Take Action in Human Rights

Source: http://www.usembassy-dhaka.org/ pcorps/pcorps.htm

Lack of Education

The right to an education is one that many take for granted. Education is the first step in the progress towards a better quality of life and community. However, in many countries, access to basic education is limited if not nonexistent.

How You Can Help: The Peace Corps

The Peace Corps offers a wide variety of ways in which to educate youth and provide community outreach. Volunteers abroad forge strong relationships with students, parents, and affluent members of the community to most effectively implement change in their basic conceptions of education. "Volunteers engage in a wide variety of outreach projects concerning at-risk children or youth, adult literacy, health or HIV/AIDS education, environmental awareness, development of libraries and resource centers, and information technology." Peace Corps volunteers donate 27 months of their life in order to build new foundations for communities in underprivileged areas in developing countries.

Volunteer Requirements

-Must be 18 years or older
-Must be a U.S. citizen
-27 month commitment
-Other requirements vary according to specific volunteer task

Where you begin:

Peace Corps Website

"The Peace Brigades International is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which protects human rights and promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts."

The PBI sends teams of volunteers into areas of repression and conflict. The volunteers accompany human rights defenders, their organizations and others threatened by political violence. Perpetrators of human rights abuses usually do not want the world to witness their actions so the volunteers of the PBI act as unarmed bodyguards for these individuals seeking to right political wrongs in foreign countries. The presence of volunteers backed by a support network helps to deter violence.

How You Can Help

"The volunteers of Peace Brigades International (PBI) come from many different countries, and backgrounds. What these volunteers share is a strong commitment to nonviolence and a belief in the power of ordinary people to create a more peaceful and just world."
There are definite risks involved in these journeys, and those applying for the trips must be aware what these are. However, the Peace Brigades have taken many measures to reduce these risks as much as possible. With your bravery and help, huge strides can be made in human rights development and political equality in foreign countries.

Volunteer Requirements

All volunteers must above the age the age of 24 years. Those traveling to Latin America must be fluent in Spanish.

Where You Begin

Peace Brigades International website

What is foster parenting?

Foster parenting means opening one's home to another child or young adult until their own parents can continue taking care of them or until a permanent placement is found. The cost of the youth's medical, dental and counseling services are paid for by Medicaid, while the foster parents also receive a monthly reimbursement that helps cover the cost of the youth's food, clothing and other basic needs. A case manager is assigned to each child and is responsible for providing support to the foster family. There are also various other supportive services provided by local and state associations available to the foster family (i.e. respite care, training, crisis lines, etc.).

How You Can Help: Open Your Home and Heart

Although infant adoption is preferred by many couples, there is an indeterminate need for families that are willing to foster teen mothers, sibling groups, and children between the ages of 11 and 16. The time commitment depends greatly on the circumstances, namely how long it takes for a permanent placement to be found for the child. This process could take anywhere from one day to several months. Even so, it is vital that these individuals have structured and nurturing environments in which they can live until reunification with their family, placement with relatives, or adoption is arranged

Volunteer Requirements

To be a foster parent, a person needs to be older than 21 and own or rent a house with enough space for the child. A series of checks need to be made, including a criminal background check, a check for family stability, character references, a regular source of income, a home safety inspection, and a family home study/assessment.

Where You Begin

The first step is to attend a foster parent orientation session. There are a number of ways to get information about orientation schedules:

1. Contact your state foster parent association (contact information on the NFPA web site.
2. Contact your local department of children and family services (county pages of the telephone book).

If foster parenting sounds too drastic, there are many other ways for individuals to support foster families. Some examples are:

• Tutoring children for free: You don't need to be an expert!
• Providing transportation: Often times, foster parents don't have enough time to bring their foster children to their activities or appointments. You can help!
• Finding and repairing housing: With on-the-job training, anyone can help make a foster family's home safer.

For more information on any of these, contact your local department of children and family services (county pages of the telephone book).

What is the Union Carbide gas leak?

In 1984, 27 tons of the deadly gas, methyl isocyante (MIC) leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Supposedly, the six or more elaborate safety systems that were suppose to prevent MIC from leaking were either dysfunctional or intentionally turned off. In essence, the Bhopal tragedy was waiting to happen. And so on the fatal night of December 2, when an employee flushed a corroded pipe, water flowed freely into the largest tank of MIC and led to an uncontrolled reaction: an explosion of deadly gas. The estimated mean concentration of MIC in the air that night was 27ppm, 1,400 times greater than the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's workplace standard of 0.02ppm. Tragically, about 500,000 people were exposed to such high concentrations of MIC and other highly toxic chemicals that night.

How You Can Help:

Today, more than 120,000 victims still suffer symptoms from that deadly night. One of the main clinics there, Sambhavna, welcomes volunteers who are willing to contribute their skills in the areas of allopathy, advertising, publishing, medical research, health care, interpreting, website building and others. Sambhavna is unique in that it combines Western and traditional medicine to provide the best treatment for their patients.

