Bhumi Aids Students Looking to Serve Abroad With Advice, Contacts

Just two years since it was founded, Bhumi, an undergraduate organization dedicated to international development and environmental issues, has developed a coherent program to send students on summer internships around the world.

This summer, 10 students are scheduled to work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Peru, and organizers hope that the program will expand in future years.

According to Bhumi officer Cheryl A. Gray '99, about 35 students applied for the 10 internship spots available this year.

The limited number of spots was due to the difficulty finding NGOs that suited Bhumi's goals and needs.

"We were looking for opportunities for meaningful internships that would be mutually beneficial for the NGO and our interns, where there would be a good match of skills," Gray says.

Bhumi interns will participate in field research, environmental work, campaigning, teaching and other administrative tasks in four developing nations this summer.

Learning From Experience

The organization's goals, as well as concerns over safety and reliability issues, have led Bhumi to be selective of the organizations to which it sends interns.

"Our main criterion is that we have established a close personal relationship with the NGO and have been in contact with someone who would be managing the internship," Gray says.

In many cases, this means dealing with organizations with which Bhumi members have worked in the past.

Alina Das '01 will be working with Phulki, an NGO in Dhaka, Bangladesh through which Bhumi ran a child sponsorship program last year.

"They run child-care centers for working mothers, to keep kids off the street," Das says. "I would be helping out by evaluating their program, seeing how they can improve their finances and strategy for the future."

Lauren A. Hammer '98 and Aditi Bagchi '99 will both be working with the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC), centered in New Delhi, India.

According to its web page, SAHRDC "seeks to investigate, document and disseminate information about human rights treaties and conventions, human rights education, refugees, media freedom, prison reforms, political imprisonment, torture, summary executions, disappearances and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

Hammer will be researching human rights abuses against women during armed conflicts in South Asia, while Bagchi hopes to work in Calcutta with "street children" or refugees.

"Street children are homeless; they don't necessarily have families," Bagchi says. "They're kind of on their own, and either do small jobs or beg" to support themselves.

The interns are currently attending weekly sessions to help them deal with concerns such as safety, health, and cultural and language barriers. To provide continuity and growth to the program, this summer's interns will help run the workshops next year. They also will work to promote awareness in the Boston area, speaking about the issues with which they dealt.

"They will write up reports for us, and will work with us next year," Gray says. "From there, we'll use them to attract new interns."

According to Hammer, the sessions have been helpful because "there are health tips you can read in a book, but it really helps to have them explained to you and be able to ask questions."

Hammer says she also appreciates the background information about NGOs which Bhumi has provided.

"It's very hard to investigate what kind of experience it will be," she says, noting that talking to Harvard students who volunteered previously has been reassuring.

Managing the Risks

When traveling to countries that have in the past been subject to civil strife, Bhumi organizers say interns must be concerned about their safety in addition to the expected health risks.

According to Carol Grodzins, director of the Edward S. Mason Fellowship Program of the Harvard Institute for International Development, one of Bhumi's advisers, Bhumi would not send interns to a region where there was a real threat of violence due to military conflict.

She adds that "[Bhumi] certainly did some very good background checks on the regions they were sending people. Hopefully, through our new Center for International Development, we can help them get up-to-date information on issues in these countries."

Students say they are aware of the risks but are not deterred by possible complications.

"There are always safety issues," Bagchi says. "But it would be worse to not really get involved deeply in the issues, not having a personal involvement, than to expose yourself to some risk."

Bhumi also tries to prepare interns for language and cultural barriers. "[SAHRDC] has taken students from English-speaking countries for a few years now, so I'm sure they know how to handle students who don't speak the language and are doing field research," Hammer says.

Das is currently studying Bengali to help with her work with Phulki. "All of the teachers and kids speak mainly Bengali. I'd like to talk to them to see how they think we can improve the program," she says.

While Bagchi speaks Bengali and has been to India several times, "it will still be a new experience," she says. "There are specific communities that are more susceptible to human rights abuses--for instance, the poor and religious minorities. Their experience of Indian culture is certainly different [from the mainstream]."

Because Bhumi does not pay for any of the interns' expenses, the interns are currently applying for grants to support their efforts.

Bhumi began in 1996 as the international development arm of the Woodbridge Society of International Students, but has since established itself as an independent student group. Its projects last year included an international 'food-fest' to raise money for operating costs and a child sponsorship program, through which Harvard students could sponsor children abroad.

According to last year's annual report, Bhumi originally intended the child sponsorship program to be an ongoing, annual project. However, Gray says "We did not expect the internship effort to be as big and thorough as it is." Due to the time required for planning the internships, the child sponsorship program was abandoned for this year.

"This [the internship program] is our main thrust. Our other projects will branch out from that," Gray says.