear Freeze Campaign in cooperation with other groups. Initiates U.S.-U.S.S.R. reconciliation program, including people-to-people exchanges, artistic and educational resources, teach-ins and conferences. Leads nonviolence training seminars in the Philippines prior to the nonviolent overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship.
- 1990s: Sends delegations of religious leaders and peace activists to Iraq to try to prevent war and later, to see the massive devastation caused by the economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq. Starts the Campaign to Save a Generation, an ongoing project centered on saving Iraqi children from the horrors of the sanctions, and American children from the poverty rampant in the United States. Launches “Stop the Killing, Start the Healing” campaign in response to escalating levels of gun violence in the United States. Initiates Bosnian Student Project, bringing students from the former Yugoslavia out of war zones and into U.S. homes and schools, and later starts the International Reconciliation Work Camp Project. Works to bring an end to the suffering of the Serbs and Kosovars during and after the war in former Yugoslavia. Works to ensure the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Panama.
ACCOMPANIMENT, I know, brings to mind many things for friends and loved ones. Some things I have heard over the past few weeks as I have been considering this opportunity are: “What about Rachel Corrie?”, “Are you prepared to die for this?”, “How can you presume to make a difference in a community with such a long history of suffering from violence on behalf of the state?”, “How can you put so much faith in the Colombian military and government, US military and government, FARC, and paramilitaries not to physically harm you?” These are BIG questions. And legitimate concerns. And I don’t want to feel like I am convincing my friends and loved ones that I will be safe. (Sorry.) I do, however, feel confident in the history of foreign accompaniment in Latin America, in the personal experiences of those of you I know who have done this work (albeit in other countries in the region) ahead of me, and in the integrity of FOR to be concerned for the safety of its’ members. I also believe that the better educated everyone is on what accompaniment is, in the theory, philosophy and action, the calmer we will collectively remain about my soon-to-be real life situation. For those of you who are interested in following my work in Uraba and Bogota over the next while, I am recommending the following resources right off the bat. I know many of you are already familiar, but here we go, step one:
Read this:
Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment for the Protection of Human Rights
By Liam Mahony and Luis Enrique Eguren, Kumarian Press, 1997, 289 pages, $21.95. This is essential reading for understanding international human rights accompaniment.
Click about on these websites:
IFOR: http://www.ifor.org/
FOR USA: http://forusa.org/
Witness for Peace: http://www.witnessforpeace.org/
Peace Brigades International: http://www.peacebrigades.org/
Watch this video about a Peace Brigades International accompanier in Colombia. This individual is based in Bogota, but the work will essentially be the same for me in the community of San Jose and it provides a bit of insight with English subtitles:
Life of a volunteer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Pz5o1Ssck&NR=1
COLOMBIA PROGRAM
So, where will I be and with whom will I be working? I will begin my good time-fun time-human rights accompanier time in San Jose and then will likely move to work with the team in Bogota. There are three internationals on the ground in San Jose. So far I know I will be headed there with Emily, a lovely gal from Milwaukee who has an amazing amount in common with me. We will be sharing a nice blue hut with another guy whom I have yet to meet. That makes three of us in Uraba and then another team of two will be supporting us from Bogota, in addition, one staff member (Liza) is based in Bogota and two Colombia program staff will be supporting us from the US (John in Oakland and Susanna in Austin). Here is some additional information about the peace community where I will begin working and the work of FOR in Bogota and other parts of Colombia:
San Jose de Apartadó is a small town in the northwest of Colombia, near the gulf of Uraba. Farmers settled there in the 1960s and 70s and since then the community has participated in cooperative agricultural and communal living. In March of 1997, the Community responded to the escalating violence and extrajudicial killings of community leaders by declaring themselves a Peace Community, with the support of the region’s Catholic Bishop, and committing to:
· Farm in cooperative work groups
· Denounce the injustice and impunity of war crimes
· Not participate in the war in direct or indirect form, nor carry weapons
· Not manipulate or give information to any of the parties involved in armed conflict
The Peace Community has a special role among the diverse communities throughout Colombia that nonviolently resist political and physical violence. More than others, the community has staked its survival on the conscience of the international community by being visible and seeking expressions of conscience when threats or attacks occur. Since its founding, the community has suffered over 160 deaths.
On February 21, 2005, a community founder and 7 other San Jose peace community members were brutally massacred, according to witnesses from the community, by army soldiers. Since that time, the presence of both military and paramilitary in the area has risen and the need for international support and attention has become increasingly critical.
Slowly, small Colombian human rights and solidarity organizations have been joined by a growing number of national and international peace and justice groups. For the first seven months of 2005, more than $70 million of military aid for Colombia was put on hold, as the State Department was, due to the February massacre, not prepared to certify that Colombia met the law’s human rights conditions. While the aid was eventually released days before Colombia’s president met with President Bush, this delay represented growing concern by the State Department and human rights groups regarding cases reportedly involving direct violations by the Colombian Army. This growing attention coupled with Inter-American Court measures passed in the year 2000 and requiring the Colombian government to take whatever steps necessary to protect the lives and personal integrity of the Peace Community members, contributes to the strength and continued existence of San José de Apartadó.
