Welcoming the New Liberian Fellows

» TheThe Irish Aid FellowshipLink Alumni Newsletter Welcoming the new Liberian fellows The first ever Irish Aid Fellows from Liberia attending the 2016 Fellowship Orientation at Farmleigh House. From left: Walker Mahn, Catherine Thomas and Abdul Koroma Irish Aid would like to extend a warm welcome to Ireland Abdul Koroma is an official at the Ministry of Public to students from Liberia, the newest fellowship award Works in Liberia. He is doing a master’s in Environment, country. Society and Development in NUI Galway. Liberia became eligible under the Irish Aid Fellowship You can learn more about the first ever Irish Aid fellows Training Programme for 2016-17 and three fellows from Liberia on page 11. commenced Master’s programmes in Ireland in September. In total, Irish Aid welcomed to Ireland 74 new fellows from 12 different countries for the 2016-17 programme. Walker Mahn is a researcher with the Liberian Drug A further 26 fellows were approved for in-region study in Enforcement Agency and he has come to Ireland to 2016, while another 81 fellows are continuing in-region study Applied Social Research at Trinity College Dublin. studies begun in previous years. Catherine Thomas is a healthcare worker and is studying Irish Aid would like to wish all 2016 awardees the best of Global Health at Trinity College. luck in their studies! INSIDE Join other Alumni on 2 4 6 Facebook - Staying Connected: Irish Aid to launch Meet the new Khaled Quzmar, new Development ICOS team click here Palestine Education Strategy Meet the new team at ICOS From left: Shannette Budhai, Emma Dwyer and Derrie Murray In 2016, Louise Staunton and Colin Tannam left ICOS to take up positions in the international offices of two Irish universities and Dave Moore decided to return to education to pursue postgraduate studies. They had each been with ICOS for a number of years and will be greatly missed. We wish them all the best in the future. A whole new Fellowship team has now started at ICOS, and they have been working hard to help all of the 2016 fellows to settle in. Find out more about the new team below. Shannette Budhai Emma Dwyer Derrie Murray Shannette joins the ICOS Emma has joined ICOS Derrie comes to ICOS from a team as the new Programme as the Programme and youth charity called Future and Communications Officer. Training Manager and Voices. Before that he worked She most recently worked is responsible for the and studied at Trinity College with Comhlámh overseeing operational management of Dublin in the political science the development of the the Fellowship Programme. department, and he also has Code of Good Practice With a background in experience working as an auditing tool for volunteer international development, English teacher. In addition sending agencies working in Emma has worked with to looking after the current international development. the UN in Malawi and the fellows, Derrie will also She has a keen interest in Irish Department of Foreign be responsible for staying immigration matters and will Affairs in New York and most in touch with Fellowship step into Colin’s role as ICOS’ recently was the Executive alumni, so if you want to get immigration liaison officer. Director of an Irish non-profit in touch you can email him organisation called Irish today at [email protected]. Rule of Law International. He would love to hear from you! 2 Fellowship Orientation held at Farmleigh House in Dublin On September 24th, 2016, ICOS and Irish Aid hosted incoming fellows for orientation at Farmleigh House. An estate of 78 acres based in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, Farmleigh House dates back to the late 18th Century, and was bought by the Irish Farmleigh House, Phoenix Park Government from the Guinness Family in 1999. Today, this is where the Taoiseach, or Prime Minister, greets heads of state when they come to Ireland on official visits. Fellows were greeted by ICOS Director, Sheila Power and Irish Aid’s Head of Bilateral Cooperation Unit Southern Africa, Asia and Palestine, Fionnuala Gilsenan, both of whom emphasised that beginning an Irish Aid fellowship marks the start of a lifelong relationship with Ireland. UCD’s Dr Deirdre O’Connor then introduced fellows to everything they need to know about studying in Ireland. Kader Asmal fellows 2016-17 This was followed by three outgoing fellows – Faridah Kyomuhangi, Can Thi Thanh Huyen and Thomas Thuso Mokwa – sharing their experiences and facilitating workshops that gave incoming fellows many useful tips. The day concluded with a welcome reception in Farmleigh House’s Conservatory among the many exotic plants and flowers grown there, before everyone returned to their universities