The 2023 KLH Scholarship has been awarded to Valeria Navarrete. Below is her submission essay published with permission:

While I can’t pinpoint a specific “aha” moment in my life-one that signaled to me that I wanted to enter the field of peace and conflict studies-there have been moments that have shaped my interests and guided me towards the field. One such instance was when I saw a dead body as a child. While on our way to a store, my grandmother and I encountered traffic. As the traffic advanced, we noticed the body of a dead young woman on the road as she was on the lane immediately to our left. She had been hit by a car while she was crossing the street with a bucket of food to either sell or take to her family. Two women on the sidewalk were crying while cars on the left lane ran over the young woman over and over again. lt wasn’t the first sight of socioeconomics strife that I had seen, but it certainly was one of the most impactful ones from my time living in El Salvador. I also remember seeing the front cover of newspapers plagued with photos of crime scenes and stories of death due to gang related violence. The insecurity around El Salvador’s instability and violence prompted my parents to make the decision to move us to Canada eleven years ago. ln my eyes, moving to Canada meant a new adventure. My parents were hoping to provide my brother and I a safer environment to grow up in and an environment that could provide us more opportunities for our future endeavors. Although we distanced ourselves from the instability and violence prevalent in El Salvador, the safety and security I had assumed Canada provided for all its population was just that-an assumption. During my high school years, I came to learn more about Canada’s discrimination against lndigenous Peoples, more specifically the case of Murdered and Missing lndigenous Women. This shocked me as it reminded me about the disparity of and indifference towards marginalized people, like the young women, experienced in El Salvador.

My educational interests first directed me to study psychology. I was interested in learning more about the complexities of the human mind-especially psychopathology and well-being. I felt strongly about supporting people with mental an neurodevelopmental illnesses as they have a history of being stigmatized for being who they are. My studies enabled me to work in various positions where I aided children, teenagers, and adults according to their needs. The experiences that I had and the people that I met taught me so much about the way that people interact with the world and the way the world interacts with them. Their stories included challenges and abuses but also happiness, empowerment, and hope. As I finished my education in psychology, I sought to learn more about conflict. However, I wanted to know more about intrapersonal conflict involving legal and political themes at the international level, hence my current situation being a master’s student studying Peace and Conflict Studies. Throughout my studies, l’ve dedicated time to understand the implications of people’s identities–what it means to be yourself in a world that is not tolerant of everyone. l’ve researched the displacement of people who have left their home because of violence ranging from warfare to being neglected and excluded from society. I’ve done research on El Salvador’s marginalization of elderly people due to their age-something that I’ve
seen happen to my grandparents. I’ve written about the displacement of Palestinians as they have been estranged from their home and continuously fight to prove their right to live. Members of the Korean diaspora in Japan creating their own space and making themselves visible in the face of colonialism and exclusionary practices. The displacement of people in the Congo due to violent breakouts and instability.

I believe that considering the humanity of people around the world is important to understand what it means to live together and prospering. Equipping myself with the knowledge of the impact of identities, including that of people who have been marginalized and displaced, is a part of my journey. I wish to take this knowledge as I pursue my professional aspirations of practicing law. By going into the legal field, where I can learn and specialize in international law, I can synthesize my values, knowledge, and experience into my practice that at its core will be mindful of the humanity behind the people who I work with. Hopefully, throughout my practice I can contribute to making the world a more empathetic place where people are more respectful and understanding of each other.

The 2022 KLH Scholarship has been awarded to Zachary Matthews. Below is his submission essay published with permission:

My beginnings in the world of peacebuilding, human rights and peace studies were unorthodox to say the least. After growing up in small and isolated towns in Northern Ontario and Alberta, I had left with a strong conviction and belief in community and service. I had seen the harms of poverty and violence within my communities first hand and most clearly the effects of colonialism and intergenerational trauma on indigenous peoples within my community. The experiences pushed me into my academic career.

