by Liz Garrett and Diana Trasatti

The brutal and vicious realities of war are an everyday occurrence for the people of Iraq.

Violent outbreaks have caused persistent and abundant visual images of injury, death, kidnapping and torture to the citizens of the country.

Physical effects of the war are damaging and apparent; but the impact of the emotional and psychological damages that the war in Iraq is causing has gone unaided, until now.

A new program has recently been developed by Catholic Relief Services to provide psychological treatment for the Iraqi refugees who have experienced these traumatic events first hand.

“There were cases of persons, someone from their family was assassinated in front of their eyes. We have many children also who were kidnapped or in front of them they saw severe scenes of torture,” Isaaze Saade, employee of Caritas Lebanon, said.

Six-year-old Omar was kidnapped in Iraq. He was captured because, even though he is a Christian, his name is Muslim. With the religious wars raging, Omar was imprisoned with numerous other children of the same name.

“He has been refusing, until now his parents call him by his name, so he changed his name. He hates his name,” Saade said.

Cases like Omar’s are not uncommon and the Iraqi Refugee Trauma Relief Program provides counseling, medical attention, education and psychological follow-up to the citizens of Iraq who have been a victim of torture, imprisonment, kidnapping or a witness to any of these events.

While addressing these issues are imperative to the psychological well being of refugees, they do not always actively seek the help that they need.

“If we remove the idea of a diagnosis from the idea of trauma and just really help people to understand that trauma unfortunately is an effect of the many unfortunate consequences of war. It’s not just about removing the stigma but trying to give people a reason to understand that what they have is not something of a deficit but a consequence of circumstances under which they have no control,” Arlene Flaherty, CRS representative, said.

Flaherty was instrumental in initiating the program. Even though there was some hesitation from Iraqis to go through with the program, since its start this year it has gained acceptance and the number of clients has grown so significantly that there was a need to hire an additional psychologist.

The trauma programs are organized into groups that relate to the experience of each Iraqi. Victims of rape, torture, kidnapping and imprisonment all have a forum where they can gather to share their story, listen to others and move past their painful encounters.

The Iraqi culture places great importance on community, so CRS uses this as a tool for the program and provides training for Iraqis who wish to assist as counselors in the program.

“There’s a real big strength, which is the strength of their family and the strength of their tribe, their group, their town. So it’s really helpful to work with the families together, to help each family to be able to understand how to support family members and to help each community of Iraqis to understand trauma, so those communities can actually help support people who are in fact, traumatized,” Flaherty said.

Iraqis who are fleeing from the turbulent state of war, often seek safety in other countries, but their struggles do not end there.

Refugees in Lebanon cannot legally hold jobs and have difficulty keeping up with living expenses. Any refugee who is found working, runs the risk of becoming imprisoned. This can bestow a helpless feeling upon the refugees, especially men, and may cause them to enter a state of depression.

Refugees entering the United States do not have it much easier. Even if one gets passed the tough immigration laws and obtains a job, there is still difficulty adjusting to American society and breaking through prejudiced mindsets of others.

“I think Iraqis who are accepted for resettlement in the States are facing a lot of difficulties of integration and are really suffering a lot, so for us it is very important for the American people to understand that this person came from a different culture and to welcome them in a better way,” Saade said.

Even though the Trauma Relief program has been providing aid and treatment, war is still lingering in Iraq and atrocities are being committed each day.

Leaders of the program believe that a deeper understanding is needed between countries to end the catastrophic events that are essentially causing the trauma.

“In the long run we are people, and even though we may be on different sides of the conflict we share a common humanity that suffers and is vulnerable to the violence of war. We need to be able to support Iraqi refugees who are trying to get home and who are also traumatized. You know to that extent that we begin to heal these wounds of war in each other so that we will really be able to achieve the outcome that we want, which is deep peace-building between the people of Iraq and the people of the United States,” Flaherty said.

by Eric Gibble

Making the decision to journey to the U.S.

Nine years ago, a woman from Guatemala made a decision that would change her life forever. It’s a journey that would force her to face challenges and dangers she never would have expected.

Roberta, a resident of Philadelphia, requested her real name not be used due to the recent validation of her visa. She was once a part of the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.

This precarious journey northward was also one she didn’t want to make.

“I was praying we wouldn’t have to go,” Roberta said. “I didn’t want to leave my family.”

After growing up in Guatemala City as a child, she moved to the outskirts of the city after 12 years. She later married and had two children, one girl who is now 14 years old and a boy who is now 12. Just like any other average Guatemalan, Roberta led a seemingly normal life.

