Down to business

MRG’s Programmes Officer, Neil Clarke, prepares to make an intervention at the African Commission, gets to know MRG’s partner organisations and is inspired by their activism

I was up like a flash this morning to catch what water was available for a warm shower and to ensure I get some cheese in my omelette… as Albert Finney famously said, “Don’t let the Hotel Exaunel grind you down.”

Today we are to make our intervention at the Commission. An intervention is a short statement under a thematic heading, in our case Indigenous Peoples. The intervention can address the Commission and attending governments directly, draws attention to specific issues and requests specific actions. It is one of the various actions you can take at such fora, alongside the opportunity to network, meet states directly and hold side events to raise awareness.

We are here with some of our partners from across Africa, who have each contributed their community’s experience and calls for action to the statement. I will briefly let you know which groups are here with us and their involvement in the statement, so you have an idea why this is such a pressing cause.

Ag Aly is from the Tuareg peoples, an indigenous pastoralist community spread across the desert borders of Mali and Niger. The Tuareg have become extremely marginalized and lack even basic services in their region. This in turn has lead to movements for greater autonomy from the Tuareg, to which the governments have responded with force. In Mali, the Tuareg region has now become militarised, prohibiting the free movement of these peoples and their access to schools and health services. In Niger, the situation is even more pressing. Under the cloak of a State of Emergency, Tuareg are subjected to arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings by the military.

Ibrahim is from the Mboro, an indigenous people of Cameroon. Again they find their community separated by national borders, across Chad and the Central African Republic. Lack of representation in government means their issues are ignored, leaving them vulnerable to abuse. It is becoming common for Mboro children to be kidnapped by armed gangs for ransom. Often the children are murdered regardless of payment and governing states are complicit by their inaction.

Benon, is a Batwa from Rwanda, the original indigenous people of the region. Batwa were caught in the middle of the tragic conflict between the dominant Tutsi and Hutu groups in Rwanda. Already marginalized, they have suffered more than any from the devastation caused by the conflict. Only 7% of Batwa have access to healthcare and 51% remain illiterate (the national figure being 25%), these are just a few of the examples.

But not all examples are negative, it is important to show that there are positive examples of good practice. Tezera from Ethiopia, has been working closely with the government and MRG for Ethiopia’s pastoralist communities. This has lead to Pastoralist representation in Parliament, a government standing committee and the recognition of Pastoralist Day as a National celebration – which all goes a long way to changing public perception of pastoralists.

So you see we are here for a greater purpose and struggle than surviving our accommodation. This is a very valuable exercise and for me a personal privilege to be in the company of these activists, regardless of the lizard in my toilet.

Up and running at last… and a little direct action

MRG’s Programmes Officer, Neil Clarke, finally gets his teeth stuck into the African Commission and muses on the shortcomings of the infrastructure

The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights is up and running at last and has been bustling through the weekend trying to catch up with its schedule, that is, given one or two ‘technical difficulties’. Today’s technical detail being that the Commissioners themselves were forced to move hotel during the session, because the government had not paid the bill…

I have pondered the lack of preparation in my last blog. Is it because the Congo does not have the capacity or because the Commission have been negligent in supporting the Congolese? Neither one it seems. The Commission apparently has little in the way of its own funds and is reliant on the invitation of a government prepared to foot the bill. In the case of the Congo it seems the invitation was extended by an eager official, but not by the President himself. The Congo government is definitely not over-resourced and certainly not prepared to invest the large sums of money and manpower necessary for this event. Thus for example it is not subsidising the costs of hotels, which are possibly the most expensive in the African continent.

The Commissioners themselves have responded by setting a fine example to the many activists present – taking direct action in defence of their right to per diems. When it appeared that they would not be receiving their daily allowance, they threatened to bring the Commission to a premature end. The Government it seems relented in the face of such forceful advocacy. The next technical difficulty appears to be that the Commissioners suitcases have been lost between hotels. We are left wondering if as a further protest the Commissioners will be appearing naked at tomorrow’s session?

My impressions of the Commission so far? Not bad. There is a greater intimacy to proceedings than in say Geneva, largely because of the smaller venue. NGOs are not left clinging to the edges of the room and are able to mingle with government officials. There is also an air of faith in the process from the NGOs, which is refreshing. Perhaps this is because the rotating location means that participation is not dominated by a small number of NGOS. The NGO discourse as a result, seems more diverse and less about preserving status, which often comes across in Geneva. But in terms of content, scope for interaction and capacity to hold States to account, I would say it is little different to other human rights bodies. It’s a useful tool with the capacity to become more useful, but far from an end in itself.

