The author participated in an international human rights project in the summer of 1999. Here, she highlights the discrepancy between her first impressions of a highly-literate, media-saturated environment, and her eventual recognition of the limits of accessible information, particularly as they relate to human rights. Vanessa will be part of an International Literacy Day panel organized by The Centre in September, 2000.

In the summer of 1999 I found myself on the ceiling of the world, trudging the heights of the Bolivian Andes with four of my classmates and a group of Bolivian students, teachers, lawyers and social workers. The Bolivians accompanying my friends and me were volunteers who dedicated themselves to facilitating community centre workshops. These workshops would address wide-ranging topics such as health and hygiene, domestic abuse and civil rights. My classmates and I were to attend and observe the workshops conducted by these committed individuals.

We were not "adventure" tourists: we were participants in a human-rights internship organized by the Montreal-based organization, CECI. CECI is otherwise known as the 'Centre canadien d'étude et de coopération internationale' (The Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation). With funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), CECI sends groups of Quebec youth all over the world to complete internships related to their field of study. My Quebec friends and I were selected to complete our internships in the field of human rights. After a rigorous training program here in Montreal, we set off for Bolivia where we had the opportunity to take Spanish lessons, visit numerous workshops and then work for our host human rights organization based in the capital city of La Paz.

Attending these workshops was a unique and fascinating introduction to an enigmatic country. It allowed me to grasp a variety of issues confronting this corner of the world since each workshop addressed a particular sector of Bolivian society: There were workshops for law students and for women living in economic hardship, for men wanting to build unions, and for youth seeking to learn more about their indigenous culture.