Human
rights weekend was by far one of the greatest experiences of my life. The food
was great and the people were even better. I thought the weekend was going
to be a bunch of forced relationships and lecturing. Not so much. I loved the
atmosphere of the place we stayed and thoroughly enjoyed the workshop
and the various activities we participated in. This weekend gave me
the necessary tools to make a difference in my community. It
gave me insight to what the people around me may be experiencing and
their knowledge about what human rights is and what kind of world they want to
see. It was interesting to hear the diverse responses from the individuals from
different parts of Africa.
 |
| Kiya (2nd from left) with her country group |
The activity in
particular that sparked interest in me was the new planet exercise.
Initially I was not aware of the purpose of the assignment. It was not until we
were all put together and able to hear how the countries who were
afforded resources responded to other countries requesting to come onto their
land. My country (one of the countries who was not given access to
land initially) conversation before we spoke as a group resembled one of a
minority group. We were willing to bargain and beg for our basic
needs and rights even though in a perfect world no one would be
denied them. In the end the groups that were privileged exhibit a
great deal of power over the other countries. At some points they were not
able to see the effects power can have over you. There was this sense of ownership
over the land even though it did not technically belong to any one group. This
activity was so important to me because it taught me about healing and
forgiveness and why these two particular feelings are detrimental to creating
change and moving on. In many situations we as a society cannot move on and
unite because of what has been done to our people in the past. History prevents
us from making a difference because we are worried about history
repeating itself. We discussed what the process of healing looks like and
the great things that can result from doing so.
Another
activity that was very informative was an exercise that initially was
confusing and frustrating to me. It was not until the exercise was
over and we talked about it that I realized the purpose of what we done. We
were given a form in a different language and told to fill it out with no other
instructions. None of our questions were answered and when it was time to
hand in our papers, almost all of us got denied or our papers were handed back
to us. After this happened a couple of times we then had a discussion about
asylum seekers. It was eye opening to see that this very process was similar to
the experience they have when trying
to become a refugee in another country. It put me in a
position that now allows me to better understand what some of the
people around me may have gone through or are still going through. At the end of
our discussion I felt more aware of other human rights issues which is what I
wanted to get out of the weekend.
 |
| Participants from the 2014 Africa Unite Human Rights Training for Social Cohesion |
The
people I now have relationships with were awesome. It was really touching and inpiring to hear horrible stories but see faces with smiles. I
was around individuals who were not complaining and who genuinely appreciated
everything they were given. I started to have a different take on life. The atmosphere was positive and people cared about what you had
to say and what experiences you brought with you. I do feel like
I can go into my communities and apply what I learned. I love the
trainer`s manual we received at the end of the workshop. I plan to
facilitate these workshops with my resident assistant staff and the other RAs
in the different living areas. I hope to encourage others to do the same and
promote human rights everywhere I go.
 |
| Kiya receiving her Human Rights Training Certificate from Ntombi Mcoyi from Africa Unite. |
No comments:
Post a Comment