Quickly after beginning my studies, I had locked onto issues of human rights on a global scale. In my second year of study, I began with the statelessness, genocide and mass migration of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

I pivoted my area of study from South-East Asia into Great Lakes Africa regarding issues of conflict, genocide, and post-genocide reconstruction. This culminated in my participation in an experimental learning course in Rwanda in early 2020, seeing first-hand the efforts of the Rwandan government, local communities, foreign governments and civil society organizations on creating a health and resilient post-genocide society for all. This course in Rwanda viscerally reminded me of the importance of violence prevention and peacebuilding, and gave me an understanding of the Rwandan word and concept of ubumuntu (to be human). Following my time in Rwanda, I wrote an essay exploring the dynamics of masculinity within the genocide, both for perpetrators and victims, and its effects in the post-genocide environment. The Rwandan genocide revealed to the international community (alongside the atrocities of Yugoslavia) the factors of gender-based violence in conflict and genocide. However, the place of men was seldom discussed, despite facing disproportionate genocidal killing that left Rwanda demographically imbalanced between men and women after the genocide. My paper, which sought to understand the factors which caused such disproportionality and how Rwandan society dealt with the effects, was recognized in the 2020 Global Undergraduate Awards and go on to the basis of my studies in graduate school.

After completing my undergraduate studies, I continued in political science, pursuing further interdisciplinary specialization in Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict studies. This specialization included coursework on genocide, critical theory (with a focus on decoloniality, post-colonialism, and settler-colonialism), and the field and practice of transitional justice. I am currently writing on the effects of masculinity, peacebuilding, and Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. I will then be continued my Master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies at Conrad Grebel College at the University of Waterloo. Here, I intend to building upon my knowledge and skills in more practical and hands-on terms, with direct education in conflict analysis, political economy and development, civil society development and conflict resolution.

With the same spirit of service and community imbued in me by my upbringing, I am to synergize my upbringing and experience into an impactful and meaningful career in peacebuilding and to foster ubumuntu at home and abroad. Within my studies of masculinity in genocide and conflict, I wish to apply my knowledge in the prevention of child soldiery, especially in relation to adolescent boys and young men, who are often themselves in situations of precarity before their participation (both forced and voluntary) in armed groups. Moreover, I hope to apply my education to building better conflict prevention and response mechanisms for national agencies, international organizations, non-governmental organization, research institutions, and civil society organizations. Through peacebuilding, I hope to contribute to building resilient communities that may never return to violence, and to break down the barriers which cause violence in the first place.

The 2021 KLH Scholarship has been awarded to Fiorella Rabuffetti. Below is her submission essay published with permission:

I was born in a country near the end of a twelve-year military dictatorship during which people were persecuted, killed, disappeared, and many had to leave.  Growing up in a region recently torn by violence exposed me early on to the difficulties of reckoning with a painful collective past. This had a major influence on my interest in political violence, its effects, and how political communities can or cannot live with those effects. During my undergraduate years, I campaigned with Amnesty lnternational to support the work of the lnternational Criminal Court and became involved in the national campaign to re-open a public discussion on a law that granted amnesty to military and police officers potentially involved in crimes against humanity before and during the dictatorship. For a decade, I studied drama, acted, directed, and wrote two award-winning plays. I have since been interested in the arts, and in theatre in particular, as a form of social pedagogy and human rights activism.

While completing my Honors degree in Political Science with a monograph on ethics and international relations, I participated in several research and knowledge mobilization initiatives focusing on issues of conflict, peace-building and human rights. From 2006 to 2009, I co-authored a weekly report summarizing news on issues of security and on investigations into human rights violations that occurred under authoritarian rule in my country of origin. Around the same time, I worked as a research assistant for two projects, both in my country of origin. One inquired into the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Haiti and how democratically-elected governments can exercise effective oversight of that involvement. The other research project I participated in demonstrated the urgent need for a reform of the military’s system of discipline and justice to ensure civil control of the military institution, which is key to consolidating democracy and the rule of law in a post-conflict context. The conclusions of the investigation informed a legislative discussion on the reform of the military justice system, a discussion that led to the National Defense Law passed in 2010.

My engagement in human rights activism and research on issues of conflict and peace fueled my commitment to unravelling the workings and consequences of political violence, as well as the ways it can be effectively addressed. I decided to further pursue these interests when I moved to Canada in 2012 to obtain my MA in Political Science. My thesis explored political forgiveness and collective responsibility in post-conflict scenarios.

