Spring 2008
Halfway There -- an update on the Hart Fellows' research experience
In the past six months, Seyward Darby has worked with journalists in Prague, Cassie Phillips has taken part in Cambodian festivals and traditions, and Brian Wright has spent days on islands and fishing boats in the Philippines.
But it's not all fun and games for the Hart Fellows, who, now midway through their fellowships, are getting their research service-learning (RSL) projects off the ground. Dispersed around the globe, the three 2007 graduates are working to complete and present their projects to their community partners before they come home this summer, all the while enjoying opportunities to travel and learn more about the world.
Seyward Darby, who is working with Transitions Online (TOL) in Prague, the Czech Republic, traveled to Central Asia in November to explore questions that have become central to her project: What are Central Asia's most pressing journalism education needs, and how can TOL work to address them?
“The countries I focus on with my TOL work are not in violent conflict or suffering from disease epidemics, but they are struggling to slough off the communist legacy and the lingering corruption, authoritarianism, poverty and limited media that still linger,” Darby said. “My fellowship has taught me that while I don't have all the answers to solve the media problems in this region, I can play a role.”
A media development organization, TOL runs an online magazine covering the 28 post-communist countries and provides training and support for journalists in the region who often require guidance in dealing with corrupt governments and fledgling democracies. As an assistant editor for TOL, Darby spends time interviewing journalists from countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, and Tajikistan.
“These journalists face repressive governments, media funded by corrupt businessmen, a general lack of money for production and salaries—and a lack of professional training to boot,” she said.
In a Letter Home—a monthly writing installment that enables Hart Fellows to reflect on their experiences—Darby described a journalist who refused to name a controversial source because he threatened her, another journalist who missed her deadline because she had been stalked on the street after reporting on taboo gender issues, and a reporter who turned in a late story because his friend—a prominent journalist who covered government issues—had been killed.
“TOL's reporters, my reporters of whom I am possessive and protective, often live and work in countries where being a journalist is in itself a risk,” Darby wrote. “Above all, this job is teaching me about the responsibility that comes with the luck I have—with a privileged position granted to me because of where I come from, who I am. But it is also teaching me about courage. I am humbled by the work these writers do.”
She will compile and contextualize her findings about TOL's work into a report at the end of her fellowship. She will then present recommendations about what should be done with the region's journalism training program, which she said is lacking in sustained, on-site training and capabilities for new media.
Cassie Phillips is working in Battambang, Cambodia with Homeland, an organization that aims to improve the standard of living for vulnerable families and children who have been affected by trafficking, conflict with the law or HIV/AIDS. Her research focuses on investigating the effectiveness of group homes as a form of alternative care for orphans and vulnerable children. These alternative care options are becoming increasingly preferable for Cambodian children, as opposed to institutionalized means of care such as orphanages, she said. Homeland is considered to be an institution, but in the past year has established two group homes—a form of care that has not yet been widely researched.
“Based on what was feasible, my personal strengths and preferences, and the fact that children in Cambodia are rarely given opportunities to say what they think, I decided to develop case study interviews with children living in group homes,” she said.
She is currently in the process of interviewing 15 children (ages 8-20) and their caregivers in group homes about daily life, education, health, and family relations. By the end of her fellowship, she aims to compile her findings into a reader-friendly booklet that outlines participants' stories and offers ideas for future developments.
Phillips said that as she has been getting used to her life and work in Battambang, she has learned to pare back her expectations and maintain patience and realistic prospects, especially when working in collaboration with others. She added that she has also been learning about the culture and learning to keep a flexible mindset and let go of her Westernized point of view.
For instance, she relayed an anecdote about meeting a 25-year-old widow with two children, who desperately wanted Phillips to put her in contact with Homeland. Even though the children weren't orphaned, Phillips realized that the severe poverty facing many Cambodians makes institutional care a feasible alternative for struggling parents.
“I saw and felt the huge discrepancy between what people in air-conditioned NGO and Ministry offices in Phnom Penh think is the best thing for orphaned and vulnerable children and the reality this widowed 25-year-old mother and her four children are facing,” Phillips wrote in a Letter Home. “Perhaps placing her children in institutional care is not the best thing on paper, but what other options does she have?”
Brian Wright's fellowship is with the Institute of Social Order (ISO) in Manila, the Philippines. The ISO implements community-based coastal resources management in several areas in the country. Wright is focusing his research project specifically on investigating local fishers' assessments of problems and approaches to creating sustainable fisheries on a community level. At the beginning of his fellowship, he realized that even though the fisheries provide a major source of livelihood, the fishers are unable to work toward long-term sustainability, due to problems such as insecure tenure, poverty, rapid political change, corruption and community division. They often resort to means—such as cyanide fishing—that are both illegal and destructive to the environment.
“Fishers need to know what needs to be done to sustain the fishery,” Wright said, proposing that the place to start is talking to the fishers themselves, focusing on the question of “Why are the fishers breaking the laws in the first place?” He will use the information he collects to establish new ideas and critiques for ISO and local governments.
Midway through his fellowship, Wright says he has already concluded most of his preliminary research in three different communities: one a regular part of ISO's core program activities, one a recent addition to the program, and the third outside of the program and known as a “lair of illegal fishing.” His big challenge now will be analyzing his reams of notes, sifting through recordings of interviews, and molding his data into cohesive recommendations.
“I want my research to help make ISO's programs better,” he said, adding that he aims to present a working version of his paper to ISO members before his fellowship is over. “I want the discussion both to improve my conclusions and also to challenge and prompt ISO to look at things from new angles.”
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