After all, the Bhopal gas leak is especially frustrating because Union Carbide now owned by Dow Chemicals still does not accept responsibility for their mistake and refuses to release information regarding the hazardous nature of MIC and other pollutants on the basis of the information being "trade secrets," though they claim to have over 60 years of research, including research conducted on human volunteers. Since there has been limited research conducted by the medical community on symptoms incurred from contamination, doctors and medical providers are using generic medicines to achieve temporary relief in patients but these medicines also complicate the health symptoms the survivors experience. I believe that well-documented research on the symptoms directly due to MIC and those resulting from medication and water contamination after the gas leak is much needed right now.

Volunteer Requirements

Volunteers must respect the atmosphere at Sambhavna (it's a Hindu clinic) and be dedicated to making a contribution to the community. Professional experience in a certain field and a working knowledge of Hindi are beneficial but not necessary. Furthermore, food and accommodation will be provided but all other costs must be covered by the volunteer.

Where You Begin

Visit the Bhopal volunteer website or email Sambhavna clinic.

The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) and the few non-profit organizations like it provide one-of-a-kind care in the United States-care for survivors of politically motivated torture. Not only are there counseling and rehabilitative services for survivors and their families, but CVT also works through research, training, and public policy initiatives to prevent torture around the world. As a volunteer, one could help as an ESL tutor, a public speaker, special events, or driving. There are a number of opportunities for volunteers with nearly any skills or interests. Physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists are also important for evaluating individuals seeking asylum in the United States.

Volunteer Requirements

It is recommended that volunteers are residents of the Minneapolis and St. Paul area. Individuals interested in becoming evaluators for the MN Asylum Network must be licensed.

Where You Begin

For more information on the various volunteer roles available at CVT, visit their website.
To sign up, email bwickum@cvt.org or call (612) 626-1400.

For more information about another torture-care organization:
FIRST Project, Inc (For Immigrants and Refugees Surviving Torture)

Trekforce Expeditions offers challenging expeditions into the thick wilderness of jungles and rainforests to pursue sustainable conservation projects. Trekforce works with a number of local organizations, NGOs, government departments, funding agencies and other scientific and conservation groups to identify projects that desperately need completing. The expeditions themselves travel into some of the world's most remote and difficult terrain. Trekforce members enjoy an extensive safety support network. Trekforce works with the Ambassador and High Commissioner of the expedition country, as well as the support of the British Army and local defense forces, to ensure Trekforce safety. For every activity, an exhaustive risk assessment is carried out, and each participant is fully briefed before undertaking the activity.

Here is an example of Trekforce project: in many countries, there are villages that desperately need a road to connect them to each other and to sources of water. In one country, Trekforce converted wild and mostly unexplored deep jungle into a trail that allowed villagers access to a huge source of water faster than ever previously possible. They built four bridges, put up handrails and cut steps that will all serve to prevent erosion in this delicate area.

During the project, volunteers live in hammocks in a base camp near the project site. All meals are cooked communally, with cooks being appointed on a rotational basis from within the group.

Requirements:

Conservation expeditions range from one to two months long and teams are made up of 15 to 25 volunteers. The minimum age to join a Trekforce expedition is 18 and there is no upper age limit. Although volunteers do not need to be resident in the UK, they must be prepared to attend the briefing and training events in the UK prior to the expedition.

Training:

For each expedition there is a two-day briefing event in the UK approximately three months before the start of the expedition.
Once everyone arrives in the country, there is a one-week jungle training package conducted by our in-country staff together with leaders, medics, British and local army Jungle Warfare Instructors, and local guides.
Jungle Training is a chance to get to know fellow trekkers, while learning the skills needed to live and work in the jungle. Lessons include first aid, health & hygiene, the jungle environment, operational safety in the jungle, shelters, survival, basecamp construction, navigation, and water purification.
The volunteer is responsible for paying or fundraising nearly $2000. The money helps Trekforce supply the volunteer's food, accommodations, internal travel, and comprehensive medical insurance. Airfare must be paid or fundraised for separately by the volunteer.

Where to Begin:

Trekforce's main site
Sign up to attend an info session in the UK

"As pilots, we share a very powerful common bond-a delight in viewing our world from aloft. We have watched the sun rise over the curve of a secluded beach. We have viewed, among vast mountains, valleys hidden from all but a few… Because we are pilots, we have also seen scars on the land and stains on the water, the signatures of poor stewardship of our world."

What are LightHawk Volunteer Pilots?