However, a normal life to Guatemalans is in stark contrast to the normal life of an average American. According to the World Bank, about 75 percent of Guatemalans are below the poverty line with 58 percent of the population living in extreme poverty. In addition, seven out of 10 children under the age of five are malnourished.

Current economic conditions in Guatemala have worsened since the 1990s with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA has benefited the large agribusiness companies of the United States, but has decimated the middle class and farmers in Central America.

Due to the economic disparity in her own country, Roberta was forced to be separated from her husband for weeks at a time. Her husband would make the long passage through Mexico to the United States to work in Texas in order to provide a living income for his family.

Over time, a family can live under the strain of separation only for so long.

“My husband wanted me to come to the United States with the kids. It was hard for him as well,” Roberta said.

Facing the challenges of migrating without documents

Roberta made the decision to put her family first and come to the United States. The first option was to come to the United States legally. But reality soon set in for Roberta.

“It’s almost impossible,” Roberta said in reference to obtaining a visa.

Current immigration laws only allow for 66,000 low-skilled labor positions for people across the globe. This leaves a gap of 434,000 in the labor force as there are 500,000 generated every year. In addition, it can take over a decade to enter the United States even if a person can get through the process.

Roberta and her children wouldn’t have to jump from boxcar to boxcar on the northward trains like many heading to the United States do. Because of her husband’s connections, she was able to secure a safe passage to Mexico. But, that came with a price. Undocumented immigrants are known to pay up to $5,000, the yearly wages of a Guatemalan, to assistant them in entering the United States.

“He [my husband] had to pay, but because he was a friend I think he didn’t have to pay as much,” Roberta said.

The ease of her journey would abruptly end. The next challenge would be to cross the Rio Grande River bordering the United States and Mexico.

“I was told ‘Someone is going to help you cross the river,’” Roberta said. “These people work doing that all the time. I said ‘How? I don’t know how to swim.’ They said, ‘You’re going to sit in here and then we’ll push.’”

With her children next to her, she crossed the river into the land of opportunity on a raft in fear of the possibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement turning her right back around.

Even more frightening was the possibility that these people were not friends but human traffickers. Approximately 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked to the United States every year for labor or prostitution according to the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report.

Luckily, Roberta and her children would not be subjected to this fate and she made it to the shores of the United States safely.

“They had a house where we stayed for a few hours. While I was there, I was scared they could do something,” Roberta said.

Learning a new language

After what seemed like a never-ending wait, she was finally united with her mother-in-law in Texas where she stayed with her children for a short time. Yet obstacles were still being thrown at Roberta and her family.

“I didn’t speak any English. I knew how to read and write some, but it was hard to speak. It was hard to ask questions. I needed people to help me,” Roberta said.

The reality of having to pick up a second language was not new to Roberta.

“Of course, I knew that I needed to. I do love my Spanish though,” Roberta said with a laugh. “I know people who come here and they want to learn English. Even the older people still want to learn.”

Her children, having been thrown into a completely different culture, would also be faced with this obstacle. Many Americans are concerned that English would be overtaken as the primary language spoken in the United States.

Yet a report on language assimilation by the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research in Albany, N.Y., found that 91 percent of second-generation immigrants, like Roberta’s children, will become practically fluent in English.

“They speak English and Spanish. My daughter speaks both perfectly, but my son’s first language is English.”

Within a few weeks, another journey lay ahead for Roberta.

Adjusting to America

“A friend in Philadelphia said, ‘Come here, you can save money.’ I said okay, let’s do it. It was expensive for me. I took a Greyhound bus,” Roberta said.

Life wasn’t what she expected it would be in the United States. Her pursuit of happiness would be a struggle to obtain as she recalled the first few months in Philadelphia.

“There were four of us in one room in this house. It was awful, there was no space for us. We stayed like that for two months until my husband got the money from his job,” Roberta said.

Because she did not have a social security number due to her undocumented status she was unable to find a place of her own.

“You can’t even rent a house. Oh lord, it’s so important to have a social security number.”

Her first jobs included tasks that even teenagers searching for jobs wouldn’t subject themselves to.

“I was lucky a lot of people knew me. I had a friend and I started working cleaning houses. I didn’t know I could make a lot of money,” Roberta said.

Without the protection of the law, she was subjected to low wages.

Recalling the experiences of others she knows, she noted the long hours and small amount of pay they receive.

“People will have to work many hours in a day and they don’t make money,” Roberta said.

