Category: Partner Legacy Support Program

PLSPDec2015-4

Cambodian peacebuilders in action.

PLSPDec2015-3

Cambodian peacebuilders in action.

PLSPDec2015-1

Cambodian youth are the primary target of the new Cambodia Peace Museum.

PLSPDec2015-2

Working in partnership with local organizations is key to EWMI’s successful implementation of programs and ensures sustainable results. EWMI takes pride in its commitment to its local partners, and established the Partner Legacy Support Program in 2013 as a mechanism to continue to fund its partners around the world. EWMI is currently working with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, an organization that has played a key role in advancing peace and reconciliation in Cambodia and beyond, to help fund the establishment of the Cambodia Peace Museum.

After decades of conflict, Cambodia is experiencing a period of peace. However, Cambodians still face challenges linked to their turbulent past including the trauma associated with the memory and legacies of war, educating younger generations of Cambodians about the deeper roots of conflict and rebuilding the social fabric of the country to prevent future violence. Although formal justice processes
have contributed to some measure of reconciliation, a shared understanding of how and why the various conflicts from the 1960s through the 1990s came about is yet to materialize.

In part this is because young Cambodians have little opportunity to learn about the past, through their own families or within the formal schooling and education system. As the dominant narrative of the Khmer Rouge years places heavy emphasis on Khmers killing Khmers, Cambodians feel often ashamed of the atrocities committed, and older Cambodians often hesitate to share their stories with the younger generation. Young Cambodians (nearly 70% of the country’s population is under 30) not only have difficulty understanding what has happened in the past, but also encounter challenges gaining a comprehensive picture of the actual events. It is undeniable that Cambodia has come a long way since the 1960s and the end of conflict, but the success of peacebuilders in the transforming the country remains overshadowed by the residual silence surrounding Cambodia’s past, and the emphasis and attention given to the brutality of the crimes committed during the 1970s.

Although Cambodia has a number of museums dedicated to the nation’s experience with conflict, the focus of these institutions is often to document the atrocities, focusing on the violence of the past and demonizing the Khmer Rouge, rather than explaining how these events occurred, to contextualize them, or providing a picture of the past that serves to strengthen peace in Cambodia; a picture that is inclusive and future-oriented can play a significant role in working towards reconciliation.

Despite Cambodia’s long history of conflict and subsequent challenges in achieving reconciliation, Cambodians as a people have demonstrated great resilience in terms of dealing with and overcoming adversity so intrinsically linked to a post-conflict context, something that is missing from existing museums dedicated to the recent national history.

In order to address these gaps CPCS proposes to establish the Cambodia Peace Museum, an educational and experiential space geared towards supporting a wider national healing process; one which highlights the resilience of Cambodia’s people in transforming conflict and overcoming adversity, as well as the nation’s potential as a learning center for its regional neighbors.

EWMI is accepting donations on behalf of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies to support their initiative. All tax deductible donations for this project will be sent directly to our partner in Cambodia. EWMI does not retain any overhead on these donations. Please be sure to enter “Cambodia Peace Museum” in the dedication line. Alternatively, you may send a check to EWMI made out to East-West Management Institute, Inc. Please include “Cambodia Peace Museum” on the memo line to ensure that 100% of the donation goes toward this initiative. 

For more information about the museum please visit the CPCS website.

PLSPOct2014-6

PFL used the donations to supply water containers, purification tablets, soap, cleaning supplies, and food (rice and beans).

PLSPOct2014-5

PFL distributed mattresses and footwear for both prison inmates and correction officers.

PLSPOct2014-4

Non-contact thermometers will allow correction officers to more easily screen people entering the prison.

PLSPOct2014-3

PFL Director, Reverend Kollie presented the thermometers to Minister of Justice.

PLSPOct2014-2

Thanks to generous support EWMI sent the first shipment of non-contact thermometers to Liberia.

PLSPOct2014-1

Donations have supported raising awareness and distributing preventive materials.

EWMI reached (and exceeded) our goal for our campaign to Support Liberians in the Fight against Ebola!