Today, the corruption in America's businesses and politicians is overwhelming. LightHawk is an environmental aviation organization spread across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, dedicated to ensuring that such corruption doesn't spread to nature. Volunteer pilots ranging from retired professionals to ex-military pilots offer their time and their airplanes to become an integral part of what is fondly known as "The Green Air Force." Michael Stewartt's goal when founding LightHawk was to enable reporters, politicians, scientists, researchers, law enforcement officials, and others to witness abused or endangered lands and waters with their own eyes. For over 25 years with more than 700 flights per year, LightHawk has been discovering environmental improprieties committed by fly-dumpers, secret polluters, and other miscreants.

In one case, LightHawk helped unveil a Chicago politician whose "recycling facility" was receiving public funding. In reality, the "recycling facility" was just a farm the politician owned where he infrequently dumped recyclable materials. Trees and fences around his property prevented investigators on the ground from seeing what was going on, but LightHawk's unique perspective helped Chicago's constituents save their money.

How You Can Help

Become a volunteer pilot!

Environmental missions in both domestically and internationally remote areas can provide extremely challenging conditions for pilots. To service the airplane it may be required to strain fuel through a hat or use runways barely wider than the landing gear. Accommodations may involve sleeping under mosquito netting or showering under a tank that collects rainwater.
Once the pilot has signed up with LightHawk, he or she is referred to an experienced LightHawk pilot for an orientation flight. The orientation flight is intended for the volunteer to learn what is required in flying a plane while carrying photographers, journalists or politicians. A LightHawk pilot must coordinate several difficult tasks in doing so. He must safely and strategically position the airplane to allow clean, unobstructed photos, give background information on the flight subject, and deny passengers' insistence on being flown lower than is safe. A LightHawk pilot must be capable of flying from primitive airports with extremely short or narrow landing strips and that often do not have fuel.
After the orientation flight, a volunteer pilot will be added to LightHawk's on-call list. As with any volunteer endeavor, flight requests may happen several times a year or with extreme infrequence.

Volunteer Requirements

To become a member of LightHawk's volunteer pilot corps, licensed pilots are required to have a minimum of 1000 hours of pilot-in-command time. LightHawk pilots must also maintain currency with all Federal Aviation requirements and regulations; hold and maintain a current medical certificate; and possess adequate insurance coverage for their aircraft and passengers.

Aside from flying experience requirements, it is also recommended that volunteers live within a geographic region in which LightHawk currently operates a program. For a list of the operating regions, see http://www.lighthawk.org/programs.htm. LightHawk pilots must be safety conscious, professional, and committed to improving environmental conditions.

Where to Begin

For more information on becoming a volunteer pilot, sending donations, or requesting a flight:
Call the Wyoming office at (307)332-3242 or see http://www.lighthawk.org/contact.htm.

How You Can Help: Volunteering

Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) in Siem Reap, Cambodia is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing health care to the children in the province and training Cambodian medical professionals. Currently, Cambodia's medical system is very lacking. They only have 30 physicians and 18 dentists to serve every 100,000 citizens. As a result, dental volunteers are greatly needed in the country and especially at AHC because there are currently no local dentists to treat the children. Volunteers are most needed during the months of July, August and September 2005. Dentists and senior dental students will provide care at the clinic, make necessary trips to local villages to treat adults, and teach and mentor junior dentists. The junior dentists are part of the developing Pediatric Dental Residency Program. Non-dental volunteers are also needed to teach oral hygiene skills, like how to floss and brush correctly, to the children there.

Requirements:

To provide direct dental care, you must be a certified dentist or a senior dental student. You must also be willing to work with children under 16 and to teach and mentor junior dentists. There are no specific requirements for non-dental volunteers.

Where to Begin:

Contact Health Advisor Dr. John Ryder for applications and more information. Applications and other info can be found at the United Planet Website.

What is the Missionaries of Charity?

Mother Teresa first founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta where she witnessed much suffering and poverty in the streets of the city. The primary task of the order was to love and care for those people that others neglected and avoided. Today, the Missionaries of Charity have spread all over the world and have houses on every continent. Their mission is still the same-to serve the poorest of the poor-but the types of issues that the people they serve face differ from place to place. In developed countries in North America, Europe and Australia, where the most pressing issue is no longer hunger, the order takes care of the neglected who live in isolation, alcoholics, the homeless, and others whom society have abandoned. They also participate in relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes.

How You Can Help:

The order consists of 8 branches: Active Sisters, Contemplative Sisters, Active Brothers, Contemplative Brothers, Missionary Fathers, Lay Missionaries, Volunteers, and Sick & Suffering Co-Workers.

Active and Contemplative Sisters have to train for many years before they become a full sister. They must serve for 3.5 years before they take their first vows, which are then renewed each year for five years until they take their final vows in their sixth year. After the training is over, the sisters are assigned to a house around the world to serve. The Active Sisters spend their day serving the poorest of the poor in many ways, while the Contemplative Sisters pray for most of the day except for two hours when they also do service in the community. A typical day for a sister begins at 4:30am. They spend the rest of the day in prayer and meditation to God, serving the community through missionary work, and doing chores around the house. By becoming a sister, she agrees to a life of simplicity.