The adjustment to life in Philadelphia for her and her family was a constant struggle.

“Life is completely different. Everyone stays in. I don’t even know my neighbors,” Roberta said.

“There are so many drugs. I never saw people doing that in Guatemala. I walked out the door here and it’s happening.”

She soon found help in the area from the Sisters of St. Joseph Welcome Center. The sisters at the center help immigrants improve their English and make the transition into American society easier.

“It’s amazing though. They’ve helped me so much,” Roberta said. “Thank God everyone was pretty nice.”

In 2000, Roberta adjusted her status when her husband applied for a Family Based Green Card.

“I’m very happy now, I can help the way I was helped before,” Roberta said.

Cabrini SEM 300 students learn about issue firsthand

Students at Cabrini have been able to address the issue firsthand. Taught by Dr. Jerry Zurek, chairman of the communications department, the SEM 300: Working for Global Justice class immerses students into issues such as extreme poverty, human trafficking and immigration.

“Students will take knowledge and desire and use that knowledge after they graduate,” Zurek said.

Students have also been able to visit the Sisters of St. Joseph Welcome Center and the Northeast Regional Office of Catholic Relief Services.

“The class has opened my eyes to the myriad of issues that face immigrants in America. Although it seems like a cut-and-dry situation, the challenges they face once arriving here are unbelievable. I think before I thought their struggles ended once they successfully crossed the border. Now I know that isn’t the case,” Monica Burke, senior English and communication and biology major, said.

Before engaging in the class, Burke found that she was not as informed on the issue as she thought she was.

“I thought I was pretty in tune to immigration issues,” Burke said. “Now, after learning more and more, I see that most Americans have barely scratched the surface of understanding what faces an immigrant once they decide to migrate.”

Burke believes that people like Roberta also deserve the help of the community.

“It is the responsibility of a community to care for the weakest of its members. By being educated about the challenges and issues that face immigrants, Cabrini students can advocate for these members of our community,” Burke said.

Roberta also holds high hopes for the future and hopes to be a part of this community that helps out those that are making the adjustment into American society.

“This is a wonderful country where we can learn and support our families. For those that are living here undocumented, there is hope. There are wonderful people who can help,” Roberta saidby Eric Gibble

Caitlin Friel, Gillian Davis, Mallory Terrence

“Road of Insecurity: The Global Food Crisis” explores the current conditions of those living without food in the world and what is being done to address the problem.

This award-winning radio documentary seeks to educate people on an issue present not only here in the United States but to an extreme degree in the developing world.

The documentary aims to explain why it is important to care about issues overseas and to fund programs that aid the developing world.

The concept for the documentary originated in a social justice course the three students participated in, Working for Global Justice. As part of the course, they interviewed representatives of several national and international organizations involved in developing sustainable policies for food security.

The students interviewed representatives of agencies like Bread for the World, the national organization to end hunger at home and abroad, and Catholic Relief Services, the international humanitarian agency of the American Catholic Church.

The documentary was reported and produced by Gillian Davis, Caitlin Friel, and Mallory Terrence.

What other college reporters have done:

• The trailblazing athletes of Lingira Island, Uganda by Michelle Mazzeo, University of Wisconsin, Madison, tells the story of how football can be a safe and productive outlet for girls on Lingira Island, Uganda, where violence against women is otherwise epidemic. Read her story also: The trailblazing athletes of Lingira Island
• Empowering women to end worldwide poverty by Shannon Keough, Jessica Wegelin, and Jen Wozniak, Cabrini College Loquitur, shows that “while empowerment may seem intangible, it can be achieved and is essential to the development of a nation. ‘Once you raise the standard of life for women, you’re also raising the standard of life for those children she cares for and also for her own country,’ Arlene Flaherty, justice and peace liaison for CRS, said. See also their video Empowering women.

Watch this movie about the trailblazing athletes of Lingira Island, Uganda :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRPhTtbVigs

As you can see from the video, this team has a lot to bring to Lingira Island. Sadly, the setbacks are far from small. Violence against women is an epidemic on the island. Almost every girl at the island school has engaged in an illegal relationship, been raped or forced into prostitution. Some girls are married off young before being able to finish school. The banality of violence against women is also reflected in the fact that hardly any perpetrators are sent to prison. This in part has to do with woman’s low status in society: most girls and women do not even report violent acts committed against them. In fact, acts of violence against women have become so normal that some mothers have been known to sell their daughters as prostitutes in exchange for a small amount of sugar.

