#jobecker

Dalhousie program trains troops to disarm child soldiers without violence

Fifteen Canadian veterans will spend the next few weeks in Halifax learning how to train others to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers, and disarm those who make it to the frontlines.

The program, called Veteran Trainers to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers, or VTECS, is being offered at Dalhousie University through the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, in partnership with Wounded Warriors Canada, a veterans advocacy organization.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dalhousie-university-halifax-romeo-dallaire-child-soldiers-1.3666721

Uganda: Massacre Survivors Back Ongwen Trial 

Survivors of the 2004 Lukodi Massacre have welcomed the imminent trial of former Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) commander Dominic Ongwen slated for December 6, saying it will address the tendency of impunity in the country.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201606070227.html

IVORY BAN QUESTION?

Got a query about the U.S. ivory ban or state ivory bans? Look no further. Q & A follows.

https://www.wcs.org/get-involved/us-ivory-ban-questions

Unchained film

"Unchained" is a documentary about the peaceful and educational activism of Carol Buckley (Founder and CEO at Elephant Aid International) about elephants in captivity and how they are trained, forced to long working hours and living in a clearly improvable conditions.

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UnchainedMe2016/

http://www.unchainedmovie.net/

Using Cell Phones as a Tool for Community Literacy and Development

The training of staff remains a critical component of Tostan’s work. This includes everyone from national-level coordinators to community-level facilitators who implement the Community Empowerment Program (CEP) across six countries.

Recently, eight supervisors in Faranah, Guinea—three with specialties in social mobilization and five pedagogy experts—along with representatives from five partner NGOs were trained in teaching techniques for Cell Phone for Literacy and Development (CPLD) efforts.

http://tostan.org/blog/using-cell-phones-tool-community-literacy-and-development

Book recommendations:

Campaigning for Justice: Human Rights Advocacy in Practice – by Jo Becker

“Written from a practitioner's perspective, this book explores the strategies behind some of the most innovative human rights campaigns of recent years. Drawing on interviews with dozens of experienced human rights advocates, the book delves into local, regional, and international efforts to discover how advocates were able to address seemingly intractable abuses and secure concrete advances in human rights. These accounts provide a window into the way that human rights advocates conduct their work, their real-life struggles and challenges, the rich diversity of tools and strategies they employ, and ultimately, their courage and persistence in advancing human rights.”

https://www.amazon.ca/Campaigning-Justice-Rights-Advocacy-Practice/dp/080477451X

However Long the Night: Molly Melching's Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph - by Aimee Molloy

In However Long the Night, Aimee Molloy tells the unlikely and inspiring story of Molly Melching, an American woman whose experience as an exchange student in Senegal led her to found Tostan and dedicate almost four decades of her life to the girls and women of Africa. This moving biography details Melching's beginnings at the University of Dakar and follows her journey of 40 years in Africa, where she became a social entrepreneur and one of humanity's strongest voices for the rights of girls and women.

By Michelle Lin