‘Technical difficulties’ permitting, MRG will be making an intervention tomorrow along with our partner organisations and I can explain our purpose for being here, other than to ‘enjoy’ the hotels.

A visit to the craft market… the long way round

Neil Clarke, MRG Programmes Officer, bides his time in Congo Brazzaville waiting for the African Commission to begin

I don’t want to spend a second blog on the subject of hotels in Brazzaville, even though after a week this is still the main topic of conversation here, particularly since the Commission itself has been delayed for the last day and a half due to the technical difficulty of… er… not being ready.

The lack of Commission did at least force some of us outside of the Kurtzian odyssey of our hotel experience during daylight hours and gave us the opportunity to see some of Brazzaville’s sights. Or at least we tried. Having jumped into a Turkish bath of a taxi with the intention of seeing one of the cities acclaimed craft markets, we steamed away happily for an hour before being dropped off at a series of endless rows of shacks on the outskirts of the city. Most of these shacks were piled high with knocked-off Nike trainers dating back decades, like an elephants graveyard of hooky footwear. Again no one seemed impressed in the slightest that they had potential customers, even less impressed when we weren’t prepared to pay $US150 a pop for a Hugo ‘G’oss belt.

After noticing the lack of craft or acclaim in these items, we decided to admit we had given the driver the name of the wrong market and set off in search of what we were calling the ’southern market’. I felt confident I had given the driver clear instructions in my best finger-pointing French. But after two hours of heading further and further south, the driver stopped the taxi and started pointing in front of us with a puzzled look on his face. After a number of attempts at communication we admitted defeat and called a French-speaking friend to intervene. It was established that in fact I had not instructed him to take us to the southern market but simply to head south…

It turned out that the craft market was actually on the same road as our hotel and a mere 5 minutes walk away. What slightly concerned me about this was that my companion, an expert on pastoralist issues and a valued programme partner, had boasted of the ‘livelihood mapping’ he had conducted on the first evening. Along with the market he had also missed the cool, efficient, tasty and affordable restaurant opposite. There is a moral to this story, let he who is without sin cast the first stone at Brazzaville.

Indeed the craft market was certainly worth 4 hours of severe dehydration in the back of a cab. The style, a strange mixture of local imagery and cubism, was certainly unique to me and totally distinct from the broad and generic indigenous art usually on display for tourists. Later we had the chance to visit an art college and were surprised to find that young artists, working in a specific Congolese style, produced much of this mature work.

Brazzaville is certainly an interesting place, if we are lucky there will be more delays so I can figure it out a bit more. But seriously, while this is still something of voyage of discovery for me, I can see the frustrations of the many experienced activists for whom this is a crucial event. The scattered nature of hotels hinders the socialising and networking which brings such meetings to life. Delegates are alone, drained by the temperature and lack of running water and feeling they are wasting time and opportunities. The sad thing is that people are focusing their frustration on Brazzaville, when perhaps Brazzaville has not been provided with the infrastructure it needs to facilitate such an event.

So I have decided not to blame Brazzaville or the hotel staff for any of my minor discomforts and to enjoy the city. Indeed I have decided not to blame hotel staff for leaving used ear buds on my bedside table, for drinking my beer, for leaving a six foot imprint of another human body on my bed sheets, for filling my bath with a foot of dirt and for re-programming my TV to French channels every day. I have decided instead to blame a flying beetle I found circling the ceiling two nights ago. I caught up with him in my wardrobe this morning and he caught up with a firm blow from a wet towel. So now I can attend the opening of the Commission assured that there should be full roll of toilet paper waiting in my bathroom tonight.

African Commission in action

MRG Programmes Officer Neil Clarke reports back from the African Commisson

OK, so my first impression of Congo, Brazzaville, I have found is very much my own. Blue skies, warm clean air, bouyant music, tasty fish suppers whilst watching over the great expanse of the Congo river… but I seem to be rare amongst the visitors here, to be engaged by these distractions.

We are all here for the 42nd session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, and for the last few days NGO activists in particular have been buzzing around Brazzaville’s handful of upmarket hotels, engaged in a series of pre-meetings before the main event kicks off on Wednesday.

During the day the air is full of warmth, friendship and familiarity as the continent’s activists re-convene at this twice-yearly event, where in the past partnerships and friendships have been established and maintained and rekindled through regular attendance. For me, on only my first visit, it has been the opportunity to put faces to many emails and to surprise people with the fact that I am neither female nor 45.