Since this movie was made, EDGE found out that one of the girls on the team was recently defiled. Defilement can mean anything from rape to an inappropriate relationship with a minor. In this particular defilement case, the community raised the funds to send the man to jail and get the girl tested for rape. Because the girl’s family hid her for 5 days after the incident, they were unable to gather conclusive evidence. Regardless, corruption enabled the perpetrator to return to the island after only a couple weeks.

Now is a time to use the foundation that LGFC has created to spur social change against the widespread violence against women. This semester, EDGE interns on the Women’s Empowerment Research Team have been researching methods for making the LGFC a more effective route for empowering young girls. We must urge the community not to give up on investing in its girls– not to fear change. Instead, EDGE is encouraging them to take a firm stance against all of the incidents of violence against girls and women.

The LGFC girls are the future– they must be given opportunity and a voice today in order to change their world for the next generation.

The girls of Lingira need support more than ever, as one of their only productive outlets is being threatened by the violence against women epidemic on the island. We can all make a difference in this situation, by supporting the creation of EDGE Project’s new, comprehensive and sustainable strategic plan that will ensure, through checks and balances, that football is a safe and productive outlet for girls on Lingira Island. See our website for updates: www.wisconsinedgeproject.blogspot.com

I came to Uganda with EDGE Project‐-a group from the University of Wisconsin‐ Madison that enables students to carry out detailed research with professors on campus and subsequently implement small projects in partner communities in the developing world. When I arrived at Lingira Island in the middle of Lake Victoria, I had no idea that I would be working full‐time as a soccer coach to a group of young ladies.

Before the soccer team began, I spent over a month just getting to know the Lingira island community. I found that most people spoke broken English, if any, and had preconceived notions about why I chose to come to their small and remote island. It was difficult to get to know people well in such a short period of time. However, the rapport I built simply from trying helped me later when I decided to report on this story. One evening I invited myself to play soccer with some of the men from the island. After only a short period of time, I found the men and boys were shocked that I was able to kick the ball in the right direction and I was famous within a matter of hours.

Of course, all this attention just for playing some soccer did not sit right with me. Girls should be encouraged to play the beautiful game just as boys are. Once I did some background research with the schoolteachers and other community members, I discovered that girls were much too busy cleaning, cooking, gardening, tending to children and caring for their family members to enjoy a refreshing and fun game of soccer. I also learned that many of the girls engaged in prostitution, premature sexual relationships or were victims of rape, which is extremely common in the community.

I immediately began to work with a young native of the island, Tony, to put together the first girls soccer team. Of course, the team was a complete novelty to the island and watching it fall into place was an inspiration to everyone. However, working with young, vulnerable girls in a marginalized community such as this one, requires a lot of care and close monitoring. I depended almost exclusively on the male coaches to translate when I wanted to communicate with the girls about filming them. If I were to document a story like this again, I would try harder to find a woman as a translator. In general, when reporting on a situation that challenges social norms of girls and women, asking a woman to translate is probably a good idea.

I would also make my goals and objectives in documenting a story like this extremely clear to the participants and community, all of whom are already keeping a close eye on the activities of any outsider. The more the locals understand your purpose, the more likely they will be to help move along your project.

A small crowd gathers at the door asking for help. They want an answer or even a piece of hope to hold on to.

It doesn’t matter that it is late at night or early in the morning. They stand at the back door of his home waiting for the man that can help change their lives.

Luis Tlaseca has been the light of hope for the farm workers in Kennett Square, Pa. He has dedicated his time to CATA, a farm workers support committee or El Comité de Apoyo a Los Trabajadores Agricolas, that empowers farm workers to organize for better working and living conditions. He was also one of the founders of the only union for mushroom farm workers in the region.

Tlaseca is the coordinator of the Pennsylvania CATA, which also has an office in Southern N.J. He strives to unify mushroom-farm workers and give them a voice to fight for what they deserve.

“My job, it’s difficult, it’s challenging for me to try to organize,” Tlaseca said.

Tlaseca, like many of the farm workers, is a native of Mexico and came to the United States undocumented to pursue a better lifestyle.

Tlaseca said that he left Mexico in 1978 due to the poor conditions and lack of income. Upon arrival in the United States, he worked a low paying job picking apples and peaches. He eventually moved on to the mushroom industry where he experienced terrible working and living conditions, as well as low wages.

Tlaseca said that conditions were bad at Kaolin, the mushroom farm he worked at in Pennsylvania. He explained that he worked in these conditions for 10 years until May of 1993, when he realized that it was time for the workers to stand up and be recognized for the hard and necessary work they do.

