This summer, GenHR welcomed some really enthusiastic and self-motivated college students into its newly renamed and restructured Summer Fellowship Program. This program consists of individuals from different parts of the world who have extensive knowledge and experience in human rights and provides them with support, and skills development training to unlock their full potential and create positive change in society. The program teaches Fellows to develop a holistic understanding of human rights and other related concepts such as peace, justice, education and so much more. It will provide the Fellows with opportunities to work on their research skills, build an understanding of human rights from different perspectives, and work with some notable scholars and human rights activists from all across the globe.
Meet Our Fellows
I am extremely thrilled to introduce 4 of GenHR fellows for the Summer 2021 to you all. The Fellows have diverse backgrounds and perspectives which will enrich their collaboration and experience with Generation Human Rights all the more.
Vanshika Arya
I would love to start by introducing myself as one of the Fellows in the GenHR Summer Fellowship 2021 cohort. My name is Vanshika Arya. I am from Delhi, India. Currently, I am pursuing a bachelor's degree in Political Science with a minor in Journalism at the University of Delhi. I am also volunteering as an ambassador and a peace friend at the London Institute of Peace Research. I am also learning Spanish at Instituto Cervantes, Embassy of Spain.I am extremely passionate about languages and different cultures. I have always been a huge fan of Latin music and hence I started learning Spanish. I have also learned some basic level French. I recently completed an online course‒ International Women’s Health and Human Rights taught by Dr. Anne Firth Murray‒ at Stanford University. I feel strongly about human rights, peace, conflict resolution and women’s empowerment. I am experienced in content writing, content creation and research. Besides that, I am extremely passionate about travel and photography. I have a travel blog that goes by the name Her Travel Instincts. Don’t forget to take a look at it! ;)
I am thrilled to introduce the 3 other extremely talented, assiduous and hard-working Fellows in the Summer Fellowship 2021 cohort.
Andrea Ayala
Andrea Ayala is from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. She recently accomplished her bachelor’s degree in Foreign Languages with a minor in Human Rights at the University of Puerto Rico. She will be furthering her studies at Arizona State University, concentrating in Social Justice and Human Rights. She is keen on creating her own nonprofit organization one day or becoming a human rights lawyer to guarantee the enjoyment of human rights at the international level, focusing on access to education.
Alyssa Mills
Another one of our zealous fellows is Alyssa Mills. She is a writer and researcher from Dallas, Texas. She has just completed her associate's degree and will be attending the University of Glasgow in the fall to study International Relations and Social and Public Policy. She has previously competed at the state and national levels in speech and debate, mock trial, and mock legislature, earning numerous awards as well as recognition as a Judicial Officer in Texas Youth and Government, a spot in the top 32 teams for the International Public Policy Forum competition, and placement at the Conference of National Affairs in both 2020 and 2021. Alyssa has a passion for advancing human rights through the analysis and creation of responsible public policy and is pursuing a career to review and shape policy at a leading human rights NGO.
Szymon Jezewski
Szymon is from Poland, but has been living in the UK for the past three years. He is currently completing his final year of a bachelor’s degree in International Relations at King’s College London. Among many of his academic interests, prevalent are human rights, particularly - the interrelation between civil and political rights, erosion of democracy and the rule of law standards in Eastern Europe and the resultant human rights violations, and LGBTQ+ rights. Besides International relations and Human Rights, he is also passionate about literature, film and classical music.
Our Projects
The Summer 2021 Fellows focused on 3 major projects- the Aftermath Peace Project, the Water Curriculum, and the unMASKing: Pandemic Curriculum.
The Aftermath Peace Project aimed to interview some youth from conflict and post-conflict settings about their personal experiences, and how they developed their world views regarding peace after experiencing war or conflict in their country and the impact it created. It aims to develop a common understanding about peace and war from unique perspectives. This project is based on the book, Imagine: Reflections on Peace.
Imagine: Reflections on Peace explores the conditions and consequences of peace in post conflict societies— Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Colombia. Leading photographers and journalists of war returned to those countries where they first reported during conflict. Eyewitnesses, lawyers, negotiators and survivors who lived through war and its aftermath add their voices to the project. All together they examine what lessons can be learned from the peace that was brokered in these nations and how peace has endured over time.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left us all trapped in our masks but it has also exposed or “unmasked” so many human rights violations taking place all across the globe. Our free and open-sourced project, unMASKing: The Pandemic Curriculum, is a way to bring thousands of people, who are experiencing and witnessing these issues together to assess the domestic as well as global impacts and deal with these issues together. The pandemic curriculum is more than just an academic lesson; it aims to inspect the impact and share personal experiences.