throughout Ireland. We wish all of the 2016 Irish Aid fellows great success in their studies in the year ahead! IDEAS fellows 2016-17 Incoming 2016-17 FTP fellows attending Orientation at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park in Dublin 3 Staying Connected: Khaled Quzmar >>The Link spoke to Khaled, an Irish Aid Fellowship alumnus from Palestine, 10 years after he came to Ireland to study International Human Rights Law at NUI Galway. When Khaled Quzmar stop working, to have a rest, and to determination payed off. When his was 14 years old, his brother was study something.” first assignment came around he arrested by Israeli occupation forces This was in 2006, and soon was expecting to get around 45%. and Khaled was only able to see Khaled came across the Irish Centre However, when the marks were him through an “iron net” when he for Human Rights in NUI Galway, announced two weeks later, Khaled visited. His desire to break through and learned of Irish Aid’s Fellowship was shocked when his professor, this iron net and give his brother a Training Programme. He applied, who he is still in touch with, informed hug – a simple request denied by his application was successful, and him that he had achieved an A. This the Israeli prison authorities – is “within a few weeks, everything set a high bar which Khaled was what inspired Khaled to become a was organised and I had to leave determined he would maintain lawyer: “I found that the only way for Ireland.” However, while he was throughout his year of studies. was to become a lawyer and visit excited, it was not easy for Khaled to When asked where he got him in prison and hug him inside.” leave his family behind. this determination from, he laughs: He studied for his law “For me, it was a difficult “At the time, my director agreed to degree at Oran University in Algeria, experience because I had children give me one year off. But after being and returned to Palestine 5 years – they were the age of teenagers – in Ireland for two weeks, I heard later to find his brother still in and it was not easy to leave them. It that he thought I would fail because prison. Two days later, he was inside was a challenge for me, but my wife of my English, and that I would be his brother’s cell and was finally able supported me and advised me to back after one or two months. So to hug him. go.” I thought, how can I convince him For the next 20 years, And so he did. But it was not that I can do it?” Khaled continued to work as a easy in the beginning for Khaled: “At Really, though, it was the defence lawyer representing mainly the time, my English was very bad, support from his family that helped child prisoners inside the Israeli unfortunately, and when I arrived, him to stay focused, and Khaled military courts. just two days later the semester spoke with them every day via However, after 20 years, started and the first lecture – it was Skype for only a few minutes before Khaled became so frustrated that he about three hours – I understood no he would say, “Please, stop here felt that he could no longer continue more than 10% of what the lecturer because I have to go back to study.” to battle in the Israeli military courts was saying and this killed me.” Despite his gruelling system. But Khaled did not give up: schedule, Khaled managed to find “I got aggressive with my “I kept studying and struggling.” He time to get out of his room and children. I couldn’t accept it when started a gruelling study schedule, travel around Ireland too. He spoke I came home after working 10 working 18 hours a day locked away at universities around the country hours in the military courts, leaving in his room, determined not only to about his work in Palestine, and he children alone behind bars without keep up with the course materials, also took part in the Famine Walk, anybody to take care of them, but also to improve his English. which commemorates the mid-19th subjected sometimes to torture “I used to sleep about half century Great Famine that took and ill-treatment, while my children an hour, one hour, and then back place in Ireland. asked me to go to a restaurant to study, and to study in order to “I participated in the Famine or to the cinema. So I became improve my English because on Walk, and afterwards I made a aggressive. But then I thought to each page I used to find at least 100 speech about Palestine, and during myself, ‘Why am I doing that? Why words that I did not know. It was a the Walk I was sharing my experience am I blaming my children? Why am challenge.” with different participants from all I punishing them?’ So I decided to Khaled’s hard work and over the world.

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