Investigating Human Rights Abuses through Advanced Technologies

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IVLP Participants meet with Mr. Jeremy Rue of the UC Berkeley Advanced Media Institute

The following post was drafted and submitted by Fernand Gouveia, Program Officer for Meridian’s Center for Global Leadership. Meridian’s Center for Global Leadership recently administered a project for the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) titled “Investigating and Prosecuting Human Rights Violations.” Participants included a group of 10 lawyers, prosecutors, government advisors, and advocates representing various countries with compelling human rights records, like Barbados, Colombia, Mexico, and Rwanda. Participants gained valuable insight on the use of evidence-based methods and innovative technologies that investigators increasingly rely on to hold rights violators accountable and protect vulnerable populations. These new tools and strategies,...

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Legacy of and Future for Black Professionals in Diplomacy

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IVLP Black Leaders & Voices Participants meet with a representative from NAACP.

Candies Kotchapaw is the Founder & Executive Director of Developing Young Leaders of Tomorrow, Today (DYLOTT), a black youth-focused leadership incubator organization changing the socio-economic outlook for this marginalized community. In 2021, she participated in an IVLP project on Black Leaders & Voices. She offered the following reflections on her exchange experience. How did your virtual IVLP experience impact you? Were there any particular resources that inspired you, changed your perspective, or sparked new ideas in how to approach your work? The virtual IVLP experience was incredibly valuable in further aligning and clarifying the trajectory of my professional career....

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IVLP Alumni Spotlight: NGOs leading the way in response to COVID-19 in Cote d’Ivoire

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Mr. Aboubakar Sylla works in the field during the COVID-19 pandemic

This post was submitted by Mark Rebstock, Vice President of External Relations in Meridian’s Professional Exchanges Division. As cases of COVID-19 began to emerge in Cote d’Ivoire in March 2020, non-governmental organizations began to mobilize to meet community needs. For NGO AGIS, headed by IVLP Alumnus, Dr. Aboubakar Sylla, this meant setting up informational sessions about the importance of hand-washing and other precautions, collecting and distributing PPE and other supplies, and a special operation to disinfect the bus stations in Cocody, Cote d’Ivoire. Dr. Sylla registered AGIS in 2012 to prevent pneumonia in children and to reduce the mortality...

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IVLP Alumni Spotlight: Strengthening U.S.–Japan Government Bonds

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G3P Fellows Visit Philadelphia

This blog post was contributed by Lee Norrgard, Program Officer in Meridian’s Professional Exchanges Division For almost 170 years, the United States and Japan have organized informational and cultural exchanges between our two countries. Arriving in 1871, Umeko Tsuda was a seven-year-old girl sent to learn Western ways in Washington, DC. Her foster parents provided schooling that led to her graduation from Bryn Mawr College. Upon returning to Japan, she founded the prestigious women’s school Tsuda University which continues the intercultural exchange first experienced by the young Umeko Tsuda. Carrying on this long tradition, in the 1970s, the Government of...

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IVLP Alumni Among Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, joined by Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, presents a certificate to 2018 'TIP Report Hero' Sunita Danuwar of Nepal. (Photo Credit: U.S. Department of State)

Sunita Danuwar, 2018 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report Hero, was honored this week as one of Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. Sunita is the Executive Director of Shakti Samuha, an organization that provides shelter and support to victims of trafficking in persons in Nepal. A trafficking survivor herself, Sunita now serves as an advocate for other victims. She has played a key role in expanding her organization’s victim-support services to include education and skills training, repatriation services, and legal assistance to survivors and girls at risk of trafficking. In 2018, the US Department of State recognized Sunita and...

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