When I first heard of Generation Human Rights (GenHR), I couldn’t help but admire the organization’s mission. Teaching students about human rights so they could imagine a world without human rights abuses? And not just carrying it out on a local level, but a global one? That wasn’t just inspiring, it was smart. We live in a world where human rights abuses happen on a daily basis. If we want to create a world without these issues, we have to first teach our children that it’s possible for that world to exist. After all, it’s children who are our future doctors, scientists, and politicians. They’re going to be our future leaders, so having an education in human rights will teach them what future to fight for and how to fight for it.
But with our newest project, Generation Human Rights is taking our mission a step further. In the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to intern for GenHR and work on the Youth Changemaker Project, a program that was created during the summer of 2020. During that time – when the pandemic had put a halt to most day-to-day activities and left the majority of people in a state of isolation – three GenHR student interns developed the Youth Changemaker Project as a way to build a community of youth activists.
“In this time of separation and disconnection, we envisioned [the Youth Changemaker Project] as a way to build community amongst young people and empower our generation to fight for social justice and equality,” Uma Menon, one of the three founding interns, said. I had the opportunity to read through a three-way conversation between the project’s founders, Uma, Olivia Yang, and Nasif Azher, and reading their answers only made me more excited. I want to share some of their words as Nasif, Olivia, and Uma’s thoughts and inspirations behind the project explain its mission in ways that are both succinct and inspiring.
Being a child or teenager means that even when you’re doing life-saving work or activism, you’re not afforded respect from many of the adults around you. As Nasif pointed out in the interview, “many teens are often not taken seriously by the previous generations or those in control, or often have their work undermined due to a combination of factors.” The other two interns agreed, and I do as well – all of us are youth activists ourselves and we’ve all faced situations where people see our age instead of our accomplishments. It makes it harder to advocate for the issues we care about when we have to struggle just to get a seat at the table.
Youth activists also face a startling lack of opportunities despite their qualifications. Uma noted that “youth, especially minority youth, are often taken less seriously and afforded fewer opportunities than other groups in our society.” This phenomenon is discouraging, to say the least, as lack of opportunities and/or support can dissuade people from trying to make a difference, especially if they are repeatedly led to believe their attempts will go unaddressed and unnoticed.
That’s where GenHR’s new Youth Changemaker Project comes in. With the Youth Changemaker Project, the interns wanted to offer a space that highlighted the work of young activists from around the globe to amplify the voices of young people and to inspire youth activists to continue their work. “Like Nasif and Uma, I’m a part of Gen Z and have been constantly inspired by the amazing work young people are doing to enact change proactively within their communities and on a larger scale,” Olivia noted. It’s encouraging and awe-inspiring to hear about people our age or even younger helping their communities in such profound ways. Through the Youth Changemaker Project, we’re trying to find and share these stories to create a community of youth activists.
As someone who gained a similar community by attending the ACLU’s National Advocacy Institute, a mentorship program for high-school activists, I can attest to just how valuable it is to connect with other people our age advocating for equality. Not only do they understand the barriers youth activists face, but they’re always ready to offer valuable insight and suggestions to overcome them. Together, we’ve worked on issues ranging from advocating for more accurate history curriculums to raising awareness for causes such as gun violence and the double standards of our justice system, and we’ve all benefited from listening and learning from one another as we worked to tackle these problems.
To properly highlight the work of youth activists, our team – which now includes our newest intern Maya Palanki – will interview youth activists and post their full interviews on the GenHR website’s Youth Changemaker Project page and excerpts of the interviews along with profiles on the activists for our new Instagram account @theyouthchangemakerproject. We already have a couple interviews up and are getting ready to post a couple more!
If you’re a youth activist and you’d like to be featured as part of the Youth Changemaker Project (or you know someone who you think should be featured), email us at genhryouthchangemaker@gmail.com following the guidelines on this page and we’ll get in touch with you as soon as possible. We’re looking forward to expanding our program and creating a community of youth changemakers!