But at night as we retreat to our accommodation in smaller numbers, the mood changes, either the African Commission was not prepared for Brazzaville or vice versa. If you were able to check into your hotel and find the room you reserved weeks in advance still available, you are lucky. If your hotel is actually built you are even luckier. Once inside you experience all night generators with the sound of power drills and a chorus of frogs that is even louder, towels which come back from room service wetter than after your shower, air conditioners without an off switch, an electricity supply with a mind of its own, table clothes which are generating their own life forms and restaurant staff who are so surprised at the presence of the customer that they seemingly have to retreat to a library for several hours after taking your order, so they can study and understand the very concept.

Added to this are the prices to make a Londoner like me blush, otherwise I think participants maybe a little more generous in their appraisal of Brazzaville, for whom this is a rare and big event.

When I suggested to partners the other day that maybe a trip outside Brazzaville would be interesting, their faces lit up until they realised I meant within Congo and not back to the airport. The sense of despair is increased by both the prohibitive cost of alcohol and the fact that many had their passports mysteriously confiscated at the airport making them wonder if they would ever see home again. Hopefully, the start of the commission session on Wednesday will focus everyone’s energy and maybe generate of few much needed watts.

The most popular destination is to head down to the river, where people stare dreamily across the mighty Congo river towards the skyscrapers of neighbouring Kinshasa and imagining its greater comfort and wireless internet connections. Maybe its because I am an African Commission virgin and not sure what to expect, but I’m enjoying myself. It’s all curious and I want to see more of this place and I’m excited about the people I am meeting. I found another equally curious fellow soul – he is a representative of the Fisher Peoples of Africa and is impressed by both the Congo river and its inhabitants. Indeed the stoicism of the river’s fish is indeed a sight, gainfully working their way up against a pretty strong current, surely knowing they only have a few more miles before they become someone’s lunch, but steadfast in their task nonetheless.

Hasta luego Lima

MRG’s Fundraising Coordinator, Cecile Clerc rubs shoulders with Peru’s sporting VIPs and says a fond farewell to Lima

Here we are: my suitcase is packed and we’ve booked the taxi to take us to the airport later today. We actually should not have come back to the craft market for a last walk around… Samia and I have now huge and very heavy suitcases, full of surprises for our friends, family and colleagues. Hopefully, on this side of the world, they will be a bit more relaxed with baggage allowance.

It’s now time for my last impressions. You must have guessed from my previous postings that I’ve had a fascinating time in Lima. I especially liked meeting with our partners and participating in the discussions on the content of the work we will be jointly undertaking. I feel I’ve gained a real grasp of the Afro-descendants project which I hope will reflect in the funding applications I’ll be writing in the future. Having joined MRG not so long ago, it was also my first opportunity to see the work of my organization on the ground. I have to say, I’m very proud of what we all do.

The human dimension to this trip was also very intense: spending a day with Afro-descendant communities in El Carmen and listening to their personal stories of racism, discrimination but also of hope and motivation to overcome challenges, was truly inspirational.

And then, any such trips are full of anecdotes. I never mentioned for instance that we stayed in the same hotel as a very famous Peruvian football team and had a chance to shake the hand of one of the players – the most famous one according to some of our female partners.

The US Junior Judo team was also staying at our hotel. While we were discussing serious issues related to our project, they were preparing for their competition in the room next door. We could hear them screaming and falling on the tatami on a regular basis.

Samia and I became experts in negotiating the fares of our taxi rides – we started at 12 soles for the trip between Miraflores, where most donors have their offices – and the hotel and paid 5 soles today.

We’re not scared of the traffic anymore and are now able to keep our eyes open during a whole taxi journey…

But I’ll stop boring you all to death. From tomorrow I’ll be back at my desk and carrying on with my Fundraising life. And I will upload my photo on Facebook…

Being a Fundraiser (again)

MRG’s Fundraising Coordinator, Cecile Clerc, gets to meet the donors supporting MRG’s work in Latin America

Although I have very much enjoyed being part of the design of a project and meeting with partners, I have not forgotten that in essence I’m a Fundraiser. Since the details of the work to be undertaken in Latin America have been finalized I‘d been thinking which donors I could submit this proposal to and I actually had the chance to meet a couple of them, here in Lima. The donors I met were all institutional donors as most of the US foundations interested in this work are not based in Peru.

My first meeting was with the Spanish Cooperation Agency. Our contact expressed a strong interest in the project and I’ve already put the date of their next call for proposals in my diary! The Spanish have a strong presence in the region and they already support a number of NGOs working here on human rights and good governance – exactly what our project is about. We then met with the British Ambassador in Peru. Once again, the meeting was productive: Although funding from the FCO is limited, the Ambassador showed a real commitment to help MRG and our partners raise the profile of the work we are planning here.

