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“What I loved, what challenged me, and what ability did I continue to work on today? Reflections on the importance of self-awareness and community building in our humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding efforts – and transformations brought upon a summer in Geneva” 

By Paola Saldivias Mendez (UNC Global Studies ’25)

Summer 2024 AFE Blog Post Series

 

As I grab my coffee, which I’ve served in a in a cup that reads “Peace, our shared responsibility”, and join my colleague in the conference room (which we have turned into a coworking space for the afternoon), I have uncountable ideas about what to include in this blog post. The need to select just a few of them for this post is sparking my creativity – miniseries of blog posts, anyone?

As a fellow living her summer internship, what we call our Applied Field Experience (AFE) in the Rotary Peace Fellowship, I see this blog post as an opportunity to share about learnings, talk about the community I’ve been building in this process, the skills I’m honing, the invaluable answers I am finding for the big questions that I hold dearly in this mid-career adventure that I have embarked on.

So, dear reader, that is what you will find here. I invite you to join me in this brief journey of reflection of what my summer internship in Geneva has meant so far.

First, let me help you get situated. I am currently on the 5th floor on Av. De France 23, in Geneva, Switzerland, at the office of the international peacebuilding organization Interpeace. As an organization, since its inception 30 years ago, Interpeace is invested in transforming conflict into a positive source of change. The organization’s mission is anchored in the conviction that identifying and helping strengthen local capacity, ownership and leadership is the only sustainable way to manage conflict non-violently, creating enduring peace and strengthened social cohesion.

I have been welcomed by, cared for, intellectually nurtured and professionally stimulated by Interpeace’s greatest asset: a team of kind, committed, compassionate and knowledgeable professionals. Along the past month and a half (hard to believe I’m more than halfway into the internship at this point! It feels like it was yesterday that I arrived), I’ve had the opportunity to engage in conversations, participate in events, carry out individual research, ask colleagues for advice, asked them out for coffee to hear about the work they are doing and their journeys, learn, reflect, learn some more!

For example, I joined conversations with the UN’s Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs – DPPA’s Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) regarding the joint efforts that they are carrying out in collaboration with Interpeace to bridge the communication with Civil Society Organizations, in a way that the efforts for peacebuilding that originate in the sphere of policy-making and those of implementation on the ground through the work of CSOs, are aligned and authentically conducive for building lasting peace. I’ve reflected with a colleague from Guatemala on the potent social change that the country underwent in their latest presidential elections, being that Guatemala’s current president Bernardo Arévalo de León was part of Interpeace for over 20 years! These conversations feel very important amidst the several political crises happening in my country Bolivia, and in neighboring countries in South America. I’ve also had the greatest breakfasts in this office, ranging from a Tuesday home-made pancake with the marvelous office team (evidence of joy in the photo), to a high-level breakfast sharing with Interpeace’s Governing Board, followed by our organizational attendance to the launching event of the 2024 Global Peace Index at the Geneva Center for Security Policy.

I highlight these events as they powerfully exemplify the reason why I chose to come to Geneva to fulfill my summer internship. You see, as a “development practitioner”, or social entrepreneur as I prefer to describe my professional background, I applied for the Rotary Peace Fellowship with the motivation to contribute with my experience in grassroots work in Latin America to the conversations and efforts of policy-making actors in headquarters. I find this moment in time particularly conducive given that big conversations are happening more often around decolonization in academia, localization in humanitarian work, and civil society engagement in the development sphere, among others.

Each and every one of these events, and the many others that happened in between, have been learning opportunities. Learning in its most expansive sense: learning that comes from listening to salient professionals as well as engaging in conversations and reflecting together; the learning that comes from mustering up the courage to share some bold ideas and ask the burning questions in rooms with high-level profiles. The learning that stems from overcoming the ever-present impostor syndrome and really allowing the space to embody the joy that comes with fulfilling dreams.

These experiences and opportunities have expanded my professional network, enlarged my horizon, and polished my skills.

However, my cup has been filled with so much more. This experience in Geneva is also a testament of the power of community building, of personal resilience, of compassion and self-awareness. I came to Geneva bearing big professional questions, and even bigger personal inquiries. Will I be successful? Will I be able to make the most of my time here? Will I have the right knowledge to contribute accordingly? Will I ask the rights questions and hold the correct answers? Will I be good enough?

I was so intimidated by the significance of this opportunity, so pressured by self-demand, and so overwhelmed by the prospect of living up to the standards and fulfilling a dream that I held for so long!

Amidst this whirlwind of excitement, fear, anxiety, joy, and all the possible emotions and feelings that you can think of, it has been my community that has kept me grounded. Despite the time difference between Europe and the Americas, I have been held by loved ones, both friends and family. As loving and faithful witnesses to my life, decade-long friendships have reminded me once and again that five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago! I was already talking about living the experiences that I am living today.

For the past few years, my rhythm of life has been marked by a lot of movement, working and living between countries, different cities that I’ve called home. A constant exercise of uprooting and re-grounding. A voluntary displacement accompanied by constant community-building. An exercise that requires resilience. Despite the newness of our relationships, I have been cared for by colleagues and newly acquainted friends in Geneva. All these marvelous people have built community with me, and humanely showed me that showing up as your authentic self is the best way to go through life. They have been fundamental in strengthening my resilience.

I started an exercise of daily check-ins with myself when I got to Geneva. I was gifted a blue notebook in which I answer daily to three prompts: what I loved, what challenged me, and what ability did I continue to work on today? This exercise of self-awareness allows me to listen to my inner dialogue. Remember those big personal inquiries that I mentioned in the lines above? I have been working on them as they evolve, shift and transform through the integration of a new question: for whom?  Successful according to who’s perspective? Who decides what is “the right” knowledge, is there such thing? Being good enoughis such a nuanced appreciation.

Compassion and resilience have been very present in my every day. And they have been constant reminders of the fundamental notion of peace: peace starts within.

I want to invite you to consider extrapolating these reflections, that may seem merely personal, to the work we do as practitioners, humanitarians, peacebuilders, social entrepreneurs, or whichever role you ascribe to. We have such a big opportunity to foster social change, to incite social cohesion, to address society’s pressing needs for dignity and livelihoods. And with this opportunity also comes an even bigger responsibility of being mindful of how we do it.

But you can’t give what you don’t have! It’s hard to show compassion if you don’t have it for yourself. It’s difficult to prioritize resiliency in your programming or policy-making when you are heedless to its power. Who are we listening to, prioritizing, caring for through our work? How are we showing up for them?

Interpeace is an organization that strives to bring the local actors to the center of their work, because they recognize that peace cannot be imposed or externally built. It needs to come from the grievances and needs, but mainly from the dreams and hopes of each society. Being part of an international organization whose values I align with kindled my commitment and passion for the work that I do, the profession I chose, the professional that I am.

As a “development practitioner”, I thought that I was embarking on a career change towards peacebuilding. Beyond the roles and titles, as a human being, I understand that this experience is about recommitting to my conviction and passion for a just, free and loving society, despite which side of the HDP Nexus I come from.

My colleague left our coworking space a while ago. Reflecting and writing this blog has me sitting here beyond office hours. However, because we are in summer it is still bright outside, and I am headed to enjoy some live reggae music at le Plaine Watts Festival with that wonderful community that I’ve told you about in this unique city, feeling blessed, motivated and honored to share these reflections with you. I hope you enjoy reading them, as much as I enjoyed writing about them.

à bientôt!

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