February 16th, 2021
With the holidays come many expectations related to tradition, which for the most part were not met this year due to the coronavirus crisis and soaring cases in many countries. This brought about increased restrictions regarding social distancing which is very unusual for this usually very social time of the year. For example, France and England have had to tighten their restrictions between Christmas and New Year's Eve; England added a fourth tier to its initial three-tier system, which essentially meant complete lockdown, and France changed its curfew from 8pm to 6pm nationally. I feel like this has made the holidays a particularly hard time for a lot of people regarding mental health, maybe making them realize that they hadn’t been coping with loneliness and other emotions related to isolation as well as they thought. More generally, winter has also brought about colder, shorter days, which definitely don’t help on the mental health front. Furthermore, many people have not been able to reunite with their families and loved ones for the holidays due to travel bans and social distancing. I was not able to see my dad much or my grandparents at all, but I am eternally grateful to have spent the holidays with the rest of my family, especially knowing that it was a privilege this year.
The start of the second semester is not making this situation any easier for students. Going back to university is a big decision to make for those studying abroad and many restrictions come with this decision such as a mandatory quarantine upon arrival and not being able to go back home for the duration of the semester. This means not seeing your family for a couple of months as you can’t go back and forth between the two countries and also that not all students will decide to come back to school. Concerning England, where I am attending university, the country has now begun its third national lockdown so, naturally, all classes are online, which is another element that dissuades students from returning. Personally, I have decided to come back to my apartment in England because I have a lot of studying to do and I am a lot more productive and less distracted here. It's also nice to have a place to myself for taking my online classes. Since I live alone, I can ‘bubble’ with another household, which basically means I can see another household as if we lived together, which will definitely make lockdown a lot easier on my mental health. For all these reasons, now is an especially important time to continue the conversation about the burdening emotions social distancing and isolation give rise to. Hopefully, the advice gathered below from university students will help you!
After my last blog post about student mental health during the pandemic, I created a survey in order to gather student experience and advice for dealing with mental health while simultaneously at university and in isolation. The answers collected are from undergraduate university students studying in the United Kingdom and France, but their advice and experiences are relevant to students around the world! These students answered the survey around the end of the first semester, during which they had either hybrid classes or only online classes. A reoccurring comment was that online classes were more difficult to stay on top of and meant staying at home more, which negatively impacted their productivity and increased their feelings of anxiety, stress and frustration around the whole situation and its uncertainty. At the time of the survey, the students, both in France and the UK, were in lockdown, which made many miss their pre-coronavirus university routines, including meeting with friends as they pleased and attending in-person classes.
Thankfully, these students also had many useful tips for coping with or overcoming these challenges, as well as advice and positive thoughts for students struggling with mental health. Many have mentioned talking about these feelings, either with friends, family, professors, or seeking professional help from a therapist if you prefer talking to someone outside your circle. Remember that we are all going through this situation together, and it is most likely that your friends will understand how you feel and might be feeling the same! However, if you don’t feel like talking about it, why not pick up journaling in order to get your thoughts out of your head. Another important tip mentioned is to take advantage of any little thing that is still possible despite the restrictions. For example, in the UK, we can still meet with one person outside our household outdoors, which is an occasion to catch up with a friend while getting a breath of fresh air. If your university’s study spaces are open, take advantage of that and create a routine for yourself! Making to-do lists may help you too, so instead of thinking “I’ve got nowhere to go” in the morning, you’ll have some tasks to accomplish. Calling friends and family is also a nice distraction and a way to keep close contact with people who don’t live with you. These tips might seem obvious but as we like to say in French, “the simplest things are often the best,” and the students who answered our survey are proof that these pieces of advice work toward alleviating the negative effects of isolation on student mental health!
November 17th, 2020
Living through a pandemic is tough. Being a university student through a pandemic is tough. Being a university student in a foreign country through a pandemic is tough. “Make the most out of your university experience,” they said. “Go out. Work hard. Make mistakes. This is how you will make the best memories. These will be the best years of your life.” These last few words have been wandering through my mind for the past couple of weeks, and increasingly so as England announced a second lockdown a few days ago. Rumours began on Friday the 30th of October, were announced by the Prime Minister on Saturday the 31st, and implemented on Thursday the 5th of November for a period of four weeks. All of this happened very quickly. The relief we felt over the summer and coming back to university quickly made way for anxiety due to the uncertain and unknown nature of the evolution of the pandemic, and the repeating periods of lockdown will end up cancelling out this relief we so deeply long for as the threat of yet another lockdown is held over our heads. For example, as the English and French governments announced the new restrictions, they pretty much asserted these measures would be eased around Christmas time, only to be reinstated in the new year. As students, we can’t really predict what this means for us, whether our face-to-face classes will move online or not, whether university campuses will remain open…
I asked my friends what came to their minds first when I asked them the following question: “What is it like being a student during the pandemic (in a foreign country)?”