At the same time, I became increasingly passionate about the politics of borders, displacement, and (un)documentation. As a migrant myself, these issues speak to me personally. But it was the impact of the refugee crisis unfolding from the Syrian conflict, and the work of Hannah Arendt, a German political theorist who experienced refugeehood and protracted statelessness, that most strongly compelled me to conduct research on statelessness during my PhD program, where I specialize in political theory and international relations.

Statelessness encompasses an array of different situations, from people lacking nationality to people who are recognized as nationals by a country and yet cannot access its protection, as is the case of refugees. They might have been internally or internationally displaced, or have remained in the same place their entire lives, experiencing a kind of displacement. They face major obstacles to access basic rights, including the right of movement, given that they are denied identification and travel documents allowing them to claim those rights. My research seeks to look beyond the legal manifestation of statelessness and into the politico-economic mechanisms that perpetuate it. My work comprises a qualitative inquiry into three cases of statelessness. the “Erased” of Slovenia, made stateless in 1992 through the erasure of their names from the registry of permanent residents; the bidoon of Kuwait who have been stateless since the early’60s but in 1986 went from being treated as legal residents to being considered illegal; and the Dominicans of Haitian descent, who after being citizens by birthright for generations were rendered stateless through a 2013 judicial decision. As part of my data collection, I did a two-month research stay in Slovenia, where I conducted over twenty interviews with Erased people, legal practitioners, scholars, and activists who worked to support their cause. I feel deeply grateful to those who entrusted me with their stories.

I have come to believe that meaningful research and activism, which seek to challenge injustices, must at all times be grounded in the experiences of those who suffer those injustices. Whether in academia, advocacy, or policy-oriented positions, I intend to keep doing work on forced displacement that honors that belief.

The 2019 KLH Scholarship has been awarded to Moffat Sithole. Below is his submission essay published with permission:

When I first enrolled in university, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to major in.  I took some courses in philosophy, sociology and political science, just to taste the waters and feel how deep they were.  Growing up and struggling to get an education in colonial Rhodesia, I soon noted how little developed the discipline of philosophy was in higher education.  When I came to Canada and enrolled at the University of Waterloo, I began to imagine that I could major in philosophy and later go back to what was then Zimbabwe and become a university professor or even teach at one of the country’s education colleges.  However, this was not the direction events at Waterloo University would take.

I soon gravitated to the study of sociology and found solid interest in exploring the mysteries of society and its structures.  I began to enjoy theories of great classical, modern and postmodern sociologists.  I did extremely well in my undergraduate academic endeavours.  However, something was happening to me every time I took an elective course in Peace and Conflict Studies.  I soon realized I was enrolling in more and more elective Peace and Conflict Studies courses.  Before I knew it, I had taken a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies as well as in Legal Studies.  The course content of Peace and Conflict Studies began to appeal to me in a much more forceful way.  I started to experience a sort of transformation in my worldview from that of studying society to one where I imagined I could actually transform society as a peacemaker and peace-builder.  The passion for peaceful existence was not anything new.

I grew up in Rhodesia during the nationalist liberation civil wars that raged from the 1960s until independence in 1980 when the country was renamed Zimbabwe.  Colonial rule was violent and so were the methods that were used to remove it.  Removing violence using violent means does not always guarantee peace.  Indeed, peace never came to Zimbabwe even after it attained its independence.  The seeds of violence that had been sown by colonial rule and had been responded to through violence had once again germinated.  Since independence in 1980, the new government followed a culture of rule through violence.  After only three years into its rule, it had killed approximately 20,000 of its own people in an ethnic cleansing feat.  I fled the country in 2000.

On coming to North America it became quite clear that what was happening in Zimbabwe was reminiscent of what many post-colonial African countries were going through as well.  Just as Africa was proverbially termed the “Dark Continent,” it is in a real sense a conflict-ridden continent.  Post-colonial misrule brought misgovernance which gave rise to poverty, which in turn fomented all kinds of conflict.  Africa is like a place where the blind lead the blind.  The problem in Africa is not a lack of education.  Rather, it is a lack of people who can invoke a sense of moral virtue and a belief in universal human rights.  From this understanding of conflict, I began to see myself as a person who was going to make a difference in their world by becoming a peace-builder.

