Tirza Leibowitz leads the rights advocacy team, carrying out the Survivor Campaign for Disability Rights and promoting the rights of conflict survivors worldwide.  Before joining Survivor Corps, Leibowitz worked as Legal Advisor at Bizchut–The Israel Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities.  She spearheaded efforts to influence legislation, litigation, and the public forum, which resulted in major advances in disability rights in Israel, such as accessibility, living in the community, inclusion in education, and access to justice.  Leibowitz brings to Survivor Corps extensive experience in rights advocacy both on the national and international front.  She holds an LLB from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

December 01, 2009, 6:06pm   Comments

My name is Eric Niragira. Burundian with a degree in Management, I am the founding President of the training center for development of ex-combatants. I took part in the war in our country, Burundi. During this period many innocent people were killed and women raped. After combat, I continued my studies and created CEDAC in order to share experiences with other ex-combatants, and analyze together how we can prevent them in the future and say “Never again.” Briefly, my commitment was to show them that we can promote change by using our own contribution through peace consolidation and development program. We sensitize people in putting back small arms and taking part in their collection. Many collection operations of small arms have taken place in Burundi since 2005. The second program is to fight poverty by the promotion of micro-projects among community members, with donor support. So far we have 25,000 members coming from various armed movements. As Vice President of Member Burundian Vision, an NGO working in Burundi, and member of the Executive Committee of World Border Organization, I campaign for a better world and I welcome help from everyone who wants to join us in this initiative of reconstruction of our world.

For more information about my work, check out my blog at http://ericniragira.blogspot.com/

November 18, 2009, 3:12pm   Comments

I am so happy that we will have the chance to work together for the survivor cause in the Cartagena Summit this year.

I am Kim Hoa from Landmine Survivors Network in Vietnam. I joined the Network about four years ago and currently am working as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer cum Advocacy Officer. In Vietnam, we have been working to raise the profiles of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) with a strong emphasis on Victim Assistance - the synergy across the three above treaties.

I am very glad that I will see some of you again (Nerina, Ramiz, Bekele and Jesus) and look forward to meeting Tirza, Riley, Albert and Shireen there.

I do believe that together we all will make a great “survivor dream team” in the Second Review Conference. I look forward to working with and seeing all of you in Colombia.

October 09, 2009, 2:12pm   Comments

My name is Albert, and it will be a great pleasure to meet all of you in Cartagena in November.

I am the Country Program Coordinator of Survivor Corps in Rwanda (East Africa) and I have been working with SC since last year.  I am happy to be part of this amazing team. I’ve been involved in monitoring and advocacy of the Committee of the Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC), the Mine Ban Treaty, and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).

I hope our meeting achieves its goals of ensuring the implementation of all related treaties.

October 09, 2009, 1:55pm   Comments

I’m Riley Abbott and I’m a Program Associate at Survivor Corps. I have had a chance to work with some of you directly at the Mine Ban Treaty Meeting of States Parties in June 08, with others while at an advocacy training in Kampala, here in Washington, or even remotely via email.  For those whom I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face, I’m really excited to do so!  

I’m a young man in my upper 20s from the Midwestern United States state of Minnesota where the wind and the snow can be dreadful but the food, art and people can make all your worries be gone. I came to Washington, DC after two years living in El Salvador through the Peace Corps where I worked with the municipal government to build the capacity of civil institutions, improve communications between organizations, and reduce youth inscription to gangs and violence. Professionally, I’m interested in building the relationships between civil society organizations, civilians and their governments and involving citizens in the planning and development of cities and regions. At Survivor Corps we call it social capital building and daily I get to exercise my interests through our programs that aid in the recovery of individuals affected by war, help their groups engage with the broader community and become active in exercising their rights.  

I’m really excited for Cartagena, because we will get a chance to engage global leaders and all of us, normal civilians working in human development and peace-building, will get a chance to do it at the highest level!!  It’s a great honor. 

Whether or not I get a chance to join you in Cartagena, please know that I’ll be here in DC supporting you during the lead up and during the conference. Be in touch and let’s make important changes!

