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Fellow and Alumni News - 2010
- August 2010
 IFP Alum Priti Rao, who received a Masters in Governance and Development from the University of Sussex, Brighton, has published a chapter in Malcom Harper's Inclusive Value Chains: A Pathway Out of Poverty. Entitled “Organic and Fairtrade Coffee”, Priti’s contribution is based on her extensive experience working with coffee farmers as Program Director for the Naandi Foundation’s Araku Coffee Program in Hyderbad, India. In collaboration with a diverse team of architects, government bodies, and organic farming experts, Priti played an integral role in designing initiatives that helped organize and certify almost 6000 farmers within the international organic fairtrade network. Her project linked farmers to buyers worldwide, thereby increasing their income by nearly 40% in one season.
Click here to learn more about the book.
IFP Uganda Fellow Med Ssengooba attended President Obama’s Forum for Young African Leaders, held August 3 – 5 in Washington, D.C.
Med is pursuing an LL.M. degree in International Legal Studies at American University. He also works with Uganda's Legal Action for Persons with Disabilities (LAPD). As a delegate with broad based development experience, he was able to share his vision for Africans with disabilities from a human rights perspective.
"I could not find any other place where social justice is promoted like it has been in President Obama's Forum," Med told Ford IFP. "It has been so informative."
Click here to read the America.gov article which details Med's unique and valuable contribution to the Forum.
 IFP Fellow Angela Yanfang Cun has accepted an exciting new job with RARE Conservation, an NGO whose mission is to preserve ecosystems worldwide through social marketing and grassroots education. She graduated from Clark University in June with a master's degree in Environmental Science and Policy.
"As Pride Program Manager," says Angela, "I will provide one-on-one mentoring and technical support to local conservation leaders."
To read the full article, and to learn more about Angela's work with RARE, click here.  The University of Minnesota recently showcased four of their “outstanding doctoral candidates” in a web article and companion video. IFP Alum Phebe Jatau was chosen as one of the four candidates.
Jatau, who is getting her doctorate in Education Curriculum and Instruction, explains:
"My work addresses high school dropout rates among northern Nigerian women and the gender gap and inequities that pervade the educational system."
To read the full article, and an abstract from Jatau's published work, click here. Click here to watch the video featuring Jatau:
 IFP Fellow Sarita Sundari Rout was recently featured in Orissadiary.com, an online news journal that covers politics, culture, entertainment and the arts in the eastern state of Orissa (Odisha), India. Native to the region herself, Sarita worked with women from rural communities in Orissa before receiving an IFP fellowship. Today, she studies gender analysis in international development at the University of East Anglia, U.K.
Sarita tells Odissadiary.com: "This is a dream opportunity to hone my academic and research skills in Western academia so that I can come back to serve my community."
Click here for the full article, where you can read about Sarita's thoughts on climate change, sustainable development, and the state of feminism in Orissa.
 South Africa became the first African country to host the World Cup this year. To celebrate this honor, IFP Fellow Lesodi Legoabe launched a project to connect his home country with the University of Wisconsin, where he studies science education. Legoabe organized a soccer equipment drive in Madison, Wisconsin. He recruited middle school students in Wisconsin to collect soccer gear donations for students in South Africa.
Read more...
 IFP alumna Riza Abilgos-Ramos won the best paper in the upstream research category from the Crop Science Society of the Philippines (CSSP), during a conference held in the Philippines in March. Her study, Folate profiling in rice, focuses on Folate, one of the B vitamins needed for rice seed development. The research was part of her PhD thesis at the University of Nottingham in UK.
CSSP is a non-profit organization that aims to promote basic and applied research on crops and related sciences.
A group of six Chinese IFP alumni had dinner with guests from the Ford Foundation in Xi'an on April 3rd, 2010, sharing their experiences of fellowship, re-entry and current work.
Read more...
 IFP Fellow Bako Sabo Kantiok was interviewed last month by America.gov, the website of the U.S. federal government. Bako, who is pursuing a master's degree in communication at Ohio University, was asked what attracted him to study in the U.S. "Social justice is very strong and is one of the major gifts we have here in America, the sense that your rights are protected and not just on paper. ” Read the full article here.
 Rajendran Govender, an alumnus from South Africa, received the MEC's award for most outstanding official in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Department of Arts and Culture for 2010. Raj earned his doctorate in Arts, Religion and Culture at the University of KwaZulu Natal-Durban under an IFP Fellowship.
