Nearly five years after graduating from CMC, Grace Michel lives and works in the largestand poorestdistrict of Lima, Peru: San Juan de Lurigancho, a sprawling section of the country's capital which includes thousands of people who migrated to Lima from the provinces to escape widespread political violence during the years when the Shining Path and MRTA terrorist groups were active in Peru (1980-2000).
In San Juan de Lurigancho, Michel works with a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Peace and Hope that is focused on human rights, and justice and sustainable development for poor and marginalized communities.
Michel describes her involvement in Peace and Hope as mostly capacity building and empowering leaders from local churches to serve their communities in holistic ways that address the major issues and needs.
"We focus a lot on addressing domestic and sexual abuse of women and children and promoting gender equality," she says. "We also train people with the knowledge to design small community development projects which range from educational and nutrition programs for kids to job skills projects for adults."
She also assists in the implementation of the recommendations of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established to address human rights violations that occurred during the years of political violence and terrorism in Peru.
"We do advocacy work on behalf of the communities of persons displaced by the political violence," Michel says. "I really enjoy when I get to help with this project, since my senior thesis was on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions after periods of gross human rights abuse, and I am particularly interested in this topic. I get to be a part of the process of trying to pursue reconciliation in the wake of political violence."
Michel graduated from CMC with honors in international relations and Latin honors.
"Grace was an exceptional student at CMC, in many ways," says Ed Haley, the W.M. Keck Foundation Chair of International Strategic Studies. "But her desire to put service to others ahead of self through her commitment to help the poorfirst in Los Angeles and now in Limareveals the depth of her willingness to live by her principles and her Christian faith.
"Her determination to listen to her heart and use her head to assist others was apparent to all of us who worked with her," he notes. "Now her efforts have begun to flower, and the results are deeply moving and impressive."
(Michel caught us up recently about her ongoing work abroad:)
CMC: How did you go from CMC to Peru?
GM: After I graduated I did a two-year volunteer internship in inner-city Los Angeles with a faith-based organization called Servant Partners. It focused on exposing recent college graduates to social issues including urban poverty and racial injustice. It gave me an opportunity to learn about community organizing, and to live in a community with other young people who shared my idealism and my Christian faith. During the internship I decided to do a summer volunteer program (Global Urban Trek with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship) in Lima, in 2006, where I was part of an international team of university students from the U.S. and Peru, helping with some community-development projects for a few weeks.
I was invited to come back the following year as the director of the same project, and it was during that second year that I came into contact with Paz y Esperanza (Peace and Hope). Their vision and work inspired me and felt like a natural fit, so I met with the director to discuss the possibilities of coming to work with them. The doors were open for me to come, but I had to get my own funding in the U.S., so I joined the Latin America Mission to create a partnership between my work in Lima and donors in the United States, and I raised money to sustain me for two years living and working in Lima. I have been living here for a little over a year now.
CMC: What did you do to prepare yourself for living in the poorest district of Lima?
GM: I had traveled somewhat extensively before moving to Peru, and I received a lot of cross-cultural training and preparation through my previous international trips, which were volunteer service trips that had some component of training on cultural adjustment, intercultural communication, etc. Also, living in inner-city L.A. exposed me to what it feels like to live outside of my comfort zone. I am from a small town in Northern California, and then I went to Claremont. I love these places, but I always felt like they were bubbles, sheltered from the reality that so many people face, and, so, I felt restless in these places. Even though it has beenat timesuncomfortable, living and working in Lima has helped me experience life more fully. CMC: How have you handled the transition What brings you comfort or maybe, what's the last thing you did for fun?
GM: Adjusting to living in a different culture is an ongoing process. Thankfully, my Spanish was already pretty strong before I moved here, but I've had my share of language bloopers and cultural fatigue; moments where I feel exhausted just from the fact that I live away from my home culture and language and family. But overall, I just try to have balance in my life and not overwork myself. I make time to hang out with friends, enjoy music, exercise, and travel outside of Lima to some of the amazingly beautiful places in Peru. CMC: How has your life been enriched working in Lima?
GM: Living and working in Lima has really opened my eyes to seeing life from a different perspective. The people that I have met and the relationships that I have built with Peruvians have taught me so much about solidarity and the dignity of the people whom our society categorizes as "poor." Living here takes me outside of North American cultural values and lifestyle and it helps me to discover what is really meaningful to me, instead of living by what my culture tells me is important CMC: What do you want to accomplish there?
GM: My long-term hope is that the people that I am working with will become fully empowered leaders and will maintain a lifelong commitment to serving their community, pursuing justice and advocating for the marginalized and oppressed.
In terms of my work on reconciliation efforts, we do things like campaigns to register victims of the political violence that happened in Peru from 1980-2000 so that the registered victims can be qualified to receive reparations from the Peruvian government for the human rights abuses they have suffered. We hope that individuals will begin to receive economic reparations in 2010. We also have advocacy campaigns to demand that the Peruvian government assures legal justice for the innocent victims of the political violence. Right now we have a campaign demanding the identities and sentencing of the military personnel involved in a massacre of more than 120 innocent civilians in the Peruvian village of Putis in 1984. This is a long and trying process because the government does not want to dig its skeletons out of the closet.
CMC: What do you miss most about home?
GM: Definitely my family and my close friends. I also miss living in a place where I have easy access to nature and hiking. I must say that I don't miss American food, because Peruvian food is amazing! CMC: What is the most concrete way you are putting your CMC education to use?
GM: My CMC education gave me the theoretical framework for the things that I am now working with in real life. As an international relations major I chose to focus my studies on human rights and I learned about the history of political violence in Latin America and modern reconciliation efforts. Now I am seeing how that plays out on the ground.
More than anything, my CMC education taught me how to be a critical thinker and how to be a lifelong learner, so that in my life and work I'm able to constantly learn how to do new things and reflect upon them.