The meeting in itself was also a truly unique experience, especially as the Embassy is located in the highest building in Lima, occupying its 22nd floor. From there, we had an incredible view of the coast and the sea. Yet, however nice and well located the offices of the FCO (and other donors) in Lima, I was expecting them to be in old colonial houses. I don’t really know why. Maybe this comes from my experience of the Embassies in Buenos Aires? On the contrary, all the donors we met have offices in modern buildings and it seems that it’s the representatives of other Latin American countries who have the pleasure (and good taste?) of working in historical and picturesque offices.

Thinking about donors, I can’t help mentioning the Big Lottery Fund, which has supported our meetings here. Indeed, too few donors are willing to support the design stage of a project, when it’s clear from what I have seen and experienced here that this is key if we want to develop projects that really meet the need of our beneficiaries.

And so back soon in London and start writing and submitting more proposals…

Travels in the Peruvian countryside to the ‘cradle’ of the Afro-descendant community

MRG’s Fundraising Coordinator, Cecile Clerc, travels outside Lima to meet Afro-descendant victims of the recent Peruvian earthquake, and hears chilling tales from the slavery era

[Sunday 4th] This morning my body was aching as if I had run a marathon the day before… The six hours spent in a van driving on the Panamerica Sur – the highway heading south of Lima – had apparently been more tiring than I had imagined.

Samia (MRG’s Head of Programmes) and I had been invited by Silvia from Asociacion Chincha Margarita, one of our partners in the project, to go to her community some 300 kms away from Lima. The opportunity was too exciting to be missed – this was our chance to go and meet with the people who will be the ultimate beneficiaries of our work and an opportunity to discover Peru a bit more. We did not regret it a second.

We had hired a van and a driver – there was no way we would be able to manage the Latin way of driving on our own – and Silvia joined us for the day, bringing with her her sweet one-year-old daughter.

We left the hotel by 8.00 am and 3 hours later arrived in the village of El Carmen, in the Province of Chincha. In El Carmen live 3,500 inhabitants, 85% of which are from Afro-descendant origin. The area is known as the cradle of the Afro-descendant community in Peru and people are incredibly proud of it.

More recently, it has also become famous as it was badly affected by the earthquake which hit Peru a couple of months ago. Many people are actually still living in tents providing by international organizations such as the EU as their houses are not fully rebuilt.

We walked around the area, meeting with Silvia’s friends and family who shared with us their experience of the earthquake. There is no doubt that this had a huge emotional and economic impact on the community. Yet there was also a general feeling that everybody was willing to start again.

On the way back to Lima we stopped at the Hacienda de San Jose, a typical house from the 19th century now converted into a famous hotel. Although the house was also badly destroyed by the earthquake – the epicenter was in Pisco, not far from there – it still conveys the splendour of the past times. And its horrors.

Indeed, in the past, the owners of this house had a huge number of slaves from Africa working for them, in the cotton fields around the house. Silvia showed us the room where slaves used to be beaten up and told us about the revolution of slaves which started in 1859 from this place. It was a chilling story but at the same time a story of hope and courage and of a fight for rights and liberty – the kind of fight our project is about.

A few things about Lima

MRG’s Fundraising co-ordinator Cecile Clerc samples Peruvian cuisine, and reflects on the challenging programme agreed with Afro-descendant partners

Last night [Friday night] was the concluding evening of the meeting we had with our partners. Those 3 days have gone by so quickly, it’s unbelievable! They were pretty intense too but so productive! The programme of work for the next 4 years that was agreed is ambitious but necessary if we want to achieve changes on the ground and improve the situation of Afro-descendant communities in Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.

As soon as I’m back in London, I’ll be looking for possible funders for this work and I’m sure that this experience, meeting with the partners, inputting on the design of the work will help me.

We had a dinner with all our partners to say goodbye as some were leaving this morning. Peruvian partners insisted for us to try “Pisco Sour”, the national cocktail. It’s actually very good although it’s dead strong… I’m glad we only had one as I would never have been able to climb the stairs to my room.

They also invited us to try the “Chicha Morada” which is (thank God) a non-alcoholic drink made of brown corn. Not bad at all. Talking about beverage, I’m thinking of what we have been eating so far and… I have to confess that it has not been very diverse. We had rice for lunch and dinner, every single day.

When I asked one of the partners if he did not find the food too boring, he just laughed; rice is actually something Peruvian people eat LOTS. They even grow rice in some parts of the country. I have the feeling that back in London, I’ll be avoiding rice for a while though…

Today we went with Samia [MRG’s Head of International Advocacy] for a walk around Lima. We started by the Craft Markets on Avenue Petit Thouars where you can find lots of typical Peruvian objects such as jumpers/shawls made of alpaca, silver frames, jewels… We then headed towards Miraflores which is one of the commercial areas of Lima and ended up by the sea, in a small restaurant where guess what… we had rice!