IFP Alumnus Publishes Book in Peru
 Raúl Choque Larrauri 's book, "Nuevas Competencias Tecnologicas en Informacion y Comunicion," focuses on education systems and how they must adapt to new information and communication technologies. The book was published in Lima with a grant from the Ministry of Education of Peru.
Raúl Choque Larrauri earned his master's degree in Education and Communication from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain and holds a PhD in Education from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. More information about the book is available here(Spanish only).
 Brandeis University Magazine profiled IFP Fellows Ibrahim Sebiyam (Ghana) and Sabita Parida (India) for an article in its spring issue. "An Uncommon Resolve" focuses on students from the Heller School, Brandeis's graduate school for Social Policy and Management. Laurence Simon, director for Sustainable International Development (SID) Programs at the Heller School, was interviewed about the SID programs, which combine graduate training in sustainable development with professional internships. "Our students bring a lot of life experiences with problems of poverty and corruption and environmental disasters in their countries, so the term ‘sustainable development’ is a beacon.”
 
To date, more than ninety IFP Fellows have studied at Brandeis University.
IFP Fellows Meet at Ohio University
In March of 2010, Ohio University hosted a conference for IFP Fellows studying in the U.S. Midwestern region. Thirty-eight Fellows from eight universities attended the conference, representing China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt, the Philippines, Kenya, India, South Africa, Uganda and Vietnam. Fellows took part in a panel discussion with members of local non-profit organizations; breakout sessions on topics such as Poverty, Gender Equality, Health and Education; and the drafting of the “Ohio Declaration” for social justice change.
Read IFP India Fellow Syed Khalid Jamal's report on the meeting:
Dutch Newspaper Trouw Features Indigenous Alumni in Peru
 In March, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an article "De zaak-Unicachi" ("The Unicachi case") on the success of Aymara Indian businesses in Peru. The newspaper interviewed an IFP alumnus, Suxo Yapuchura, who studies the culture and identity of the Aymara.
Indian Alumnus Publishes Book on the Lambadas
 IFP alumnus Dr. Bhangya Bhukya has just published Subjugated Nomads, a book exploring the history of the Lambadas, a nomadic community in the state of Hyderabad. The book was developed from his PhD thesis, which was funded by IFP at the University of Warwick in the UK. Currently Dr. Bhukya teaches history at Osmania University in Hyderabad. Subjugated Nomads was published in India by Orient BlackSwan and is available for purchase here.
Theater Benefit for IFP Alumnus in Russia
Vadim Karastelev is an IFP alumnus from Russia. As a human rights lawyer and activist, he campaigns for police reform and against corruption in Russia.
In March, friends and supporters of Vadim, including several IFP alumni, held a benefit theater performance to raise money for Vadim’s hospitalization and recovery following a brutal attack near his home in Novorossiisk.
- Read a report and view photos of the benefit from Yulia Sukhenko, IFP Russia office
Kenyan Fellow Honored for International Women's Day
 Benta Abuya, a doctoral student from Kenya studying Education Theory and Policy at Penn State, was recently awarded the Spirit of Internationalization Award by her university. Benta was one of six women selected for the award, which honors women who have shown extraordinary strength of character and commitment to the cause of internationalization.
West African Fellows-elect Visit Songhaï Project
In February, IFP Fellows-elect from Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal visited Songhaï, an innovative project in Benin whose objectives are food self-sufficiency and the improvement of living standards. Click below to read a summary of the Songhaï visit written by Fellow-elect Karamoko Seydi Ba.
IFP Alumnus Featured in Kenyan Newspaper
 Alumnus Fred Ochieng was profiled for The Star, a newspaper in Kenya. Fred talks about his battle with glaucoma, and how a desire to learn and help others led him to apply for an IFP fellowship. Fred Ochieng earned his master's degree in Special Needs Education from Monash University in Australia under and IFP fellowship.
- Click here to read the article.
Peruvian Alumna Publishes Book on International Law
Florabel Quispe Remón, an IFP alumna from Peru, has just published her first book with Spanish publisher Tirant Lo Branch. The book (available here) addresses the origin and development of due process in international law, especially in the American system. Florabel is part of IFP's first class of fellows. She earned her PhD in Human Rights at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Alumni Assemble in Jaipur for Social Justice Conference
More than sixty IFP alumni from across India and 7 visiting alumni representatives from China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam attended the annual alumni meeting in Jaipur, India, February 20-21. The two-day general meeting and social justice conference was organized by the IFP India Alumni Network (IFPIAN) and the IFP New Delhi office.