The Missionaries of Charity Brothers and Fathers perform similar services as the sisters. The brothers must also train for several years and participate in service to the community. The Fathers consist of already ordained priests or those training to be priests. They are more contemplative, spending most of the day praying and saying Mass.

Lay Missionaries live their lives in the world as religious people who are single or married with families. They take the same vows over the same length of time as the sisters and also provide "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor" for their entire lives.

Volunteers share a similar spiritual commitment and vision with the rest of the Missionaries of Charity. They live in voluntary poverty by sacrificing luxuries and comforts of the world but do not undergo intensive training or take vows. They live a life of prayer and service to their families and community.

The Sick and Suffering Co-Workers are those who due to sickness and disability are unable to join in active work. Instead, they provide prayer to the active missionaries.

Requirements:

In order to join, you must thoroughly question your values and ambitions. Do you wholeheartedly want to spend the rest of your life serving the sick, the poor, and the unwanted? Are you willing to give up the comforts and amenities of this world? Do you believe that God is calling to you to work with Missionaries of Charity?

Candidates between the ages of 18-35 years old are able to apply to be a sister.

Where to Begin:

Go to http://home.comcast.net/~motherteresasite/addresses.html where a number of addresses for different international houses are listed and write to them. Or call the Mother House in Calcutta, India: (91 033)245-2277 and (91 033)249-1400.

There are two tremendous need groups among illiterate adults in America: the homeless and those who do not speak English. Although tutoring one of these need groups may seem daunting, it requires only patience and enthusiasm. ProLiteracy Worldwide matches interested tutors around the country with people who desperately need their help. What's more, as its name confides, ProLiteracy Worldwide is partnered with grass roots partner programs in 51 countries around the world. Thousands of adult learners are being given a chance by this global network of love and literacy.

Requirements:

Training takes 15-20 hours and tutors typically meet with their students for one and a half to two hours per week. ProLiteracy Worldwide also encourages volunteers to apply for roles outside of tutoring.

Where to Begin:

To find a literacy program near you, see http://www.literacyvolunteers.org/locator/index.asp?uRef=volunteer.

For more information about international literacy programs, email info@proliteracy.org.

Different from most counseling and literacy services, OAR takes volunteers straight into the heart of jails to influence the futures of those who need it most. As a national nonprofit organization, OAR strives to promote and operate alternatives to incarceration. Through programs that provide guidance and training, OAR volunteers hope to give inmates different options upon release. Although literacy tutoring can often be frustrating or fruitless, the 60% of inmates that are illiterate and want to be tutored have nobody else to turn to.

Requirements:

OAR is spread across Virginia, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, so it is advised that volunteers are residents of these locations. Most OAR programs require at least a once-a-month commitment.

Where to Begin:

For more info, see OAR's website, or call (703) 228- 7030 or email Info@OARonline.org.

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Prisoner Visitation and Support

If tutoring is not of interest, Prisoner Visitation and Support also encourages volunteers to visit a prisoner at least once a month to provide moral support and simply listen. A key aspect of PVS is that volunteers do not ever try to impose their own philosophy or religion upon the prisoners. The idea is to form an open, stable, and nonjudgmental relationship between the volunteer and the inmate.

Where to Begin

To become part of this cause, call (215) 241-7117 to locate and contact the federal prison near you.

Whether through birth or a tragic accident, there are a number of conditions in which individuals are living without a limb. Although many amputees have the will and desire to live a normal life, it is often difficult without some help. Through a number of organizations, however, it is quite easy for a volunteer to bring more ease and enthusiasm into an amputee's life.

Requirements:

Patience and care.

War Amps of Canada

War Amps, an organization located in Canada, provides counseling for amputee ex-servicemen who lost a limb in combat. There are also professionals ready to teach a number of invaluable self-help skills necessary for everyday life. Volunteering would include physical care for the war amps and assistance in self-help workshops.

For more information, see the War Amps website.

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CHAMP Child Amputee Program

CHAMP is a program under War Amps that is designed to provide intensive support for children missing one or more limbs. Emotional support includes interactive camps with other child amputees and professional counseling programs. Support also comes in the form of financial assistance for artificial limbs. Volunteer tasks could range anywhere from teaching child amputees how to swim or play an instrument to helping children with artificial fingers learn how to type.

For more information, see the CHAMP website.

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National Limb Loss Information Center

The National Limb Loss Information Center is a great resource for amputees, friends or family of amputees, or health professionals to learn about amputee care, accommodations, or prosthetics.

For more information, call (888) 267-5669 or visit www.amputee-coalition.org.