Joel the Lobbiest

Over the course of our two weeks here we have talked to grass roots organizations, NGO's, Doctors, and other activists young and old. On our full final day we got to tackle Capitol Hill. Our goal was to lobby for HR 2103 Bill aka The International Protecting of Girls from Under Age Marriage. In the AM we were briefed by other lobbyists on how to address representatives in both the House and Senate. We were also briefed on the national situation in which currently 60 million girls between the ages 8-16 are married off by their familes to men as much as 40 years older then them. This practice causes perpetual poverty, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the disempowerment of girls in areas of Africa and India.

Once farmiliar with both the information and edicate we headed to Capitol hill where we were broken up into groups by state and meet with representitives where we were constituents of that particaular Senate or House representative. The art of lobbying was not as easy as it may enitially seem. It was very challenging to quickly make the points needed to convince the representatives staffer that it was importatnt that they sign this bill. After interacting with two different NY state representitives within the house all people in our group were frusturated at how hopless this task seemed to be. Upon talking to other groups though we found that there was some success in getting the attention of representitives and pushing them towards endorsing this bill. Although lobbying for health bills can defiently be ruled out of a possibly carrer for me I earned a new respect for people who dedicate their time to lobbying.

Talking to one of the lobbiest after all of our meetings we asked how she could day after day do this work which seemed to be in many ways meaningless. She answered that "Lobbying in the US saves lives and for every health bill that is ignored the cost is not just a defeated ego but also results in the lose of lives..."

In other news we are heading to South Africa tomorrow afternoon and everyone in the group is extremly excited. Below are a couple pictures that were highlights of my time in DC it was a great start to what promieses to be one of the best experiences of my life.

1. DC Subway it is really cool looking.

2. Washington Monument...

3. Old school cop car


4. Doing Community Service



Lastly to any peeps from Skidmore reading this I already miss you guys and am sorry that I cant be there for this semester and am already looking foward to seeing everyone during senior week! Have a great semester!

Joel

Group Life

So I am still just killing time until I can finally talk about the real interesting and new experience to come. Recently though the group has visited multiple NGO's including The Heritage Foundation, Teen Aids, and the Woman's Collective. These groups all represent different people with different ideas. For instance The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that is independently funded and aims at achieving a traditional American life through changing public policy. While the Woman's collective serves DC women assisting in HIV/AIDS prevention and counseling. Although extremely different these groups both do amazing work and it was very eyeopening to be able to see from the inside how these NGO's work.

Anyway to touch on the title of this blog, living in a group of 35 in close quarters is an interesting dynamic. Being so close all the time has its pros and cons. For instance there are always people to talk to and hang out with, but at the same time it is pretty hard to find any quiet time. Two of us got sick a couple days ago and are just recovering, the after math of that though is now many more people are getting sick, bummer for them. I am glad I blazed that trail.

In quick summary living with 35 new people is really cool. There are always interesting stories that are being told. The group dynamic makes me excited for the countries to come, with all the different backgrounds and interests these experiences promise to be enriching and fun.


Joel

The start of IHP has been extremely interesting. Our group consists of 35 students, two traveling professors, and a coordinator. We are currently living in a hostel four blocks from the capital building and every night you can walk out into the street and see the giant illuminated dome of the building in the middle of the street.

Most of the classes so far have been orientation/overviews but we are quickly getting underway with reading, and assignments.

Our main topic of conversation presently is how to define Health. After much conversation we came to the conclusion that Health is not just related to biomedicine, doctors, and clinicians. Instead it suggests a much broader meaning consisting of mental states, culture, environments, economy, and much more. To really drive this point home our first field assingment was to aid in a volunteer program in DC. The various programs were comprised of painting schools, reorganizing libraires, and cleaning nature trails. All of which as we discuessed play into the overall definition and meaning of Health. Naturally I choose to work on the nature trails. Our gropu of eight volunteers from IHP were assinged to demolish an old chicken coop on Herritaghe island. The work was fun and rewarding as we got to use sledge hammers, pickaxes, prybars, and hammers to demolish and clear this rotting structure. The overall volunterring experience was both physically rewarding as well as a stimulating conversation starter, since each group was asked to present on how their activities contributed to an overall general increase in Health.






As official classes start tomorrow I am looking the multiple guest speakers, and case studies that are schecduled during the rest of our time in DC. I am also extremely exctied for our departure next Wednesday for South Africa.

Just packing, check back in a week or so for a more enticing read!

Joel