Looking Ahead

Last month, I officially decided to accept an offer to extend my internship another 6 months.....! Let me explain what I am doing here:

 

IJM has been doing individual casework related to sex trafficking and bonded labour in South Asia for over 15 years. Over time, they have been able to identify key weaknesses in the legal/social system that prohibits them/the government from working well on behalf of the poor. In 2012, IJM set up their first advocacy office ever....in South Asia. That October, they kicked off a campaign called the Bandhua 1947 Campaign (Bandhua means "Bonded" in Hindi). The Bandhua 1947 Campaign is a campaign involving IJM and four other partners working in India that have the goal of ending bonded labour in India. This specific campaign is focusing its efforts mainly on improving and better enforcing a law called the Bonded Labour Act. The law defines bonded labour, and details who is responsible for identifying and prosecuting cases, along with outlining the various benefits that can be made available to released bonded labourers.

 

Needless to say, we have our hands full. As an admin intern, I have spent my days at IJM building a website for the office, doing research for government relations, putting together presentations, doing inventory, planning event logistics meetings, running strategy meetings, taking lots of notes, doing Staff Care events, creating knowledge management systems, editing news articles, and much more. Being the first intern allows me to dabble in every department, including admin, government relations, partnerships, and communications, and my supervisors have been incredibly accommodating in allowing me to jump into almost every aspect of the Campaign.

 

In October, my office will begin undergoing some major changes. We will be expanding our office to include casework from all over South Asia and one more big project that trains pre-existing ngos who are doing the same work (They have been incredibly successful thus far. People are successfully coming out of bonded labour by the hundreds, every month). IJM's vision is for this office to become the hub of bonded labour work in South Asia, starting in January 2014. Needless to say, I would love to watch that happen. The Campaign will begin wrapping up around June of 2014 and since I know so much about the project, I have been asked to stay on as the Executive Assistant to IJM South Asian Director of Advocacy. The position will entail some basic admin work, but it will mainly require me to do program design/knowledge management and act as the order-keeper of a buzzing office. The advocacy director needs someone with whom to digest all of his thoughts and he also needs someone to organize his work. Given my interest/understanding of programs and my attention to detail, I think the role will be a good fit. Staying with IJM will give me the opportunity to (hopefully) travel more within South Asia while giving me great experience in development, migration, and law. I need to sort out the logistics of living for another 6 months in India, but the experience, the ways I have been blessed thus far, and the number of people whose lives will be indirectly affected leaves me breathless at the thought of staying in Delhi to see this project through.

 

Last week I found myself in a room, surrounded by the leaders of major ngos working to end bonded labour in South Asia. One man told an awesome story involving their cooperation with the government on rescues while another woman discussed livelihood options and rehabilitation. Yet another ngo went into detail about their success in connecting with 120 villages. Amidst taking notes, I had to sit back for a minute to take in the fact that there are people here making a beautiful history and that so much of this activity will go unnoticed by anyone outside of the villages in rural South Asia. The basic hope in that room was palpable.

 

Some of you have financially supported me this year. Thank you so much for doing that! Your gifts allow me to do awesome things like take notes in meetings with history-makers. Your generosity has contributed to one of the most incredible years of my life thus far and I have been able to see God working in India as a result. That is huge.

 

Please tell me if there is anything specific you would like me to write about in this space as I continue discovering life in my corner of South Asia!

 

Blessings,

 

Alice

 

p.s.- Interested in learning more about supporting this work? Click here.

Sunday Afternoon Shopping

Today while waiting for the tailor to come back from lunch, I found the meat vendors in the local market. The air was heavy with the smell of recent death and the sound of unhappy roosters, awaiting a messy fate. The crowing of the roosters was what originally drew me to that corner of the market:

(These guys are tied to cages that hold hens snuggly beneath them. PETA would have a collective meltdown in a place like this.)

I was tempted to take photos of the market once I entered, but then decided that it wouldn’t be fair to show photos of bloody alleys, layered shelves of fatty flesh, and dried goat heads to a reading public with potentially weak stomachs.

It’s been over eight months of cooking vegetarian food at home. Today confirmed that it may be another eight months of the same.

Once back at the tailor, I handed over a receipt and was handed a beautifully-made, Indian-sewn suit in return. I noticed however, that the string that makes a suit “drawstring” was missing, so I inquired of the tailor where I could buy one. Instead of charging me the infamous “white tax” for a small piece of string, he walked next door, bought a string, and handed it to me, completely free of charge. In a world where almost every interaction I have in public is tainted by the color of my skin, this interaction gives me hope for a near future where the people in my neighborhood recognize me and trust me (and vice versa) despite the fact that our only point of intersection until now is an exchange in a market stall. Moments like the one with my tailor make me feel more and more at home in my neighborhood, renewing my desire to get out of the house, explore, and take in every possible site and sound of my corner in South Asia.

If you pray, you probably believe that prayer has the power to do some pretty big and awesome things in the world. In that spirit, pray for the end of bonded labour in India. I think it can happen in our lifetime. A few weeks ago, my boss joined two released bonded labourers for a special show on India’s CNN-IBN. If you’re interested in learning a bit more about bonded labour, click and watch, here. On a more tangible note, please pray for safety as my roommate and I cross the main road every day in our area. Traffic is always heavy and I have heard of one death there already since the walkway underneath closed two weeks ago.

A more thorough update on IJM and my work is coming soon. Thank you so much for the support you have shown thus far! It is truly sustaining.

Love,

Alice

Ps- Interested in learning more about supporting this work? Click here.