Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 26, 2007|Volume 36, Number 8

Yale World Fellows discuss
social change in Latin America

“Latin America is a place for dreamers,” Yale World Fellow Denis Mizne of Brazil asserted at a master’s tea on Oct. 16 at Ezra Stiles College.

In fact, he said, he has high hopes that some of the student dreamers and visionaries in his audience will devote themselves to helping shape a better future in that part of the world.

Mizne was a speaker at the tea along with World Fellow Nicolas Ducoté of Argentina. The two — who both founded successful non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in their home countries — spoke on the topic “How To Bring Social Change in Latin America.” They shared insights on promoting reform in the region and recalled their own experiences as students lobbying for change in their countries.

Mizne founded the Instituto Sou da Paz, a public advocacy group, while he was a law student in 1997 at São Paulo University in Brazil. Now the leading NGO in Brazil, the institute directs crime prevention strategies in three cities in the country. It launched a disarmament campaign that discouraged the ownership and use of guns in the resolution of disputes and began an initiative — dubbed the “disarmament of the soul” — that aims to change the way Brazilians react to violence in general.

Ducoté is executive director of the Center for Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), Argentina’s leading independent public policy organization. He co-founded CIPPEC seven years ago after earning a master’s degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In addition to securing free legal services for the poor, his organization is also establishing the first charter school system in Latin America.

Mizne and Ducoté both noted that Latin America is experiencing a host of problems that require creativity, fresh perspective and a bit of dreaming to solve, adding that there is a huge demand for those with talent and a willingness to contribute.

In his country, Mizne said, the issue of gun violence is especially grave.

“We have a silent war on our continent, and nobody is really talking about it,” he told his audience, noting that today international debate and resources are primarily focused on conflict regions in other parts of the world.

Mizne recalled how he was part of a student movement while he was in law school that questioned the way the state handled crime in Brazil. One year before he began the Instituto Sou da Paz, he related, the United Nations had published a report concluding that Brazil had the highest rate of homicides in the world, surpassing 40,000 gun deaths a year. Mizne became determined to bring about much-needed awareness on this issue.

He criticized the “mano dura” (roughly, “hard line”) policy that many Latin American nations currently employ in their efforts to reduce crime, describing some tactics as overly repressive and inefficient. The relationship between police and civilians, he added, is often tense.

He and Ducoté pointed out that in the 1980s, many of the countries of Latin America were emerging from dictatorships. Today, they agreed, conditions in the young democracies in this region make it an especially propitious time to achieve reform there.

During the tea, the World Fellows carried out a workshop-like session, dispensing advice and detailing strategies that might help a non-native of Latin America participate in social change in the region. Among other actions, they urged interested Yale students to partner with ?local organizations for greater effectiveness and legitimacy, to get involved in an effort or organization that can be sustained “even after you’re gone” and to make use of any resources or connections they may have in the United States.

Mizne and Ducoté said that they hoped their talk, in particular, would inspire many in their audience to consider careers in NGOs. When he first graduated, Mizne recalled, it was not an option to become a “professional NGOer,” simply because it was very difficult to make a living in the field. Today, he said, the non-profit sector represents the fastest growing employment opportunity in Brazil.

Ducoté acknowledged that it can be challenging to navigate a foreign culture or society, but said he believed the experience to be transformative, both for the individual participant and for the society he or she serves.

— By Luis Vasquez

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