Scott Reed

This Summer, I was an intern in Kano, Nigeria. I worked primarily with the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) which is deeply involved in advocacy, training, and research related to the use of ICT for sustainable development in Northern Nigeria. Unfortunately, due to poor infrastructure and difficulty of acquiring technology in the area, the staff of CITAD has not had much opportunity to increase their skills and were anxious to find new ways to use technology for the organization as well as expand their training program.

Summer 08 saw two great GIIP interns work with the Riecken Foundation in Honduras, continuing our long standing partnership with this organization.

  GIIPer Dayana Stockdale worked in Riecken’s office in Tegucigalpa, Honduras’ capital, to develop a portal with online resources for their network of 61 libraries. Library users, employees, volunteers, and youth can now go online to learn about news and events, projects from the teen program (Zona X), photos, forums, and video tutorials for using computers and the internet. It was a big and challenging project and Dayana really had to get proactive to get it done.

 

GIIP fellow Natasha Collins had a busy summer working with domestic violence programs in Granada, Nicaragua. Over the course of her internship, she completed a video documentary about domestic violence against women. Working directly with the grassroots organization María Elena Cuadra (MEC), Natasha’s work consisted of interviewing experts, including doctors, judges and journalists, as well as running mini-workshops for women to share their testimonies, knowledge and experiences. At the end, she and Ana Flores, the head psychologist for MEC, headed “chats” about domestic violence and presented the completed video.


 

Among Summer 08's most exciting projects was the Technology and Leadership Institute at UCSC. The second of its kind, this collaborative project between GIIP and Fresno’s Center for Multicultural Cooperation (CMC) attacked the serious problems of college preparation among California high school students.  Comprised of the best students in CMC’s summer programs, the Institute took five days to educate the students on admissions criteria, financial aid, and many other aspects of college life. “I learned so much about how to pay for college,” says one student, “It was so helpful. I know now that when I get back home, I better get started with my essays and picking my top college.” In addition to general college admissions information, GIIP and the admissions department talked about how and why to get into UCSC. Complete with Dining hall food, dorm life, a campus tour, and a trip to the beach, it was a complete UCSC experience for the students of CMC. “It was beyond what I expected it to be,” said Kao Shoua. “This place is amazing.”

  
 

In the summer of 2007, three GIIP fellows, Dmitry Kogan, Maira Sutton, and Judy Esber, worked with coordinators and community leaders from Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice in Los Angeles, California. CLUE is an interfaith association that brings people together to fight for worker rights and economic justice. CLUE organizes as well as educates the religious community in order to improve working conditions, raise wages, and give the working poor a voice in the job market and community.