I have had this passion within me since my youth but did not know how to express it until I became a student at the University of Waterloo.  In my undergraduate studies, I was still desperately searching to find out who I was and where I belonged.  Since enrolling in the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies program in 2018, my journey to becoming a peace-building practitioner has become clearer than ever.  My graduate studies are not only providing theories and knowledge but helping me develop the professional skills necessary for becoming a peace practitioner.  By the end of my program, I do hope to have fully developed the skills that are necessary for making a difference in the world.

I am looking forward to a four-month internship program in Kenya, where I will further gain practical experience in peace-building under the auspices of International Peace Initiatives, a civil society organization that works with refugee women living with HIV/AIDS, orphans, and poor women experiencing all kinds of violence.  International Peace initiatives also runs a variety of programs such as Peace Clubs in schools, hosting Peace Summits for women and youth, training in Conflict Transformation, as well as hosting Circles of Peace for women.  Some of my specific duties and role will include:  working with initiatives of a Nonviolence and Peace program to prepare for the Creators of Peace workshop at a peace centre, collaborating with a local primary school to facilitate a Peace Club program, creating and implementing a one-day conflict transformation program for International Peace Initiatives staff and community members around IPI, visiting various peace programs at IPI partners within Kenya, and also doing a research project.

After graduating in 2020, I look forward to getting involved in peace-building initiatives working either with non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations or establishing my own peace initiatives with local communities, groups or schools on the African continent.

In 2019, the KLH Scholarship awarded a “runner-up” scholarship to Stephanie Schreuders. Below is her submission essay published with permission:

My journey and experience in international development and human rights started in 2014 in Kitchener, Ontario, when I began working at a place called Welcome Home Refugee House.  I was a young social work graduate, eager to serve and learn.  I had a desire to learn more about our world having recently returned from five months of teaching in Ghana.  I didn’t know much about refugees, but suddenly found myself living in a house with those who had been forcibly displaced and who were starting to rebuild their lives in Canada.  Welcome Home is a house where newly arrived refugees can live for up to one year.  I started as a live-in staff intern, whose job it was to facilitate programming and coordinate case management for the fifteen residents of the home.  Welcome Home is a place where “the other” becomes your friend, your sister, your brother and your neighbour.  For some newcomers it was the first time they had met someone from another religion or nationality.  Welcome Home is a community where stereotypes and prejudices are broken down and you are able to see fellow human beings across religious and ethnic divides.  it was a joy for me to be invited into this community, into the lives of those who were now beginning the difficult journey of starting their lives over in Canada.

The community of people at Welcome Home have profoundly shaped me as an individual as well as the direction of my life.  The stories of war, displacement and violence that we see in the news became real as my new friends shared their lives with me.  I became much more aware of human rights issues on an international scale as I heard personal stories of injustice.  I learned about the importance of belonging and the desire we all hold to have a place to call home.  I learned about hospitality as I was invited into homes to share a meal and to share time and presence with each other.  I learned that each person you meet is so much more than their first impression.

Later on my role shifted to a position that was not live-in, but that continued overseeing programming and volunteer coordination.  I found that I enjoyed building bridges between Canadians and newcomers, both who may have never met people outside of their majority culture.  I could tell you many stories of the beautiful and genuine friendships that developed within the Welcome Home community as people encountered each other as friends.  This importance of encounter and relationship is something that I will continue to take with me into our ever polarizing society as I continue in the work of welcoming newcomers to Canada.

The Masters of Peace and Conflict Studies (MPACS) program drew my attention with its focus on peace-building both locally and globally.  The program is building my skills in mediation and reconciliation with a strong focus on civil society and the great potential civil society has to transfer communities.  Recognizing that conflict is a regular part of the human experience, I am gaining a deeper understanding of the complex roots of conflict as well as peace-building strategies that can be applied to international-level conflicts as well as interpersonal.  The MPACS program offers an internship option for students who desire to apply what they are learning in their classes to the real world.  This spring, I have had the opportunity to intern at the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) as a member of their Refugee Resettlement team.  It has been an incredible experience as I have been able to walk with sponsorship groups in Canada, resourcing them and supporting them as they welcome refugees to their community.