October 09, 2009, 1:47pm   Comments

I am Nerina Cevra and I work with Survivor Corps at Washington, DC office. I am originally from Bosnia and have fled the country because of the conflict in the 90s and found permanent residence in the US, with my family. I have worked with Survivor Corps since 2003. I began as an interpreter, and continued as an advocacy assistant and officer, working with Ramiz, Bekele and others at the negotiations for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I also conduct training sessions with survivor advocates on how to conduct rights-based advocacy for disability rights. 

I also work on the international level to promote survivor perspective on the rights-based assistance to survivors of conflict. The most satisfying part of my job is having an opportunity to spend time with survivors, whose resilience and enthusiasm is contagious, and makes the long hours sitting behind a desk in the dark office in Washington, DC easier to bear.

I’m sure we will learn much more about each other in the course of the leading up to and during Cartagena Summit, and I look forward to learning from you, as survivors (you) have always been an inspiring teacher.

October 09, 2009, 1:44pm   Comments

My name is Shireen, I work as the Regional Coordinator and Partnerships Manager at the Survivor Corps Middle East and North Africa office located in Amman, Jordan. I have been working with Survivor Corps/LSN since 2007 as a social worker.  I am very eager to participate in the summit and to be able to take a leading role in the region.

October 09, 2009, 1:34pm   Comments

Kenneth R. Rutherford lost both his legs to a landmine in Somalia in 1993. He is currently an Professor Pubilc Affairs at Missouri State University and travels worldwide to promote the economic and social rights for persons with disabilities. He is co-founder of Survivor Corps, formerly the Landmine Survivors Network,. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania, UNHCR in Senegal, and the International Rescue Committee in Kenya and Somalia. He has testified before Congress and published articles in numerous academic and policy journals. He earned his doctorate at Georgetown University.  In 1997, Ken help guide Diana, Princess of Wales, on her final humanitarian trip to Bosnia to meet with a range of landmine survivors and their families. In 2004, Rutherford was inducted into the University of Colorado Hall of Fame for distinguished alumni.  Dr. Rutherford currently serves on the board of directors of Survivor Corps (www.survivorcorps.org)  (Washington, D.C.) and board of experts at the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (http://www.cusa.uci.edu) at the University of California at Irvine. In 2005, Dr. Rutherford served on a State Department Fulbright Fellowship in Jordan, where he was appointed to the faculty at the University of Jordan in Amman. He taught International Politics and researched Jordan’s leadership role in the Arab in alleviating the negative effects of landmine use and promoting the rights and dignity of people with disabilities.  He is the author of the book Humanitarianism Under Fire: The US and UN Intervention in Somalia (Kumarian Press, 2008).

October 09, 2009, 1:26pm   Comments

I started working for LSN/LSI in 2000 and I am working as Outreach Coordinator covering Banja Luka region. To date I have participated to many conferences and I will mention some of them here: participation to the 7^th Ad Hoc Committee meeting on CRPD in New York in 2006; Intersessionals meeting and RTV training in Geneva in 2006; Regional Conference on CRPD in Belgrade in 2006; development of the National Disability Policy and Entity Disability Strategy in BiH where I coordinated one of the working groups; coordination of Art Colony “Balkana” and member of the Health Insurance Fund for monitoring existing situation of prosthetic devices.

As for my expectations from participating to Cartagena Summit, I am looking forward to see and learn about progresses countries have achieved in dealing with mine issues, what their plans are for time to come, work with my government to identify realistic objectives and support programmes for landmine survivors, lobby our government to provide more support to landmine survivors and of course to learn new advocacy skills.

It goes without saying that I am looking forward to see friends that I know and meet new ones in our organizations ;-)

October 09, 2009, 1:22pm   Comments

My name is Ramiz Becirovic and I am working as Advocacy Coordinator in Landmine Survivors Initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many of you know me—I’ve had the privilege and honor to work with Tirza, Nerina and many of you in developing text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in New York and also to work with other issues. I’ve been working here in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 5 years now and am looking forward to working together at the Cartagena Conference. I used to practice dancing and am going to apply for that 5 km race to get back in shape and lose some of my stomach!

October 09, 2009, 1:21pm   Comments