Meet OMB's State Coordinators

As the first in an on-going series, OMB's Leigh Durham blogs about the coordinators:

With the final preparations for the 1,000,000 bones installation on the National Mall in June 2013 underway, we have kicked our national outreach efforts into high gear! In collaboration with the Students Rebuild Challenge, we began hiring State Coordinators in August from all over the country, each tasked with raising awareness of the project in their local communities and gaining support in efforts to create at least 7,000 bones to become a part of the installation in D.C. We have Coordinators on the ground from Tallahassee to Seattle, and Juneau to Houston!

The group of Coordinators we’ve been lucky enough to get to know over the last couple months come from a wide variety of backgrounds and each brings a unique set of experiences and skills to the table. Through weekly check-ins, we’re updated by each Coordinator on the ways in which they’re broadening the scope of OMB’s presence within their communities, with groups from schools and colleges to yoga studios to art studios making bones and finding a voice in the anti-genocide movement. I’m always surprised to hear the many different ways in which the project evolves and embodies the different goals, missions, and focus of each community partner. As part of an ongoing series of updates chronicling the State Coordinators and their journeys, successes, and experiences, I’d like to introduce just a couple of these amazing new members of the One Million Bones team!

Megan Aikawa, an NYU student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts studying Language and Mind, is one of three New York State Coordinators. Although she only finished training a few weeks ago, she’s already on a roll, with several commitments in the works! Megan has previously worked as a tutor at the Henry Street Settlement, a social services, arts, and health care center in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and was able to schedule an event in November, with at least 800 bones planned! She’s also reached out to her local NYU community, including residence hall associations and student organizations like the Wagner Student Alliance for Africa, who have shown a lot of support for the project.

Aletia Robey, our Kentucky Coordinator, has been getting people on board all over the place! She’s developed a great relationship with the Muhammad Ali Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of Louisville, where she’s a Master’s student. She’s scheduled three events on the calendar there, including the Day of Dignity celebration in November. Aletia also set up a One Million Bones table at the Take Back the Night event in September as community members and survivors in Louisville took a stand against domestic violence and she has encouraged some good-spirited competition between two rival high schools, both of which signed on to organize bone-making in their art classes. The first, Louisville Male Traditional High School, reached 1,557 bones last week, so we can look forward to some impressive numbers in the future!

Keep an eye out for future State Coordinator profiles and the ways in which they are engaging their communities with the One Million Bones project, and raising funds for CARE through the Students Rebuild challenge!

Part of the reason why...

When we write grants, talk to funders, ask for donations, we tell people that the reason we're doing this work is because we want to bring the thing we do best, being creative, to help change the worst situations around the world. 

We want to make a difference in situations like this one in the Sudanese mountains.

Related, in a way...

One of the questions we sometimes get at OMB is why we spend our time working for people so far away from  us.  There are a couple different answers that we can go into at some point, but what I wanted to share today is that while our focus may be on people who live far away, the work we do still impacts our people, in our community.

One of the things we talk about when we do workshops is intolerance and how that leads to bullying.  And bullying is something that many children in our own communities have to deal with.  We're obviously not saying that intolerance = bullying = genocide, but we recognize that they are all points on a long continuum. Whenever we can make a connection between what we experience here and what other people experience where they live, we are strengthening our bond and commitment to each other.

Today I want to share this video, that I saw posted on facebook.  It calls out bullies and offers kind words to those who are bullied.

Rollercoaster

Hello friends,

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  Here at OMB, we had a bit of a rollercoaster weekend.  But really, with the kind of work that we do, that's par for the course.

We don't have predictable jobs. What happens one day, impacts and changes what happens the next, and the one after that, ad infinitum. Sure, we plan. We strategize. We head in a selected direction. But with one conversation, one generous deed or one thoughtless action, we have to shift ourselves 180 degrees to adjust. Sometimes, it's a good shift.  Sometimes, it's because we have no choice, and that's when it's hardest. But, we're getting good at it, and I believe it's that flexibility, that adaptability, that open mindedness, that is going to get us, and the beautiful bones you all are making, onto the National Mall.

Today, it's feeling like we're climbing up the big rollercoaster hill. We just keep ourselves focused on you all, on the importance of the work, and on the Mall, and know that the ride, ultimately, is exhilarating.

Have a great week, all.

putting the empowerment of youth and women at the centre of Somalia’s national development agenda

Improved access to education is key to young women’s empowerment in Somalia. Photo: UNDP

I just completely copied this image and post from the United Nations News Center site (I so hope I don't regret that) but no matter what trouble may come, it's an important and very interesting summation of the new report they have out about Somalia.

Article starts here: 28 September 2012 – Somalia’s well-being rests significantly on its large youth population, according to a United Nations report released today, which stressed the importance of empowering this segment of the country to spur economic, political and social growth in the country.

“As witnessed in the Arab region and elsewhere, young people can serve as potent drivers of political, social and economic transformation,” said Sima Bahous, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Director for the Arab States, at the launch of the report. “We can no longer afford to overlook the potential gains from placing youth at the centre of Somalia’s development.”

Over 70 per cent of Somalia’s population is under the age of 30. The Somalia Human Development Report 2012: Empowering youth for peace and development, reveals that although the majority of Somali youth believe they have a right to be educated and a right to decent work, they feel disempowered by multiple structural barriers built into the family, institutions, local government and society, creating in them a high level of frustration.

“What young Somalis really want is a different future for themselves, one in which they can make a decent living in peace, and weigh in on the decisions that affect their lives,” said UNDP’s Resident Representative in Somalia, Mark Bowden, adding that two-thirds of Somalia’s youth are unemployed – one of the highest rates of joblessness in the world.

“The danger is that when institutions and labour markets fail to respond to the needs of young people, marginalized youth can gravitate towards violence as a means to an end,” he said.

The report, which is based on surveys conducted in more than 3,000 households in south central Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland, stresses that radical shifts in policies and attitudes are needed to empower and place them at the core of the development agenda.

It also recommends putting the empowerment of youth and women at the centre of Somalia’s national development agenda, and calls for a broadening of the current clan-based electoral system to include marginalized groups.

Somalia has been undergoing a peace and national reconciliation process, with a series of landmark steps over recent weeks helping bring an end to the country’s eight-year political transition period. These steps included the adoption of a provisional constitution, the establishment of a new parliament and the selection of a new president.

In a news release, UNDP added it is working with the new Government, civil society and international partners to provide vocational training to youth at risk, equip young Somalis with scholarships and employment opportunities, and train young Somali women and men as police recruits to help create a better future for Somali youth.

“Harnessing the full potential of Somalia’s youth is the key to new dynamism and hope,” said Ms. Bahous. “Opportunities could come through providing quality education and decent jobs – channelling the demographic dividend into economic gains and social transformation.”

The launch of the report, which is the first of its kind in the country in more than a decade, follows the Somalia mini-summit which took place this week during the 67th session of the UN General Assembly.