Another trip, another blog

I had been waking up early every morning for two weeks, waiting for a phone call from jhr (Journalists for Human Rights). Yesterday was no different. Except for the fact that they finally called. Rachel was on the other end of the line and she sounded a little apprehensive. I was worried. She said that they had a couple more questions to ask me. I answered them and we hung up the phone.

Let’s rewind. I first heard about jhr a few years ago when Brandon Currie did a presentation on his position in Zambia. I secretly fell in love with jhr that day and decided that I would work for them some day too.

About a year later I was signing away Mike Brown’s life to jhr in Sierra Leone. I acted as a witness to his contract, which included a statement acknowledging the possibility of death. Still, I was determined to work overseas for jhr.

In January this year, I began working in jhr’s head office as one of their communications interns. It was during the following four months that I started to understand just how incredible this organization is. I gained an intimate knowledge of jhr by working on their success stories and because of that, when the IYIP job descriptions were posted on the website, I knew I had to apply.

I applied for a couple of the internships in early April and had my interview more than a month later. Anxiously awaiting the response that I had built up in my head for about three years, on Thursday morning the phone rang again. Rachel said that after answering their final questions, they had decided to offer me the Rights Media Educational Officer position at the Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ) in Blantyre.

!!!!

As far as I know, there are four parts to my job:
1) I will be working with local journalists and MIJ staff to create a curriculum for a workshop series on human rights and governance reporting
2) We’ll be developing forums that will address the role of the media, human rights issues and governance issues
3) We will develop MIJ campus media outlets
4) And we’ll develop Student Chapters to host events, activities and new member recruitment.
In addition to those four components, I am also required to take part in Canadian engagement, which, luckily enough, includes blogging about my experience.

My contract runs from July 1 to December 22. I’ll be back in time to give Malawian souvenirs for Christmas.