I did enjoy very much walking around Lima and getting to know the city a bit more. Tomorrow we will leaving Lima to spend the day with Afro-descendant communities in the Province of Chincha. I’m sure it will be another great experience.

Afro-descendant communities

MRG is trying to build stronger ties with Afro-descendant groups across Latin America with the aim of helping to promote and protect their rights. Fundraising Coordinator Cecile Clerc finds the Gods of Technology are against her, but is moved by stories of shocking racial discrimination.

The first thing I did this morning when I woke up was to check the window to see if what I saw last night was real.

The buses have not grown bigger and the colours are still there, albeit less vivid than in my memories. The thing is, Lima is almost continously wrapped by a white fog, or neblina, which makes the atmosphere a bit melancholic and probably affect your perception of the colours, lights…

Today, we finally met all our partners. There are 7 in total, representing Afro-descendant communities from Ecuador, Brazil and Peru. 4 of them are women, representing women’s organizations. The purpose of the first day of the meeting was for each partner (including us) to present their work and for our partners, specifically, to give an overview of the situation faced by their communities in their individual country.

Although differences do exist (Brazil is clearly ahead in the implementation of the rights of Afro-descendants while in Peru the existence of a group called Afro-descendant is simply not recognized), racial discrimination is rampant across all the countries. To give you just an example: one of our partners in Peru is also a lawyer. Last week, when he went to court with one of his clients, employees there immediately assumed that he was not the lawyer!

And they all had plenty of stories like that.

We also discussed the poverty faced by Afro-descendant communities in all countries. Once again, these communities are facing the worst level of poverty compared to other groups. In Ecuador, for instance, 5 out of 10 Afro-descendants live on less than $2 a day. There is, therefore, lots to be done to challenge these issues.

The motivation of partners and MRG’s own commitment to do this work is really high.

Tomorrow we will be discussing in details our plan of action which I´m sure will lead to other passionate discussions.

A last thing before concluding. I got stuck in the lift yesterday for 20 min… When I was writing that the God of Technology is against me… I’m therefore walking up and down the stairs from now on… And don’t forget that my room is on the 10th floor!

Hola De Lima

Cecile Clerc, MRG’s Fundraising Coordinator blogs from a trip visiting MRG partners and donors in Lima, Peru

I know for someone who can’t even work out how to upload her photo onto Facebook that writing a blog is a bit of a challenge, but I’ve decided that this trip to Peru is really worth sharing. For MRG, it’s the first step towards developing, in partnership with local organizations, a programme of work with Afro-descendant communities across Latin America. For me, it’s the first time I’ll see how the money I raise from the office in London is actually used on the ground, and what difference it can make.

I have therefore promised myself – and MRG Media Team – to share what will be, I’m sure, a fantastic experience. My only worry so far is that the God of Technology seems to be against my plan: access to the internet from your own room at the hotel is reserved for those staying on the 1st and the 2nd floors – I’m on the 10th floor – and the digital camera I have doesn’t seem to want to collaborate (hence the lack of pictures with this first posting). But let’s give it a try.

So far, I have spent more time on the plane getting to Peru than in Lima itself. The trip was pleasant and, as usual, I spent 90% of the time sleeping. Arriving at the airport, we had the pleasure to discover that the director of one of our partner organizations in Lima, the Centro de Desarrollo Etnico (CEDET, the Centre for Ethnic Development) was waiting for us. It was really nice and a tad emotional to meet for the first time with someone I’d liaised with over the last 4 months to organize the details of our meeting. We experienced the rush hour in Lima, which I’d imagined would be a lot worse to be honest. Or maybe I was focusing so much on the local buses that I just did not care about the rush hour. There are no buses in Lima, only mini-vans – 12 seats maximum – and they are packed. I wonder how many of these buses run across the city?

After the buses, I was also highly surprised by the size of the buildings. There are no tall buildings in Lima. Apparently the highest building in the city has 23 floors. Only 23. It’s interesting how this contributes to creating a real sense of a human-sized city. Although it was night when we arrived, I noticed that colours seem to play a real part in the architecture; I’ve seen lots of yellow, orange, blue, green and red buildings. I’m now looking forward to seeing everything in daylight – who knows, the buses might look bigger?

I can’t wait to meet with all our partners and start discussing with them how MRG can support them in their day-to-day fight to end the discrimination faced by Afro-descendant communities across Latin America.

Hasta mañana.