2010 Parhad Summer Students

Sarada Eastham

Sarada worked near Dehradun, India, with Navdanya, a women's based movement for the preservation and protection of cultural and biological diversity. Navdanya is active in the rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge and culture. It has created awareness on the hazards of genetic modification of foods, defended people's rights to prevent biopiracy and has championed food sovereignty in the face of globalization and climate change. As a part of her Internship, Sarada facilitated workshops on women's roles in environmental protection and the human right to food security. Through this placement Sarada continued making connections between communities around the world who have been affected by a global economy.

Learn of Sarada’s journey through her blog: Sowing Change

Food, Better Programming and Gender: An integration of frameworks in an analysis of Navdanya community initiatives in India 
Final Report in PDF format

Navdanya: People and Places photo essay

Matt Hanson

Matt spent three months in a suburb of Cairo called Ain Shams, which has a large urban migration of African refugees who have arrived in Egypt mainly from Sudan, seeking refuge from ethnic and ideological conflicts. Refugee education in Egypt is a controversial subject today as they are often seen as a threat by bringing their negative social ills with them into the larger Egyptian society. There is sufficient outreach at refugee education institutions known as Refugee Culture Centers today through integrating a diverse range of refugees within the existent informal education in Cairo from all over the entirety of the African continent and even from other Arab countries like Iraq.

Matt worked within an African and mainly Sudanese refugee context. Together with a co-researcher and long-standing friend from Darfur they engaged student and community involvement through enriching the curricula at Refugee Culture Centers where students have the opportunity to participate in community-based research as a way to critically reflect on their refugee status. Cultural background, education history, employment skills and community activism are encouraged within the space of the Refugee Culture Centers where students undertake research projects of their own utilizing any and all resources available to the community-based research project. Through this process, Matt and his colleagues undertook a qualitative evaluation of the Refugee Culture Centers in Cairo to provide future opportunity for education and employment in the alleviation of suffering caused by refugee status in Egypt as a measure of success for the Refugee Culture Centers in Cairo.

Learning to Listen:  Final Report in PDF format

Meghan Lyons

Meghan is completing a one-year placement as national coordinator of local committee development of AIESEC in Pakistan, the world’s largest global youth leadership organization. In her role, she is supporting Pakistani youth in business and organizational development of AIESEC’s global leadership program in Pakistan and the specific education and development projects initiated by youth in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. This includes initiatives such as ‘Parhay Ga Pakistan,’ an educational project that develops English language skills of rural women and girls, and ‘Ambassadors of Pakistan,’ a global youth internship partnership with AIESEC in Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Russia, Kenya and Philippines, which serves to grow developmental internship exchange opportunities abroad for youth in Pakistan. Further, she is responsible for facilitating and creating the training content and theme for two national leadership conferences for upwards of three hundred Pakistani youth. This includes the creation of a ‘Key Issues & Dialogue’ seminar within the conference in collaboration with the Pakistan Sustainability Network, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the Pakistani government on issues such as leadership, cross-cultural understanding, intra-faith dialogue, political leadership and peacebuilding and security.

Follow Meghan’s journey through her blog: FallsAway

Developing Global Leadership Among Youth in Pakistan

Tiffany McCabe

Tiffany completed a practicum in Ugunja (western) Kenya, with the Ugunja Community Resource Centre. Ugunja Community Resource Centre works towards empowering community members through access to useful skills and knowledge, and by encouraging unity amongst community groups. As part of her internship, Tiffany worked with people living with HIV/AIDS, researching how home base care and support should be implemented in Ugunja. Through this internship Tiffany hopes to learn more about project management and to create stronger global connections with sustainable dialogue.

Find Tiffany’s story at Tiffany McCabe.

M-Health Initiative Baseline Assessment - Final Report in PDF format.

Brianna Strumm

Brianna traveled to the South African capital Pretoria, located in the Gauteng Province to complete her advanced Masters’ of Social Work practicum. She worked within the South African National Department of Social Development (DSD), within the Chief Directorate of Children. The DSD recognizes that lifelong learning and professional development of social workers is important, and that social workers are key resources in addressing the needs and challenges of society. Specifically, her role will be undertaking research work in the area of child protection. A National Surveillance Study on child abuse, neglect and exploitation commenced in 2008 and is the umbrella study she will be contributing to. An immediate outcome of this particular study was to develop policies and strategies for child care protection, hence, her responsibilities included participatory stakeholder liaison in provinces, research data management and analysis, report writing, and facilitation of groups, among others.

Follow Brianna’s journey on her blog In Between Bars

Brianna's first update (PDF Document).

Brianna's final update (PDF Document).

The Spaces Between – Power Point presentation (16.5 mb)

South African Child Protection Surveillance Study - Final Report in PDF format

SACPSS References - PDF format