Mexican Alumna Selected as Finalist for Rolex Award
IFP alumna Claudia Roxana Juárez has been selected as a finalist in the Rolex Awards for Enterprise Young Laureates Programme, which awards social entrepreneurs a $50,000 grant to implement their startup ideas. Roxana submitted a plan to preserve the Mexican tradition of natural cochineal dye production. Winners will be announced in April.
Roxana has already won other awards, including best thesis on environmental engineering from the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Protegidas (CONANP) and a first place prize from the Mexican Women Inventors and Innovators competition.
Alumnus Awarded "Most Outstanding Educator"
Michael Cañares, an IFP alumnus from the Philippines, has been selected as the "Rafael Buenaventura Most Outstanding Finance Educator" for 2009-2010. The award is given by the Finance Executives of the Philippines (FINEX) and the Citi Foundation.
A professor of finance and accounting at Holy University in Bohol, Michael Cañares earned his master's degree in Developmental Economics at the London School of Economics under an IFP fellowship. He was recently awarded a Fulbright scholarship to pursue his PhD in the U.S. He writes about policy in Bohol at www.boholanalysis.com.
Read the New IFP China Alumni Newsletter
Click the link below to read the IFP China Alumni Newsletter, edited by alumnus Chen Zhiyong. The newsletter includes an extensive English summary and features reports from IFP alumni in China and abroad.
Gao Song ('03 cohort) commented on IFP's impact on the lives of alumni: "IFP has opened a window for people, whether an English teacher in a primary school in a distant mountain in the southwestern Yunnan Province of China, or a forest policeman in a mountainous area in Indonesia. Through IFP, a public health expert in Guizhou, China has become a friend of a doctor from Vietnam; through IFP, a college English teacher from western Hubei Province, China could raise a question to the U.S. Secretary of State in Hawaii. Because of IFP, these things that were untouchable, unthinkable and even crazy in the past, have come within reach."
IFP Tanzania Launches Alumni Book
On January 18th, alumni gathered in Tanzania to celebrate the publication of the Tanzania Alumni Directory, a book about the social justice activities of IFP alumni. The launch event was organized by IFP's partner in Tanzania, the Economic and Social Research Foundation and was held at the City Paradise Hotel in Dar Es Salaam. Guests from government, NGOs and the media attended, along with alumni, Fellows and Fellow-Elects. Hon. Professor Jumanne Maghembe, (MP) Minister for Education and Vocational Training gave a speech in which he praised the program's achievements and invited discussion of further efforts of this type of program for higher education.
World Learning Blog Profiles IFP Fellow at SIT
World Learning is the organization behind the SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont. IFP Fellow and SIT student Agus Hernawan was interviewed recently for the World Learning blog about coming to SIT from Indonesia.
"In the third world countries and in the United States there is the same problem. It is just a different location and a different system."
Agus Hernawan is enrolled at SIT for the MA program in Social Justice in Intercultural Relations. He is currently leading efforts at SIT to raise money for earthquake relief in Indonesia.
Alumnus Wins Award for Climate Change Paper
Vivek Prasad, an IFP alumnus from India, was awarded the International Award for Excellence from Common Ground Publishing’s International Journal of Climate Change: Impact and Responses. The winning paper, "Social Capital as a Source of Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change in Developing Countries,” was written by Vivek Prasad, Monique Helfrich and Susan A. Crate.
The paper explores how the agricultural sectors of developing countries adapt to the impacts of global climate change, using two case studies from India and Bangladesh. Vivek has been invited to present as a winning author at the upcoming Second International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses, to be held at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia from 8-10 July 2010.
Vivek was awarded an IFP fellowship in 2004 and earned his master’s degree in Resource Management at Antioch University in the US.
Fellow and Alumni News – 2009
Indian Alumnus Wins Social Science Research Award  Sony Pellissery (IFP India) has been awarded the India Social Science Research Award for 2009 in the category of "Social Inclusion." The recognition came as part of the 25th anniversary of Canada's International Development Research Centre's (IDRC) Indian office.