In January of 2005 the Colombia Peace Presence Team opened an office in Bogotá to support the accompaniment work in San José de Apartadó and also to support other nonviolent peace initiatives through periodic accompaniment, translation, publicity, and more. The CPP currently has two partner organizations: 1.) The Medellin Youth Network is a youth organization that operates explicitly on principles of nonviolence. Started in 1990 by young people who had lost loved ones to the armed conflict, the group trains youth in nonviolence and cooperative play, supports young men who refuse to serve with the police, military or illegal armed groups, and promotes respect for human rights and youth’s ideas in Colombian society. A core group of about 30 young people work out of the group’s office and gathering space, a large house not far from the city center. Another 150 youth organized into neighborhood and issue groups are regularly involved in their activities. 2.) Asociación Campesina de Antioquia (Peasant Farmers Association of Antioquia — ACA) The ACA works with displaced farmers and their families in Antioquia, many of whom have been forced to live in makeshift houses on the outskirts of Medellin where they have no access to basic services and where theres is no decent land for them to work. Many are forced to beg in the street to provide for their families. The ACA also works to put the problem of Antioquia in a national perspective: a team of filmmakers travels across Colombia making documentaries about rural, afro-Colombian and indigenous communities who find themselves caught in the middle of Colombia’s war.
WHY have I chosen to do this work? You all know I like lists, so here is a pretty lil top ten (in no particular order of importance):
1. I believe pacifism should be active. People always say to me that “war is as old as humanity.” Well, here I will say, “So is peaceful resistance to that war.” The pacifists must be active and heard, so that someday people will say, “peace is as old as humanity.” As an individual I am prepared to personally stand up for the injustices of war in Colombia.
2. I believe my random birthplace and subsequent citizenship of the USA provides me the responsibility to use my given rights of questioning my government, freedom of speech, the right to protest etc. to bring injustice in the US and abroad on behalf of the US to light. Especially in the case of Colombia, due to the intricate relationship with the US government, I believe my solidarity with the peaceful communities affected by war is both a political and personal responsibility.
3. Colombians die, are threatened and displaced in this conflict every day. My effectiveness in this role is directly due to my international citizenship, making me qualified to do this work where many others who are willing to do it, or who are directly affected by this war, are not. (Reread point #2).
4. This is a natural progression in my understanding of the world and my place in it. As Kimya Dawson says, “we all become important when we realize our goal should be to figure out our role within the context of the whole.” Or as Bob Dylan asks, “who am I helping, what am I breaking, what am I giving, what am I taking?”
5. I want to be both an inspiration and reference for those who work in human rights after me. I hope to leave the next generation a personal legacy I am proud of, as opposed to leaving them all the responsibility to fix what they have inherited.
6. I believe empathy, compassion, love, justice and peace should be lived in practice and not just in theory, on bumpers stickers, or in household decor.
7. I believe people have choices and I believe society affects the individual. I believe the more people that stand for peace publically, the more the public will stand for peace. (Yes, feel free to read that again and laugh at my logic.)
8. I believe as you grow and change your ability to verbalize your reality grows and changes with you. However, I believe my empathy for those suffering and my commitment to justice and peace come from within. I am driven to do this work from somewhere deep inside me that beats regardless of external circumstance. It is just something I have to do. The more I learn about the world the more this is reinforced, but it comes from something that pre-dates conflict-specific education.
9. Yesterday I took my roommate in Bogota to the ER thanks to a pole falling on her face from her window drapery hanger dealio. I believe personal harm (even death(!)) can come to me just as easily in any city or place anywhere in the world. I do not believe I am putting myself in harm’s way any more than I was when I boarded a plan to Bogota or when I drive across the US in a snow storm a few years back or when I jaywalked in Guatemala (actually that last example is probably not as sound in logic, but you get what I am saying).
10. The love I have received in my life from family, friends, lovers, nature, literature, poetry, music and dance propels me to want to create a world where all people are safe to experience and seek out such loves of their own.
THE NEED FOR HUMOR
In the FOR headquarters, where I participated in training, there is a book by Richard Deats that highlights the importance of keeping a sense of humor when working in human rights issues. While working in Guatemala, my friends and I would often say, “laugh… so you don’t cry.” It’s good advice. During our training, one of the facilitators read us a fake publicity announcement that she and some co-workers had created one day while working for FOR. Here is a loose interpretation of what I remember from hers combined with a similar one written by myself and some co-workers in Guatemala:
Do you get a rush from hiking through waste deep mud in a war zone?
Would you rather shimmy through thorn-bushed brush behind a campesino with a machete than walk a groomed path?
Do you hate sex and look forward to spending a year in isolation without it?
Do stomach parasites and subsequent poo-tests really turn you on?
Does a salaried position give you the eebigeebies causing you to want to volunteer for stipend positions for the rest of your professional career?
Are you looking forward to proving to your friends that Scarlet Fever was not actually left behind in the Middle Ages?
Have you been waiting for the opportunity to live in a dry, sober community living under conditions of extreme stress with no chance of drowning their sorrow?
If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, boy! do we have an opportunity for you! All while making less than the Colombian minimum wage you, too, can join us and make your personal dreams a reality!
All joking aside, this was a LONG letter. I thank those of you who have taken the time to take this first step with me. I hope to hear from each and every one of you soon.
So much love from Bogota,
Gina