With the rapid spread of the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia, the country’s most vulnerable population, the prisoners in the Monrovia Central Prison (MCP) and surrounding regional prisons, are in very serious danger of contracting the virus. In early August, EWMI sent $2,000 in Emergency Funds to Prison Fellowship Liberia for the purchase of preventative hygienic materials to ensure the safety and security of the inmates in the most densely populated prisons across Liberia. Additionally, EWMI launched a campaign to raise additional funds. With EWMI’s initial contribution, Prison Fellowship International’s matching donation, a matching contribution from Open Society Foundation, and the generous contributions of EWMI supporters, PFL will receive over $7,000!

Facing an astonishingly muted international response to this horrifying epidemic, we did what we do best – leveraging resources from multiple organizations and across our personal and professional contacts to make a real difference. Our fundraising efforts not only provided basic needs for the prisoners and their families, and provided critical equipment and supplies to prevent the spread of Ebola into the prisons, but also influenced decision-makers at the highest level with trainings at the Ministry of Justice.

The donations have supported raising awareness, and distributing preventive materials: water holders, purification tablets, soap, cleaning supplies, food (rice and beans), mattresses, and footwear for both prison inmates and correction officers. Reverend Kollie, Director of PFL, is most grateful for the assistance and wishes to express this gratitude for all of those who have supported PFL’s efforts to fight the Ebola Outbreak in Montserrado, Bong, Grand Bassa, and Margibi Counties.

PLSPJul2014-3

PLSPJul2014-2

The initiative aims to rescue the voices of people—leaders and ordinary people—that Kosovo’s history had condemned to amnesia.

PLSPJul2014-1a

Oral history offers a unique perspective—a closer reflection of the point of view of the narrators, the powerful and the powerless.

PLSPJul2014-1

The Kosova Women’s Network (Pristina) and The New School for Public Engagement (NY) have collaborated to create the Kosovo Oral History Initiative. [photo: Nicole Farnsworth]

EWMI is working with the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) to support the Kosovo Oral History Initiative, a collective of women of different generations, nationalities and competences, whose mission is to record life stories. Working in partnership with The New School, KWN is collecting the life stories of women, whose part in war and peace times has been most often sidelined, if not forgotten. The initiative goes beyond the narratives of victimization and war stories to recover the whole life experience of diverse individuals and is building an archive of life-history interviews and short films for wider audiences. The interviews, filmed and transcribed in Albanian, English, and Serbian, are collected and presented on a new website, Oral History Kosovo.

CDrillAug2014-1

PFL staff improves sanitation within prisons.

CDrillAug2014-4

PFL staff improves sanitation within prisons.

CDrillAug2014-3

EWMI awarded a grant to PFL to support its work preventing the spread of the Ebola Virus to the prison population in Liberia.

CDrillAug2014-2

PFL works to prevent the spread of the Ebola Virus.

EWMI awarded a Partner Legacy Support Program grant to Prison Fellowship Liberia to support its work preventing the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease to the prison population in Liberia. There is currently no cure to the virus and it has a fatality rate of up to 90%, with outbreaks usually occurring in areas with poor infection control and limited access to resources such as running water. Given the overpopulation and poor condition of Liberia’s prisons, the spread of the virus to the prison population would be devastating. Although the virus is believed to be able to survive for some days in liquid outside an infected organism, the use of chlorine disinfection, soaps and detergents can kill it. PFL is using funding to improve sanitation within the prison system by purchasing and delivering water, chlorine, detergents and hygienic materials such as gloves. PFL is also seeking to acquire equipment like non-contact thermometers that instantly and accurately takes a person’s temperature without the need of any physical contact to screen incoming detainees for possible infection.

Fear of an outbreak within the prison population has also led the Ministry of Justice to initiate action to ‘de-congest’ prisons in the country. As the deadly Ebola virus death toll rises in Liberia, the government is now advising against arresting and imprisoning people for minor offenses, and has processed records of approximately 100 inmates to be released on bail to family members that can ensure that they can come to court whenever they are called.

The Ebola outbreak is not the first time PFL has stepped in to fight disease within the prison system. When an outbreak of Chicken Pox threatened the entire population of the Monrovia Central Prison, PFL helped to separate out the infected prisoners to another cell block and cleaned and sterilized the cells, septic tank, corridors and bathrooms. PF Liberia also purchased antibiotics, and other medicines, along with detergents and laundry soap for the entire population to prevent further outbreaks and educated inmates on good hygiene to further protect their health.