Sony's research focuses on access to social protection. Using social network analysis, his work has shown how village-level politics result in the exclusion of a large number of eligible applicants from the right to social protection. His monograph, "The politics of social protection in rural India: A network approach to study policy processes" was published this year. Sony is presently Associate Professor at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand. He earned his PhD in Development Studies at the University of Oxford. For more information about the award, click here. IFP Fellow Wins College Photographer of the Year Award  Bharat Choudhary, an IFP India Fellow studying at the University of Missouri, won the gold in the 2009 College Photographer of the Year (CPOY) competition. Bharat's set of photos, Is This Home, featuring refugees from Myanmar living in New Delhi, was awarded first place in the International Story category. Bharat Choudhary (2007 Cohort) is working towards a master's degree in Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the U.S. To see more of Bharat's photos, visit the CPOY website: www.cpoy.org IFP India Alumna Wins Heller Keller Award 
Meenu Bhambhani, an IFP alumna from India, is one of the recipients of this year's Helen Keller Award, sponsored by Shell and India's National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP). Five disabled people were honored at the awards ceremony, which recognizes individuals and organizations who have been working to promote equal opportunities for persons with disabilities. Meenu was recognized in the individual category, “Role Model for Person with Disabilities” as a disabled person who has worked to promote employment for persons with disabilities. Meenu is the global head of corporate social responsibility at MphasiS, a technology outsourcing company located in New Delhi. She also serves as the Vice President of the IFP India Alumni Network (IFPIAN). Alumni Network at Seminar in Thailand  Alumni members of the IFP Thailand Alumni Network (IFP THAN) participated in the "International Seminar on Cultural Diversity of the Mekong River: Sharing Experiences from Japan and the Mekong Countries" held in Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand on November 19-20, 2009. The conference was hosted by the Mekong Sub-region Social Research Center (MSSRC) of Ubon Ratchathani University.
Professor Dr. Knokwan Manorom, Director of MSSRC, provided an overview to the seminar. The seminar was organized to bring together assorted stakeholders – selected Japanese and Southeast Asian regional experts, NGOs, and local voices from the Mekong region – to discuss and share perspectives on development, cultural change and adaptation, diversity, and the resilience of local livelihoods. The seminar underscored the importance of local culture and worldview in the discourse of the Mekong River development and explored how local knowledge and social organization may be better integrated into regional development practices. Participants also discussed how to reinvigorate efforts to revive the Mekong regional identity.
Vietnam Alumna Wins Kazuo Itoga Award In October, IFP alumna Vo Thi Hoang Yen (Cohort 2001) was awarded the Kazuo Itoga Memorial Prize for her outstanding work supporting persons with disabilities in Vietnam and promoting equal opportunity. Regional IFP Alumni Meeting on Disability Issues and Policy in Ho Chi Minh City Hazel P. Villa, an IFP alumna from the Philippines, reports on the regional IFP Alumni Meeting on Disability Issues and Policy in Ho Chi Minh City. Representatives from six countries in Asia and Russia gathered to network and discuss their work. Alumni Report on Tropical Storms and Flooding in the Philippines In response to a succession of typhoons that devastated areas of the Philippines this October, Filipino alumni are working together to analyze the impacts of the storms, discuss impacts on policy and raise awareness for disaster relief needs. Vietnam Alumni Conduct Climate Change Workshop As a starting point for a series of upcoming activities on climate change adaptation and mitigation, members of the IFP Vietnam Alumni Group for Environment and Development (IVGED) organized the first workshop on climate change in Hue City. - Read more...
IFP Alumni Attend Networking Workshops in Palestine In September, IFP alumni in Palestine gathered for workshops and networking activities organized by IFP and IFP Partner AMIDEAST. A total of 56 IFP alumni attended workshops held in Ramallah and Gaza. IFP Holds Africa Regional Alumni Conference in Dakar Dakar, Senegal – On June 2nd, 2009, IFP alumni leaders from Africa and the Middle East and staff from New York, Ghana and Senegal gathered for the first Africa Regional Alumni Leadership Conference in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. The regional conference provided a forum for IFP alumni to meet one another and discuss opportunities for collaboration in the field of social justice, while receiving further training in leadership and topics such as education, human rights and governance. The four-day meeting combined thematic presentations from outside speakers, including Dr. Yacob Haile-Mariam (Former Senior Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda), Dr. Akwasi Aidoo (Executive Director of Trust Africa) and Ms. Molly Melching (Founder of Tostan) with organizational seminars on how to strengthen the national organizations and regional networks of the Africa alumni.