Some feel like their twenties are being stolen from them. Some see this time as a unique moment to re-center and take time for themselves. Some think about loved ones and wonder when the next time they will see them will be. Others worry about how the lockdown will affect their mental health. Some feel that the pressure is a lot heavier on 20 year olds. I feel like most adults disregard the impact the health crisis has on teens and young adults; as most of us are in school or university, they assume we have some sort of stability and something to keep ourselves busy. But we are the ones who will graduate in a world about as uncertain as it gets, and enter the job market that has been turned upside-down by the crisis the pandemic entails. All of this gives rise to a lot of stress and anxiety, and teen mental health has definitely taken a toll in the recent months.
I carried out some research among students who, for the most part, are aged around 20 years old and study in the UK or France. The survey revealed that the pandemic definitely has a negative impact on student mental health, according to over 80% of answers received (cf. graph 1). A majority of students have also reported that the second lockdown is tougher on their mental health than the first one (44.2%; cf. graph 2). Furthermore, the most common feelings they have been experiencing are sadness (66.3%), loneliness (66.3%), stress (59.6%) and anxiety (56.2%). Additionally, a study conducted by Santé Publique France, France’s national agency for public health, found that the number of people suffering from depressive disorders in the country doubled over the month of October (Santé Publique France 2020). This particularly concerns teenagers and young adults as about one out of three has reported suffering from depression.
The first lockdown back in March brought about a sort of thrill, a thrill of novelty, which compensated for the restlessness we were experiencing. However, since the UK has announced its second lockdown, I can definitely tell that this time around will be more challenging mental health-wise than the first time. Of course, when we look at the bigger picture, we definitely are not the worst off in this situation, but it is difficult to put things into perspective when it is impacting us so much.
My family is in France, quarantined too as the country entered its second lockdown a few days prior to England. They wanted to come visit me in a few weeks but can’t now, for obvious reasons. I usually go home halfway through the term but this term I can’t really do that, and probably won’t be able to do so next term either, as travellers entering the United Kingdom from France need to quarantine for fourteen days upon arrival and both England and France are in lockdown. I think this will make me appreciate the time I spend at home over the holidays even more, as I know that after that I probably won’t be able to see my family for a few months.
Nevertheless, I must admit that lockdown does have some not-so-bad sides (but I could never actually come around to saying I like this situation): I have learned to appreciate the little things more, such as walks. I’m lucky to have a few nice parks and open spaces around where I live, so I really enjoy walking around before sunset after a long day of studying. The weather in the UK has been surprisingly nice compared to other years which has really helped improve the situation. A friend and I have taken advantage of that and started a little ritual: a few times a week we get takeaway coffee and sit in the park, enjoying the sunshine and spending quality time together. I have learned to truly appreciate the people around me and the time we spend together. I have also picked up new hobbies, such as cooking and reading, which I never really took the time to enjoy before. Now that I spend most of my time at home, I really take the time to cook nice meals which helps take my mind off anything making me anxious and focus on something different than the news or my university deadlines. My remote internship at Generation Human Rights has also helped keep me busy while doing something I thoroughly enjoy. I look forward to our weekly Zoom calls as I get to see different faces, talk about things unrelated to my classes, and appreciate all the great progress we have been making in our work, which has given me a lot of motivation in all domains, not just ones related to my internship.
The people at GenHR always have a positive mindset which makes our meetings a breath of fresh air which I am so thankful for! Lockdown has also taught me to be grateful for what I have, such as a family and friends that look out for me and a nice comfortable flat. I am also glad I don’t live too far away from my family which reduces the feeling of alienation I could have had if I lived further away.
When the news of the second lockdown came out, I actually made an inquiry with my university’s counselling services as I felt overwhelmed by the wave of anxiety the news brought. This is something that isn’t talked about enough and is too taboo, I feel, although it shouldn’t be. I usually have trouble talking about my stress and anxiety as it means I acknowledge it, but bottling up feelings is never the solution, even if it can be difficult to come to terms with this reality. Although we try our best to brush off these feelings of uneasiness, now that we know how hard isolation can be on our mental health we should really use this time as an opportunity to get in touch with our emotions in order to better deal with them and create a discussion around them, as it is no secret that many of us have been going through similar situations. If you are a high school or university student facing mental health challenges since the pandemic began, this is the time and place to get the conversation going on these overlooked obstacles. Follow the link below to tell us about how your school or university is handling the situation, what the situation is like in your area or country, talk about how you have been dealing with your conflicting emotions since the beginning of the pandemic, and share some tips and positive thoughts that have helped you overcome these emotions. The answers you will provide in the form are anonymous to make you more comfortable with opening up about how you have been feeling in the recent months. Take part in the conversation and contribute to normalising mental health issues, especially during challenging times like these!
