2005 Testimonials - Course 2E: Human Rights Advocacy

"It was well organized, interesting and useful for the participants."

"It surpassed my expectations as I was not really sure what to expect having never done an online course before."

"The course was at a higher level than I anticipated."

"I have learned a lot and I can share the knowledge with my colleagues."

"I really appreciated the diversity and preparedness among the course participants. I felt like being part of a real good and extremely focused group of co-workers (and more than that, friends aimed at helping each other in the learning process."

"The [weekly] discussion questions allowed me to think about and reflect on the issues in relation to my own context and reality - it was good to have to answer questions that allowed me to apply the issue to me own experience as it made it practical and made what I was learning more 'real' and usable."

"Sometimes I would like to have more time for reflection on certain chapters - but had to do them often in a hurry due to own personal constraints of trying to balance work and study!"

"It was very good to have the ongoing discussion board where I could pop in and read what people were putting up whenever I wanted to. I learned from others when they applied what we were learning to their situation - it afforded me the opportunity to see the issue in an entirely different light and context, and provided further learning as a result."

"I have read all and printed all comments. It did add an extra hour per week (and time is scarce for all of us) but I thoroughly enjoyed reading all these different interpretations and perspectives on the questions."

"[the instructor] was extremely responsive to the students' anxieties and feelings. Besides that, she really knows how to supervise and guide our group's interaction and at the same time to provide for a safe space where we could create our own dynamic self-learning and understanding. She succeeded a brilliant balance between these two important things!"

"Job well done!"

"It was essential really to have [the instructor] tie up the progress that we were making in the weekly messages - even though I would read the discussion board, her summations enabled further absorption of the ideas that were coming out, and she placed them in different frameworks and gave comments that were also very interesting and useful to learning. Without this I may have felt a little lost as to where everyone else was at and what focus we were taking as a groups. It was also good to hear about Valerie's wealth of experience and learn from those. Valerie's comments were always constructive and helpful - giving me a lot of motivation and encouragement even when I might have felt nervous about sticking out my neck and adding my opinion!"

"It was a nice experience to have interacted with [the instructor] during this course - She was extremely encouraging and supportive! [Technical support] could always be trusted to be available and able to address any problem! This combination made the course duration appear shorter than it actually was."

"The readings were excellent, requiring lots of deserved time, and it was the best part of the course!"

"[The discussion board] was very useful instrument, interestingly enough I think that there would have been far less discussions between participants, had the course been real-time and we all come in for a two-hour training per week or so. Now, everyone can send in ideas and remarks when time is appropriate to them. I also feel that by writing, people are more disciplined and focused on what is really important to convey."

"The peer review of the final paper was particularly useful!"

"The estimate for time taken for the final project was somewhat lower than reality, but that maybe was my problem!"

"I think my expectations were largely met by the course. Although initially I had expected a large dosage on human rights - the different types of rights enshrined in various conventions, in the end I found the way the all course was treated quite relevant to my practical work needs."

"I think I was expecting more specifically on human rights, and what is different about advocacy on human rights - but essentially the "New Weave…" [course text] more than met my expectations."

"I feel prepared to work for human rights NGOs or any other human rights/development agency after developing my advocacy skills throughout the HREA human rights advocacy course."

"The course exceeded my expectations as a matter of fact: I learnt much more than I anticipated and also a sort of classroom feeling did develop, which I did not expect at all."

"This course perfectly met all my expectations. I am deeply grateful to everyone at HREA who gave me the opportunity and their time so that I was able to take pleasure in accomplishing it."

"I have recently taken up a new job where my key role is to strengthen programming quality, and specifically focus on address issues like empowerment of disadvantaged people, root cause analysis, advocacy and human rights. I just find my HREA course experience and the various analytical tools used during the course as the best preparation I have had for the job."

"I think it will be hugely useful for future work, as well as helping me systematize a previous experience in a way that will be beneficial for those taking that work forward."

"The course has already benefited me enormously in being able to analyse my work in a different way and apply better approaches and strategies to addressing issues that are constraining my work. It has also given me more confidence - while I was already doing some of this work and along the principles and guidelines suggested in the course, having learned the theory and heard the experiences of others it has given me more confidence in my abilities and knowledge of human rights advocacy issues."

"It had a tremendous impact as the course content helped me to change perspective in day to day analysis of development problems ; it made me much more confident to use power (with, to, within - and sometimes also "over"..) to influence. I dare to say that my participation in the course did also kick off a rethinking process within our organization about our own advocacy work; it also helped me to see a strength within our organization that I have never perceived before, and which I will now be able to make better use of."

"As many of the people at [our organisation] are not experienced professionals, I hope to be able to share my new knowledge concerning advocacy and planning with them. I think it will help make us more focused and more effective in running campaigns. "

"I've recently been asked to provide training for an NGO on equality issues, rights and general advocacy which I now feel confident to do having completed this course, and find that the course text has been an excellent reference and guide for me at this time, as well as through the course."

"It has been a great start for an internal process of reflection on the way we work and forms the basis of very interesting discussions with potential partners for collaboration and funding."

"I was surprised virtual learning (electronic) could be as fulfilling as this! HREA's Human Rights Advocacy course has inexhaustible number of analytical tools that I now freely use in supporting various program development analytical processes with colleagues and partners - much more than I was able to do before the course."

"It has made me want to do further courses with HREA too which I am surprised at as I thought this would suffice, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience."

"Many, many thanks!"

"I have gained a lot professionally from this course, and I will certainly recommend it to colleagues in my field. Many thanks."