Leitner Summer 2007 Internship Report

Eugene Lingner

Leitner Summer 2007 Internship Report

10-02-2007

The Community Dialogue Space

Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 2007

I spent this summer as an intern for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). More specifically, I worked for the UNDP’s HIV/AIDS Group from June 2007 until August 25, 2007. The primary purpose of my internship was to assist with the organization and development of the “Community Dialogue Space” which was held in Colombo Sri Lanka from August 19, 2007 until August 23, 2007.

What is the Community Dialogue Space? I began my first week at the UN’s New York Headquarters learning exactly that. My supervisor, Andrea Pastorelli, sat down with me and explained in quite some detail the work that he did for the HIV/AIDS Group as a programme specialist and what the Community Dialogue Space was all about. In short, it is a space created at HIV/AIDS conferences in which grassroots “communities” from all over the world are given an opportunity to have their voices heard on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. These communities have a chance to speak one on one with local and national leaders, NGOs and the general public.

The Community Dialogue Space concept has been around for some time, having had great success with UNDP’s Equator Initiative. The model was copied and used by Andrea and the HIV/AIDS Group for the first time at the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto. The success at Toronto was carried into 2007 in an effort to host another dialogue space in Colombo, Sri Lanka in August 2007, the site of the 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP).

The very first task I was given was to draft invitation letters to “Red Ribbon Award” communities from Asia. The Red Ribbon Award was created to recognize and publicize those communities from around the globe that are doing outstanding work in the response to HIV/AIDS. In addition to international recognition, Red Ribbon Award community finalists receive a monetary award. At the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto, the Red Ribbon Award was awarded to 25 finalists. It was to six of these community finalists from Asia that I addressed my invitation letters.

It would be helpful at this point in my report to give an overall sense of what was necessary to make the Community Dialogue Space in Colombo a success. We first needed to invite our six core Asian community groups to Colombo, asking them to participate in the dialogue space. In addition, we needed to continue fund raising, plan and develop the content of the dialogue space schedule, design the space, and then fly to Colombo to work alongside UNDP’s Regional Office staff in Colombo. Once on the ground we had to build the space, meet and collaborate with our community members, and finally, launch the space and see it to its conclusion.

My invitation letters began a summer long correspondence with people from Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, China, India and Sri Lanka. At the early stages of my summer experience, these six communities were to consist of two members each for a total of 12 individuals that we would work with on the ground in Colombo. At the time, the New York team had no idea that these 12 people would grow to a total of approximately 90 people from all over Asia and parts of Africa.

The remainder of my time spent in New York during June and July consisted of drafting concept notes for our dialogue space, helping with design ideas, attending meetings and conference calls with web designers, photographers and our UN staff in Colombo. My most important job throughout the New York period was to make sure that our 12 community members were in fact coming to Colombo, had flight arrangements, had necessary letters of invitation for visa purposes, etc. All in all, the time spent in New York was fairly busy but manageable. The staff and interns that I worked with during this time were all so nice and it made my time there an enjoyable one.

I left New York on August 3rd to continue my internship for three weeks in Colombo, Sri Lanka.. I can’t say that my flight to Colombo was the highlight of my trip, in fact it ties my return trip to New York for the low point of my Colombo experience. I’ll just say that after flying to and from Colombo, I became quite familiar with Mumbai’s transit lounge, having spent a collective 25 hours there.

I spent the first week in Colombo with Andrea and another volunteer, Paola Solda, who as it turns out now works full time for the HIV/AIDS Group. We spent the first week getting acquainted with the Colombo UNDP staff, getting up to speed on the progress of the dialogue space and the upcoming ICAAP conference. It was during this first week that we discovered that our responsibilities would not only include the dialogue space but a women’s regional court which was to take place one day before the opening of ICAAP. The women’s regional court was a court room setting in which women from Asia and the Pacific would “testify” as to their experience regarding the effects of HIV on their property and inheritance rights. These women testifiers would be joined by expert witnesses and prominent judges. The regional court was highly publicized and televised throughout India and Sri Lanka. This new responsibility added approximately 60 or 70 individuals to the list of people for whom the UNDP supported. This meant that we were now responsible for 60-70 more flight arrangements, hotel accommodations, transportation arrangements, conference registrations, etc. At the time I took this new bit of information in stride since we had an office full of staff in Colombo that had already made significant headway on this front. However, that same week I was appointed the role of “logistics”, at the same time that I discovered the current logistics intern was leaving at the end of my first week on the ground.

I spent the remaining time on the ground dealing with hotel room accommodations, room shortages, room changes, airport pickups (or lack thereof), bus transportation, conference registration passes (or lack thereof), last minute changes to any of the aforementioned items, etc.

My fellow volunteers that represented the New York team were so helpful and we all got along so well. We helped each other with our assigned tasks, we woke up early to coordinate, we stayed up late to coordinate, we took the occasional hotel swimming pool break, raced each other in tuk-tuks and had a good laugh every time we were inappropriately patted down by the Sri Lankan police or every time we were pulled over at a military checkpoint after dark.

In retrospect, my job as the “logistics guy” was extremely rewarding and allowed me to meet and become close to so many individuals, staff and ICAAP participants included, that I may not have otherwise had the opportunity to bond with. I won’t deny that the job I was given was at times extremely stressful and time consuming, In addition to which I did not have much of an opportunity to observe or be a part of the substantive portion of the conference or the dialogue space. In fact, the cell phone I had purchased for use in Colombo seemed to be permanently attached to my ear for the three weeks I was on the ground. That being said, the time and effort I put into my work was recognized by Andrea, the New York staff and the Colombo staff, not to mention the participants that we were supporting.

In my final week in Colombo I had some time to sit in the Community Dialogue Space and listen to our Red Ribbon Award community members. In addition to which, towards the latter part of the conference week, my logistics emergencies had subsided and I had some time to rapporteur. It was great to see all of our summer long efforts culminate in these very moving presentations and discussions. What seemed to be such a nebulous concept for me while in New Yorkcame to fruition in the form of this amazing space decorated to look like a hut somewhere in rural Asia. I had the opportunity to listen to in depth discussions between our community members, high ranking government officials, and other recognized leaders from the Global Fund, UNAIDS and UNDP. Until the opening of the Community Dialogue Space, the concept notes that I drafted and the issues that we had previously discussed seemed important but only in the abstract. After meeting our community members and the women testifiers, and sitting in the Community Dialogue Space, I felt like I had a real concrete grasp of, and a real connection to, what the HIV/AIDS Group was working towards and what these community members were so passionate about.

My summer internship with UNDP was a truly rewarding and enriching experience. While it certainly was not the traditional summer experience most law students come to expect, I can’t imagine having a more enjoyable and memorable summer internship.