How have you been dealing with conflicting emotions since the pandemic began?’
Share this article with your family, friends, and on your social media platforms to reach other students and get them involved in the discussion too!
Reference: Santé Publique France. 2020. “Point épidémiologique Covid-19 du 12 novembre : léger ralentissement de la circulation virale, les indicateurs toujours à de très hauts niveaux.” Santé Publique France. Last modified November 13, 2020. Assessed November 15, 2020. https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/presse/2020/point-epidemiologique-covid-19-du-12-novembre-leger-ralentissement-de-la-circulation-virale-les-indicateurs-toujours-a-de-tres-hauts-niveaux
My name is Emma, I am currently interning with GenHR as a remote fall intern and will be updating you all on our work through this blog.
I am French, from Paris, and study in the United Kingdom at the University of Warwick: I am a final year Politics and International Studies undergraduate student. Being at university during the pandemic will be a lot different than other years: all of our lectures are being held online as well as some of our smaller classes, no conferences, parties or other events…
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has recently announced new restrictive measures to curb the spread of the virus: bars and restaurants will close at 10pm, social gatherings of more than six people are prohibited, and a few regions of the country have gone into local lockdown. Hopefully these measures will relieve the country, its healthcare system and economy.
Regarding my work at GenHR, so far I have been researching organisations we could collaborate with on existing or future projects, working on social media marketing strategy, writing posts for our various social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook and Twitter - respectively @generationhumanrights; Generation Human Rights; @GenHumanRights - you should follow us!), and working on this blog! This blog will be used to keep you all informed on our projects, introduce you to our team… We aim to post once or twice a month!
Begüm Şimşir, from Turkey, is also a fall intern at GenHR.
She is a final year undergraduate law student at the Turkish German University in Istanbul. During our last Zoom meeting, she shared that, in her opinion, Turkey is sort of denying the pandemic – the real numbers of coronavirus cases are not shared as there is not enough testing, people aren’t inclined to wear a mask although there are fines in place for those who do not respect this rule…
All of her university classes are online, so she is currently staying at her family home in Balıkesir, a town in the west of Turkey. Due to the impossibility of holding face-to-face classes before the end of the term, her midterms have been pushed back so she will have to take them at the same time as her finals! The pandemic, and the uncertainty it brings, has definitely messed things up for everyone.
At GenHR, Begüm is working on our QuaranTEENing project, which consists of creating a story map with submissions we receive from teens around the world reflecting on their quarantine experiences and the changes the pandemic has brought to their daily lives. She writes the academic texts for the Story Map, researching news and articles to bring more details to the stories submitted by the teens. For example, if someone talks about how they have adapted to online education in country X, Begüm will research how country X has been handling education in order to write a text providing background information to the story submitted.
GenHR’s Summer 2020 Interns Reflect on their Experience
By Shawna Richardson, Charlotte Brown, and Hana Khan & Foreword by Emma Anglade-Ravez
This blog post is a reflection of our three summer interns, Shawna, Charlotte and Hana, on their work at GenHR. They talk about the research they did for the Pandemic Curriculum and how they adapted to remote work. Their work has been so precious to us and rewarding as our Pandemic Curriculum is now up and running on our website!
http://www.generationhumanrights.org/unmasking-pandemic-curriculum
Learn More from Champions of Human Rights!
As Generation Human Rights moves forward with our mission to empower youth to create a world free from human rights abuse, we have been receiving incredible support from renowned champions of human rights, educators, and students. Please take a look at the videos below to hear what these extraordinary individuals have to share about Generation Human Rights.
Check out our video from our Telling History Project at the Mandela International Magnet School in Santa Fe!
As Generation Human Rights moves forward with our mission to empower youth to create a world free from human rights abuse, we have been receiving incredible support from renowned champions of human rights, educators, and students. Please take a look at the videos below to hear what these extraordinary individuals have to share about Generation Human Rights.
Having participated in programs run by Generation Human Rights back in high school, the organization played an integral role in shaping my passions. As a sophomore in college, I decided I’d like to share powerful the experience of GenHR through the Telling History Project. With a student group we began the Telling History Project at Johns Hopkins University and began working with local high schools in Baltimore.
Check out our Letter from 'Baltimore Thugs' and Letter from the Next Generation