I believe that the MPACS program is equipping me with the skills needed to be a changemaker and peacemaker in my future vocation.  The program has a flexible and interdisciplinary approach that allows me to write papers and research around areas that I am most passionate about such as forced migration.  My goal and desire is to continue working in refugee resettlement work in Canada.  I hope to work at an organization like MCC that is not only welcoming refugees to Canada and working in advocacy and settlement locally, but also working towards peace internationally by partnering with local agencies within refugee camps and other peace building projects.  MCC recognizes that international development and peace-building is complex and needs to be addressed in all sectors and at all levels of a community.  I am proud to be interning at a development organization that encompasses such a holistic approach to their work.

As I look to the future, I hope that I can continue to welcome refugees, to be a friendly face in the midst of the chaos of being new in Canada, as well as being a bridge builder between newcomers and Canadians.  There continues to be so much fear of “the other,” of people who look different and act different than the majority culture, which is reinforced by social media.  It is building a society of fear where we separate ourselves instead of coming together.  I have seen how my life and my family’s life has been transformed due to our friendships with people from many different countries, religions and cultures.  In order to continue building strong communities, we need to make sure we surround ourselves with diverse voices.  Who you are in relational proximity with will determine what is important to you.  It is my desire to welcome refugees to our communities and encourage people to think creatively of how they can also welcome people to their communities, building bridges instead of walls.

The 2018 KLH Scholarship has been awarded to Abeni Steegstra. Below is her submission essay published with permission:

Human rights seized my attention from the time I realized that being a Canadian affords privileges that many people in other parts of the world do not enjoy. As a result, I enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts in Global Development Studies. This multidisciplinary program addressed displaced persons, refugees, conflict resolution and peace building through the lenses of political science, sociology, economics, social work, and human geography. These four years made me aware of the inextricable linkages between Canada and the Global South, especially with forced displacement increasing severely worldwide.

As President of the Global Development Club in 2015 and 2016, a dedicated team of members and I spread awareness about the multiple root causes of forced migration. We spent countless hours organizing advocacy campaigns, fundraisers, and debates on factors that destabilize regions, such as conflict and economic disparity. I also had the opportunity to share our research into international development by delivering guest lectures to classes and panel discussions at conferences. This local experience has proven invaluable to develop my skills as a researcher and advocate, and was enhanced further through international volunteer work.

I lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for one semester while volunteering in an intensive internship with a non-profit organization. Oaxaca is a fascinating place to study migration, especially by economic displacement, because of its interlinked economic history with Canada and the United States. Many Oaxacan workers migrate to the US and Canada and the depopulation devastates local communities, as they lose able-bodied people who no longer contribute to governance, community projects and culture. The economic instability has resulted in years of protests, which at times results in violent repression.

My internship focused on delivering education to indigenous youth that built capacity for local leadership and pride in the students’ indigenous heritage. While witnessing unrest in the area, I learned more from our students and local protestors than I could have anticipated. They taught me the humility to listen to those who have been historically marginalized. My passion and interest for the region has grown, and I would like ot build on my work there in the future.

In my own community, I currently have the unique opportunity of participating in refugee resettlement, joining a Resettlement Committee in December 2017 to sponsor a refugee family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo shares economic instability with Oaxaca as one underlying reason for mass displacement, however in the Congo it is caused and reinforced by years of civil wars and ethnic clashes. In 2003, at the peak point in conflict, there were three million internally displaced people (UNOCHA, 2003) and 400,000 refugees from the Congo in surrounding countries (UNHCR,2003). It is from this context that we are sponsoring a family to live in Canada. As a committee we are responsible for every aspect of welcoming and integrating them into Canadian society. My duties are to connect the family to medical care, employment, language classes, and other community services. Through our growing relationship I am learning more every day about what it means to be forced from one’s home, country, and continent.

A mentor in Mexico told me that the more we learn, the more we discover how little we actually know. In each of these practical experiences I have only begun to touch on deeply complex topics in human rights. When I graduated with a BA in Global Development Studies, I was honoured to receive the Dean’s Medal of Excellence for academic achievement and promise in my field. However, I realized I would need to pursue further education in order to produce real, systemic change in situations where human rights are being violated. Legal studies drew me because a country’s laws and policies greatly impact the lives of its citizens, and can be crucial in preventing displacement situations before they being. A legal education provides the evident opportunity to become a lawyer, but it also opens a variety of additional prospects. Knowledge in international law can lead to a position in advocacy, to bring awareness of rights abuses to the public, or to a position in policy analysis, to examine how policies impact people’s well-being. With this in mind, I decided to continue my education with a Juris Doctor program, specializing in international human rights law, commencing in September 2018.