He organized workers and led a strike to get a union recognized. Following the workers going on strike, it took nearly 10 years for the Kaolin company to finally recognize the workers’ union and to negotiate the first contract with the workers for better wages and working conditions. Over those 10 years, the company fought the union in court.

Today, approximately 300 mushroom workers at the Kaolin farm are members of the union. They receive better wages and live and work in better conditions thanks to Tlaseca and the union. However, the remainder of the 10,000 mushroom pickers are still trapped in poor working conditions because they are not members of the union.

Although Tlaseca has successfully helped hundreds of workers through the union and through CATA, his job is never done. There are always more mushroom farm workers looking for an answer.

“My position is very hard because I represent the union and workers and to organize and coordinate the office in CATA,” Tlaseca said. “It’s a difficult situation when I visit the workers and different companies. The companies, they know me. The offices, they talk to me and say go, get out! They don’t like you to visit the workers.”

Everyday Tlaseca meets with workers to help them find a way into the union. However, it is not an easy task to get in touch with the workers.

In one situation Tlaseca said he visited seven workers at their company to discuss the union. When the owner arrived he blocked Tlaseca’s car in and called the police. Eleven different police units including the state police arrived to arrest Tlsaeca. He tried to explain that he worked for CATA and was only here to help. The police did not care. They forbade him to remain on the property.

At present, the farm workers union is negotiating another contract with the company. Although in a union, the workers work most days of the year, including holidays. They only get holidays off if it is their one day off a week. They are asking for paid holidays, a pay raise higher than their annual raise of two percent and the right to take unpaid leave to visit their families in Mexico.

Tlaseca, married with two daughters in college, has dedicated his life to improving the working conditions of mushroom pickers, who make about $20,000 a year. Although he has been part of the struggle for more than 20 years to improve conditions for the immigrant men and women who put inexpensive food on the tables of Americans, he knows that much remains to be done. While much remains to be done, he says he’s supported by the people he works with and for.

“My job, I happy because I have a lot of friends. The workers, they know me, they like me because I try to support them,” Tlaseca said.

http://media.www.theloquitur.com/media/storage/paper226/news/2009/11/19/News/Migrant.Farmers.Rally.For.Rights-3837805.shtml

In December of 2007, Megan and Jillian, my two partners, came to me in a burst of excitement and explained that they had this great topic for our radio documentary for the next semester. They continued by saying they already had interviews lined up. I thought, “Awesome, you guys can do the talking, I’ll just sit back and when it comes my turn to edit the audio-I’m there.” Little did I know that as I shook my head up and down, my entire life would change because of another school project.

Let me take you back a little before December. The first interview, Megan and Jill conducted without me because I wasn’t involved in the project yet.  Robert Makunu, a Catholic Relief Services Staff Member of Kenya, sat with Megan and Jill and a few others from our school newspaper, The Loquitur, and was questioned about children orphaned by AIDS in Kenya.

Once the interview was completed and Jill and Meg were set on this topic, I came on board. We had our next interview set up for us- Ken Hackett, The President of Catholic Relief Services and Joan Neal who, was the time, was the Vice President of United States Affairs for CRS.

I’m going to have to give you a little bit of background about me before I go any further. Up until that point, I was completely intimidated by news- don’t ask me why, I just was. There was something about learning what was going on in the world that I thought was just not for me. However, this was around the time that I stepped out of the bubble around myself and took a little peek at the world around me.

We decided it to be a good idea to learn about AIDS in Africa, since that’s what our topic was about.  Together, we learned about PEPFAR, The Presidential Emergency for Aids Relief and that it was a great program that offered 30 billion dollars over the next five years to AIDS relief in Africa. We agreed that PEPFAR would be the basis of our interview with Ken Hackett.

With Ken Hackett came Joan Neal, the Vice President of U.S. Operations, with whom we interviewed. They were great interviews because they fed off of each other and we were able to use them a lot back to back in our documentary.

It was made clear in Hackett’s speech on Cabrini Founder’s Day that we were doing extraordinary things at Cabrini by not only being so curious about our topic and really knowing the issues at hand, but by wanting to do something about it. We knew we wanted to fix the problems we were learning about, but we didn’t really know how to. After we thought about what Hackett said, Jill, Meg and I, decided okay “that’s it, we are going to switch our documentary around and switch it to advocacy!” What others can do to help the issues we are learning about right now.

