Hi! My name is Joyce - a Belgian scholar currently on a research stay in the US and (still) wildly passionate about human rights.

Having spent a considerable amount of time in Bucharest, Romania as a child, and having volunteered alongside the fantastic team of the Fundatia Inocenti/Romanian Children's Relief (https://rcr.org/) organization, I understood the necessity of understanding and documenting the traumas inflicted on victims of human rights abuses, as a crucial component of any healing process and in the pursuit of any form of justice.

So many years later, I am struck by the same feeling of despair and helplessness as I felt then, as the world watches violent conflicts unfolding at an exceedingly rapid pace, with a degree of frighting ferociousness and cruelty. And yet again, I am left with the question: what can I do? What can we do? What with the thousands of children and generations of young people who grow up knowing nothing but trauma and violence? How can we navigate rushed media-reporting, the constant push to react to volatile and developing news coverage, and the atrocities that are and have been unfolding in recent years, with a degree of care and sensitivity that our humanity demands of us? How does one even begin to contribute to any form of justice for these young people who have done nothing, but simply be born into such conflicts? I have no answer for these questions.

Synergy for Justice (https://synergyforjustice.org/) is a small-scale organization geared towards interdisciplinary documentation of human rights harms, in a manner that is conducive to obtaining reparations and justice for victims of human rights violations, while also prioritizing a victim- and healing-oriented approach. Their work has been instrumental globally, in obtaining reparations for victims of torture, sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of severe ill treatment, and developing locally-informed pathways to trauma-recovery for the most vulnerable amongst us.

I feel defeated in my inability to contribute to a softer and kinder world for children that are victims of such abuses. As I attempt my first marathon in NYC on November 5th, I would like to use the opportunity to raise awareness for Synergy for Justice, the work they do, but more importantly, for the countless of generations of children who are in dire need of trauma recovery and justice. Will you help me?

All funds raised will go directly to Synergy for Justice.