In addition to awarding the grant, EWMI accepted donations on behalf of PFL to support their efforts to prevent the spread of the virus. Prison Fellowship Liberia is a non-governmental organization supporting former prisoners, pre-trial detainees, and their families in Monrovia, Liberia. PFL also works directly with communities to reduce mob justice by training local mediators to resolve disputes. PFL’s work and dedication has given renewed hope to thousands of Liberians by helping them break free of the cycle of crime and building safer communities.

PLSPJuly2014-2

Dararith Kim-Yeat, founder of PIC

PLSPJuly2014-1

PIC provides high quality research that allows Parliamentarians to make informed decisions and analyze new policies.

EWMI provided funding to support the Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia (PIC), an independent organization whose mission is to support capacity development, research and training, and to develop information networks for members of the Cambodian Parliament. EWMI’s funding and technical assistance came at a critical time in PIC’s development, and was used to help develop systems, policies and procedures which enabled PIC to secure long term funding. The PIC has made notable progress over the past few years to balance powers within the Cambodian government. Further progress still needs to be achieved in order for Parliament to perform its duties in conformity with international democratic standards, but certain institutional support is needed. PIC aims to provide this support over the long-term as a permanent institution, rather than as a single project initiative. 

PIC operates independently of any political party, and works with all members of Parliament to research aspects of the law making process which are directly requested from Parliamentarians and their nine technical commissions. Through this research process, PIC ensures the coordination and sharing of the different diverse interests and knowledge of Parliamentary members, developing new networks through local sources of Parliamentary expertise. These networks combined with the high quality research PIC provides has developed the research capacity of Parliament, allowing them to make informed decisions, shape and propose legislation, and analyze new policies. This can further contribute to shifting the Parliamentarians’ responsiveness from their party to their constitutions and shifting the Parliament’s role in government. The goal of the Institute is to build a Parliamentary body that is more pro-active in shaping the country’s policies in order to better balance the powers within the Cambodian democracy.  

In the past, the Institute has completed a number of research studies for the Cambodian Parliament, including: the effects of fiscal decentralization in Cambodia; the role of the Senate in relation to sub-national democratic development; and internal rules of the Senate and experiences in other countries in implementing internal rules. Their current projects include research on Constitutional implementation, migration, health, and alcohol policy. With this high quality research at their disposal, Parliament members can begin to debate and discuss new policies and shape the agenda for the country.

PLSPJan2014-5

PFL provides the children with counseling, mentoring, and recreation opportunities.

PLSPJan2014-4

Without parental or community support, children may turn to crime for survival.

PLSPJan2014-3

When a parent is imprisoned, many families can no longer afford school.

PLSPJan2014-2

PFL helps families cover school fees, purchase uniforms, and obtain supplies.

PLSPJan2014-1

The program provides students with support, resources, and knowledge for a brighter future.

As part of EWMI’s Partner Legacy Support Program, EWMI provided a grant and organized a fundraising campaign for Prison Fellowship Liberia’s Break the Cycle program, which provides the needed funding for prisoners’ children to attend school each year. The program ensures that students do not interrupt their education when their parents’ are incarcerated and that they are given support and opportunities to steer them clear of the cycle of crime. By keeping children in the classroom and off the streets, these students can spend their year learning and avoid entering into crime themselves.

With support from donors, in the fall of 2013 PFL was able to send an additional 60 children to school, who otherwise would not been able to afford the cost of attendance. PFL was able to pay for school fees and provided them with uniforms, shoes, book bags, copy books, and pens so they can primary school and junior high school.

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Very few prisoners in Liberia have access to beds or mattresses.

The East-West Management Institute, through a direct grant to the Liberian NGO Prison Fellowship Liberia (PFL), is seeking to lower the population of those unlawfully detained in Liberia’s overcrowded prisons. Many detainees have been arrested, but never tried, for minor offenses. These individuals are confined for periods that would exceed any time that they could legally be sentenced to if they were tried, but they cannot afford to hire their own lawyers to advocate on their behalf. EWMI, through PFL, is training lawyers and paralegals on this issue, and paying for them to travel to prisons to work with officials to identify those detainees who should be released, and to facilitate reconciliation with their accusers. As a result of this program, EWMI is bringing representation and justice to those who would not otherwise afford it, helping to decrease the country’s prison population, and promoting reconciliation among the citizens of a splintered society.