As the semester continued, the interviews grew more intense. Through Catholic Relief Services, we contacted Bridget Chisenga of Zambia. Ken and Joan told Bridget’s story to us when we interviewed them. As soon as they left we knew we had to get in contact with Bridget. We obviously didn’t care what it took to get an interview with Bridget because we were at the studio pressing that record button at 5 am when we had just gotten to bed after a long night of editing.

In April, my Working for Social Justice class and I went lobbying in Washington DC to our Senators. There, we spoke about our concerns for the Farm Bill and how we would like to urge our senators to help pass it. Through this process, I learned that our government actually listens to us. I feel that my generation has become so stubborn in saying and believing that our lawmakers don’t care about what we have to say or what our opinions are because they feel that our government has failed them. Well, let me tell you that they do care and they do want to listen to us. It’s their job! How could they not care what we have to say? Writing letters to your Congressmen or Senators will make a difference, and I believe that our class together did make a difference.

We then got in contact with Ryan Keith, Founder of Forgotten Voices and Nicolas Demey, Communications Supervisor of The Global Fund.  These two interviews took us to that next level of advocacy and gave us examples of local people helping global issues to global foundations helping local people.

Once we collected all of the interviews, we locked ourselves in the edit bay with some water, canned food, and a change of clothes, and edited our documentary until it was complete. Well, it was never really completed. We always wanted to change something because all three of us are perfectionists.

We just finally came to the conclusion that it was time to get our voices heard. We wanted to change the world and this is how we were supposed to do it. We had to stop being perfectionists and get our work out there because we knew that if we believed in something so passionately, that there are others that believe in it too.

Our mission, that we believe we completed, was to inform and educate others on HIV/AIDS in underdeveloped countries and what American college students can do to help. I believe that we did this by exploring diverse situations and interview various people that were helping communities in different ways.

I thank God everyday for the chance that I had that absolutely changed my life into working for the common good. People are out there, and we need to listen to their voices and reach out to them in ways that you can because I know that our hands are not tied.

Reporting on social justice issues makes the process of interviewing and writing a story even more important. Especially for college students who can use social justice issues to link their college, no matter how big or small, to the world. The value this holds is that we are the future generation of reporters and the world can not change unless the general public is aware of its struggles from Africa to the Middle East and back to the United States – there are many hardships that need addressing – here is how I did it.

The first step is educating yourself about the world and what exactly is happening in even the smallest of places. I did this by taking a course offered at my college entitled Working for Global Solidarity. In that class I listened to a speaker from Catholic Relief Services who had just visited Iraqis who have been displace in other countries due to the effects of war and violence.

Honestly, I never thought about how the innocent Iraqi civilians were affected by the war. Interested in learning more – a project my group was assigned was on refugees and peace-building. We decided we would investigate the refugee crisis in Iraq and highlight what war was doing to Iraqi people who in reality were not that much different then us and our families.

My professor told me about an Iraqi student at another college nearby who was speaking about her experience living in Baghdad during the war. I contacted her via e-mail and she was more than willing to speak with me one-on-one.

We met a few times and did a couple informal interviews of which I always recorded with my tape recorded because really the best quotes and stories come out when you are just having a casual conversation with someone person to person – stories and deadlines aside.

There was so much information I had gotten from the three interviews I did with this student that my biggest challenge was sorting through it all and choosing which experiences I wanted to share in my article. The Iraqi student had witnessed so much violence and felt so much fear in her 20 years of life. I wanted to do the story justice and really show people the effects this war had on students not difference than us.

Honestly – I wanted to use it all. My story could have been six pages but that was not an option so I thought very carefully about what I really wanted people to know most. I wanted readers to feel what it was like to live in Baghdad during this war and how it has ruined the lives of its civilians who have done nothing wrong.

Sorting through pages of notes and quotes – it was almost like a puzzle putting it all together. It is important to write your article in a story telling way – so that people can not only learn about these issues but almost feel the hardship of the people affected by the issue. A personal angle is always best if it is available.

If you are interested in doing some sort of social justice story – but have trouble finding an angle see if you can highlight a student or organization within your school that have done social justice work. Even a class that focuses on international development or social justice could give you some sort of starting point.

Overall, reporting on social justice issues is very rewarding. You are the voice of the people who have none. You are not only learning about things that might not ever cross your mind otherwise – but you are sharing the information with others to support change. Not everything is fair in life – but everyone deserves a chance at it and not everyone gets that chance. It is up to us as journalist to inform people that these issues are going on and that together we can make a difference.