Thank you for considering my experiences and education for which I am deeply grateful.

The 2017 KLH Scholarship has been awarded to Julie Moreno. Below is her submission essay published with permission:

Having been born in Colombia and then immigrating to Canada when I was young, has exposed me to the numerous challenges faced by refugees and displaced persons when they arrive in host countries.  My early experiences as an immigrant fleeing from a war-affected country have also taught me the distinct role that human rights, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding can play even in the smallest of aspects, shaping the direction of my academic and professional endeavors.  As a result, I became passionate at an early age about international development issues, particularly human rights, conflict, and transnational migratory flows.  For these reasons, I have made it my academic, professional and personal goal to create social change that impacts the lives of displaced people or refugees both locally and abroad.

My undergraduate degree in International Development allowed me to combine my personal intercultural experiences with the interdisciplinary nature of a social sciences degree.  Advance courses in the fields of international relations, political science, and development have equipped me with an understanding of specific topics, including how ot overcome power imbalances to violation of personal freedoms, as well as the linkages that exist between weak governance, underdevelopment, and conflict. Having this cross-cultural competency allowed me to critically examine conflict situations on various levels, which inspired me to dive deeper into the causes and consequences of systemic violence, displaced persons, peacebuilding, and the political culture of Latin America for my undergrad honours thesis.

In 2015, I attended a summer instituted in Quito, Ecuador.  Here I participated in several skills workshops on conflict analysis, mediation, and negotiation.  This course equipped me with the practical tools, knowledge, and hands-on experience to understand the complexities of conflict within and across border regions, as well as the types of interventions that can be used to transform them.

I also learned how to effectively apply concepts of cross-cultural and nonviolent communication as a peacebuilding resource in my role as a program coordinator and research assistant at the Centre for Mediation, Peace, and Resolution of Conflict in 2015-16.  Working in Ecuador, the largest recipient of refugees in Latin America, enabled me to combine practical skills with a theoretical understanding of conflict management.  During this time, I also led training sessions on conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and human rights for refugee and migrant communities in Quito, while raising cultural awareness to ease their transition in the host community. 

While conducting research in Ecuador, I learned that although violence causes thousands of people to seek refuge, social conflict and discrimination often continue to create problems in receiving communities.  Even if the amount and severity of violence is reduced, my research showed that conflict is still present in the lives of refugee and migrant populations.

In Sept 2016, I began my Master’s degree in International Affairs, where I am specializing in project management for development and humanitarian assistance.  I have completed and excelled in graduate-level courses that focus on human security, development project analysis and implementation, and complex humanitarian emergencies.  I have actively continued to research in international development and human rights, particularly on issues relating to environmental refugees, the economic challenges of Syrian refugees in Europe, and the lack of access to reproductive health care for Syrian refugees in the Middle East.

More recently, I began working as a co-op student at Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.  I am currently enrolled in a field course on human rights that will take place in Israel/Palestine in December 217.  The opportunity to combine human rights theory with practical and contextual implementation will complement my current research regarding the tumultuous context for refugees and displaced persons in the Middle East.  I am interested in analysing the human rights implications that arise from defining a state as the national home of one faith-based community, the human rights challenges faced by Palestinian in the occupied territories, as well as how these challenges are manifested over the short and long term.

Once I graduate, I hope to work with refugee populations that arrive in Canada from all over the world.  I also want to work on translating my research for use in public policy, non-profit organizations, and non-governmental organizations.  I believe my Master’s program will continue to prepare me with the relevant academic experience I will need to better understand and create policy regarding inter-group conflicts and reconciliation.  Knowing how to implement conflict management and peacebuilding in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of humanitarian projects is key, if refugees are to be successfully integrated in Canadian communities.  By building stronger communities and engaging in peacebuilding efforts, we as Canadians can help prevent future abuses of human rights both locally and abroad.

