Solidarity in the Carpathian Region
Sándor Köles is a Hungarian-born sociologist, the President of the Carpathian Foundation, a founding member of the PASS Board of Advisors, and a member of the Berlin-based Robert Bosch Academy. He had been the Senior Vice-President of the International Center for Democratic Transition (ICDT), the main goal was to share and make applicable Central European experiences on democratic transition in a wider world. Previously, he had been the Carpathian Foundation's Executive Director, promoting cross-border and interethnic cooperation in the bordering areas of Hungary, ...
Empowerment Through the Lens
Manca Juvan, photographer, curator, photography mentor, and director at APIS Institute, sits down with VantagePoints for a conversation about her work and her journey as an artist. Manca has travelled extensively and used photography as a tool for experiencing and learning about the places she has travelled to. Above all else, Manca is a storyteller. Her most well known projects, “Guardians of the Spoon” and “Unordinary Lives”, share a new perspective on the people who lived in the Italian Fascist Camps and Afghanistan, respectively.
Manca shares with us her ...
Channeling Women’s Voices Through Digital Multimedia
If you gather people for an event and you show them a short film—you are able to more quickly convince them of your cause, rather than just relying on a speech or a lecture. Short films are a very effective tool to inform people about important topics. Of course, they can also go viral.
Crossing Faiths and Building Bridges
One of the innovations of the podcast is that it doesn't have to be just two people talking. We want to make sure that we have a space that is participatory, not just from a listening perspective, garnering support from different communities—but making sure that they see it as space for anyone to come and talk about the issues of the day, and utilize that format in that space.
Impact:Peace is Reducing Violence Through High Impact Peacebuilding
People think about lethality and they think about conflict zones. They don't think about countries and places with very high levels of violence that exist outside of conflict. For example, many people don't realize that Brazil and Mexico constitute two of the most lethal countries in the world. If we're going to be talking about evidence-based solutions to address violence, we have to start with knowing—where is the violence, and what's the kind of violence that we're talking about?
Beyond Mobility: Wheelchairs Enable Engagement and Quality of Life in Developing Regions
When I started coming to Belize and Guatemala 1980, I saw people with disabilities that were crawling around on the ground or stuck in bed. That kind of tore my heart out. Just prior to returning to the States from Guatemala in the summer of 1988, I saw a woman, for the second time, crawling across the Pan-American Highway.
Tools Against Corruption and Human Trafficking
Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons (TIP), is a multibillion-dollar criminal industry surpassed only by drug trafficking and arms sales. The 2017 data by the International Labor Organization (ILO) revealed that there are more than 40 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. Under federal and international law, TIP is considered a crime, but there have been many challenges in enforcing this. Ambassador Luis C.deBaca (retired), a Robina Fellow of Modern Slavery at Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, ...
Building and Bridging Central Asia
By Ambassador Natalia Gherman
I was appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres to be the Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, (UNRCCA) on September 15, 2017. UNRCCA is an interesting assignment. The mission is one of the smallest United Nations Special Political Missions but covers an absolutely enormous territory that bridges Europe and Asia. Together with my staff, I am charged with supporting the Governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in their ...
Storytelling for Social Impact
In the digital era, the shape and delivery of stories have evolved dramatically. It has provided an opportunity to reach more people and get them engaged.
Our Better World (OBW), the digital storytelling initiative of the Singapore International Foundation, leverages the power of stories and digital media for social impact. Rebecca Lim, Head of OBW, shared with VantagePoints that their approach is to tell stories of people doing good in Asia to inspire their global online community to take action. In September 2018, OBW won the Best International Not-for-Profit Case ...
Honoring Humanity Through a Lifetime of Humanitarian Service
Bruce Muir recently retired as director of the Emergency Response Division in the Welfare Services Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His duties included supporting emergency response to natural disasters and refugee crises globally. Bruce has also held numerous positions in the Church including director for temporal affairs in the Philippines and Chile Areas, and the managing director of the Translation Department.