Deep Joshi Wins 2009 Magsaysay Award Deep Joshi, a rural rights activist and longtime advisor to IFP in India, was named along with five others for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2009. The award is considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Joshi is the co-founder of the NGO Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), which works for rural poor promoting self-help groups, developing locally suitable economic activities, mobilizing finances and introducing systems to improve livelihoods of rural people.
In addition to his career as a Ford Foundation officer and in the nonprofit world, Deep Joshi was a principal advisor for IFP in the early years of the program, and served on selection panels several times.
Alumni Organize Seminar in Northeast Thailand The IFP Thailand Alumni Network (IFP THAN) organized its first public seminar on August 15, 2009, at Khon Kaen University. Approximately 150 people took part in the event, including local community leaders, NGO networks, media, government officers, students and academics. IFP Profiles Women Fellows More than 1,800 outstanding women have been awarded full fellowships for post-graduate study under the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP). Inspired by the New York Times 'Half the Sky' contest, IFP is collecting stories and photos of IFP women around the world.
Brazilian Alumna Wins Prize for Best Dissertation - July 2009
 In July, IFP alumna Solange Pereira da Rocha was awarded the ANPUH thesis prize by the National Historical Association in Brazil (ANPUH). Her thesis, entitled "Black People in 18th Century Paraíba: Population, Family and Spiritual Kinship," was defended at the University of Pernambuco in 2008. The ANPUH award is in its first year and awards the best thesis with publication by Editora UNESP. Solange graduated from the first cohort of IFP Fellows and is currently a professor in the History Department at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba and a member of the ANPUH.
Nigerian Alumna Selected for Drug Discovery Fellowship Dr. Hafsat Shittu, an IFP alumna from Nigeria, has been selected for a one-year WHO TDR fellowship as part of a drug discovery program for neglected diseases. A specialist in diabetes, Dr. Shittu was selected from over 200 applicants from African countries to spend a year training at the National Centre for Drug Screening (NCDS) in Shanghai, China. Reflections on Disability from a Filipino Alumna - Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 2009
Ms. Hazel Villa, an IFP Fellow from the Philippines, wrote about being hearing impaired and her battle against discrimination for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "I am one of 650 million people who live with a disability, making up 10 percent of the world’s population—the largest minority, according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Worse, the UN says women with disabilities are recognized to be disadvantaged several times over...I only learned the real meaning of equal opportunity for the disabled when the Ford-IFP in 2006 took me in as one of its fellows." Under an IFP fellowship, Ms. Villa completed her Master's degree in Journalism from Bond University, Australia in December 2008. Scholar Works Through Challenges - Horizons newsletter, University of Kansas, Spring 2009
The spring issue of Horizons, a publication from the Office of International Programs at the University of Kansas, features a first-person story from an IFP fellow, Christopher Tuu. Mr. Tuu is a visuallly impaired fellow from Ghana, currently working towards his Master's degree in special education.
"My first day of class: On January 16th, I was the first to be in the class an hour ahead the start time of 1:00 pm. I started questioning myself: Will I understand the professor with the O L and R Y sounds? Will the professor also understand me? Will the students be friendly? What should I do if the answers to all these questions are negative?" IFP Alumnus Wins Four Awards From Vanderbilt University 
Manoj K. Dora, an IFP alumnus from India, was awarded in four categories at Vanderbilt University’s Annual GPED (Graduate Program in Economic Development) Awards Dinner. Alumni Spotlight: Running an Education Program in Kenya 
Joyce Akai Emanikor is currently the Education Programme Officer for the only education program that Oxfam GB runs in Kenya. Indonesian Fellow Selected for Election Observation Mission Teguh Santosa, an IFP Fellow from Indonesia, was selected to participate in an Election Observation Mission (EOM) in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in March of 2009. For observing the FSM and Chuuk State elections, the Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership (APDP) invited 18 people from various backgrounds including government officials, parliamentarians, academics and civil society, from ten countries including New Zealand, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Palau, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and the United States.
The OEM was funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and organized by the Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP) of the East West Center (EWC) in Honolulu, Hawaii, together with the APDP, an informal coalition of democratic states that is meant to support, develop and extend democracy promotion in the region.
Teguh Santosa is currently working towards his Master’s Degree in the Political Science Department of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM).
Fellow and Alumni News – 2008
Fellow and Alumni News – 2007
Fellow and Alumni News – 2006
Fellow and Alumni News – 2005
Fellow and Alumni News – 2004
Fellow and Alumni News – 2003
Fellow and Alumni News – 2002
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