In 2017, the KLH Scholarship awarded a “runner-up” scholarship to Corinne Laporte. Here is her story published with permission:

My name is Corinne Laporte.  I am a student in Conflict Studies and Human Rights, minoring in Anthropology.  My interest in international development, and more importantly human rights, has always been a part of me.  However it started to consume me when I was fifteen and had the chance of going to a school offering short trips as an introduction to humanitarian aid.  That year, the teachers were going to Peru, to work in a youth centre called Cesavi.

When I was fifteen, I was lucky enough to travel to Peru in order to work with the population working at the Centre, but also to plant trees and repaint and renovate the house of a deceased priest.  He donated his house to the Cesavi and our group helped with the renovation.  We also brought donations from Canada, as much as we could fit in our suitcases, to donate to the neighborhood.  We were also there as part of a cultural exchange initiative with youth coming from different schools of Peru.  During that trip, I fell in love with sharing and understanding cultures, but also with the idea that all humans deserve an equal chance at life.

In the two years following, I went on another trip to Dominican Republic, and then to Haiti.  Both of those trips had the same core idea as the Peru trip.  Although now I understand that my “work” was much more along the lines of ‘voluntourism’ – the idea that we are inhabited with the ‘white savior syndrome’ when we go on trips we pay thousands of dollars for but that don’t really change much for the populations we visit – I can never regret my experience.  Said experience is what made me who I am, and directed me towards volunteering with Amnesty International as well as participating in different congresses such as the Sommet du millenaire pour la jeunesse, which focused on teaching teenagers about the Millennium Development Goals.

My volunteering experience eventually led me to go to university in the two topics I was most passionate about:  human rights and anthropology.

My university career has shown me how important it is to work with the populations affected in order to really bring change.  The more I study in Conflict Studies, the more I realize the lack of Anthropology in most humanitarian approaches, reinforcing the idea of the white savior I mentioned earlier.  Often the field of International Development has overlooked the communities it wants to help.  I found that professors or conferences were showing how we could help or bring about international solutions, but sometimes I would find that local populations were barely consulted, or not consulted at all.   Such ways of problem solving would then most likely fail, as they would fail to include the cultural aspects of those we mean to help.

In the near future, I will be applying to a Master’s program in Anthropology in order to concentrate on the anthropology of peace building and post-conflict building.  I would therefore want to apply what I learned throughout my university career on the field, especially with local NGOs.  In fact, the main reason I am applying for this scholarship is to hopefully participate in an internship offered by my University alongside the Canadian NGO Alternatives and the National Fisheries Solidarity Organization (NAFSO) in Sri Lanka.  The latter describes itself as a “membership-based fisherfok movement of Sri Lanka that works with marginalized groups such as internally displaced persons, women and youth, to promote human rights and true sustainable development.”  The group works extensively with victims of the civil war, especially those whose lands were taken by the army and who have not been given back what was theirs.

I would like to apply the knowledge I have gained in the past few years in order to work effectively with NAFSO.  Going on such an internship would allow me to learn the process of how local groups encourage collective healing after the destruction of war.  The help of the scholarship would allow me to pursue my studies in a field I am passionate about, but also approach the difficulties of disadvantaged populations with a more human eye, hoping I could bring them even the iniest parcel of hope.

I refuse to pretend I know better, or that I’ve felt worse, than those who have been affected by war.  I refuse to assume that my university knowledge could make of me the best ally, or that they’d fail without me.  I refuse to approach equality and human rights issues with a top down pattern:  it’s clearly failed before.  But maybe I could, with my schooling, bring them some hope that not all western missions are meant to appropriate their resources, and that understanding them, and their way of life is essential to build a strong future with them, and for them.  I want to be their ally, and join strengths so that future populations aren’t displaced and hurt by the violence of wars.

My name is Corinne Laporte.  I am a student in Conflict Studies and Human Rights.  I won’t pretend I can save the world.  But together, maybe we can.

The 2017/2018 academic year will be the inaugural year of the Katherine Lemke Heinrichs Scholarship awarded to a fourth year undergraduate or post-graduate student in a Canadian institution enrolled in a program of study related to human rights and/or focused on displaced persons or refugees.

Check back here for profiles of all past and current scholarship recipients.