I was born in Kibera and I grew up in Kibera; growing up here was both a privilege and a struggle. Life is difficult in Kibera and we live in poverty here, but this place makes a woman strong and I believe that I am strong today because I grew up in Kibera.

I come from a family of four daughters. My father was never really in the picture, but I never felt the absence of a father-figure in the house; Mama has been such a role model in that sense. She would say “whatever you want to do, you can do it.” Whenever we would complain about not having a brother to help us fix household things, she would push us to learn how to do it ourselves.

The Indonesian NGO ELSAM (Institute for Research Policy and Advocacy) has made the book Writing for Rights: Human Rights Documentation from the Land of Papua available for free download on their website at http://elsam.or.id/2017/05/writing-for-rights-human-rights-documentation-from-the-land-of-papua/

Dipendra Jha (pictured above with lawyer Courtenay Barklem) is a Nepalese Human Rights lawyer. He has been working as a human rights and constitutional lawyer since 2007, working on cases of human rights abuses in the Terai region including cases of torture, arbitrary arrests, and threats to human rights defenders. He leads the Terai Human Rights Defenders Alliance (THRDA) and the Terai Justice Centre (TJC). In April 2017, he visited the UK and PBI UK spoke to him about the human rights situation in Nepal. The following is based on excerpts from that interview.

PBI-USA seeks to hire a part-time advocacy coordinator to work closely with the PBI USA Executive Director, and global PBI staff and volunteers, to help develop and implement PBI’s advocacy strategy in the U.S., in support of the human rights defenders (HRDs) for whom we provide protection. The position will focus primarily on Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, with limited support provided also to Colombia, Kenya, Nepal, and Indonesia.

This year in Colombia, human rights defenders and social leaders have faced 232 threats, 21 attacks and 70 assassinations, 31 of which occurred after the bilateral ceasefire with the FARC went into effect.