The Current

Lauren Walker recently joined IJM’s Government Relations & Advocacy team as our Organizing & Advocacy Fellow for the Midwest. Welcome Lauren!

As the newest member of the team, I’d like to share a little about myself and my path toward working at IJM. I am originally from Minnetonka, Minnesota, and I am excited to connect my home region with this team’s advocacy work that I have come to love. (And if you were wondering, yes, “Minnetonka” like the moccasins.)

FIVE MONTHS IN HONDURAS

I studied International Development and Spanish at Calvin College, and during that time I got to live in Honduras for five months. My passion for justice grew from ideas on a textbook page into a concrete reality, as I saw the lack of justice affecting the lives of my host family and friends.

Every day, we bumped down the Honduran hills in our little bus towards class, past sellers of freshly cut mangoes and among the gorgeously green mountain landscapes. We drove a mountain road like most in Honduras: that is, incredibly curvy. Tegucigalpa, the capital city where I attended university, boasted six lanes of traffic on a three lane road. Tin roofed homes sprawled up the hills in every direction, glinting silver veins in the distance.

But within this simultaneously beautiful and chaotic landscape, I learned first-hand the need for an accountable government and a fully functioning police force. Without the necessary resources and training, they cannot effectively do their job, and safety and security are not always the primary feelings associated with the Honduran police force.

Once a week I visited El Proyecto Gideon, a legal and counseling clinic in Tegucigalpa. Learning through observation and conversation I got to know Carolina* who came to wait weekly. Her neighbor in rural Honduras was using a part of her land, and abused her when she approached him about this, so she bravely went to the police. Instead of coming to assist her, the police sent her away with a form for a lawyer to sign, and said they would then go to investigate or arrest the neighbor. So here she sat, chatting with me politely every week, awaiting a lawyer that came only once during my entire five months in Honduras.

I was able to sit in on her meeting when the lawyer came, hear her story, and see the lawyer sign her form. My heart rejoiced with this woman who had waited patiently for a signature; my mind simultaneously feared for her, as approaching the police yet again did not guarantee her land or her safety from her neighbor. Pursuing justice for Carolina was a long, tedious, climb in which I was helpless but to listen to her story. She inspired me to also do all I can, every day, to use the position and gifts I’ve been given to work for her, and others just like her, awaiting justice.

The everyday effects of lawlessness reach far and wide. Uncertainties and fears weigh on a person tangibly over a lifetime, a reality I’ve lived for only five months and never will forget.

THE FREEDOM TO START DOING

I learned in Honduras that reality is messy and perfect answers are few, but this is by no means an excuse to not try or care. Rather, it gives us all the freedom to start doing something, starting right where we are, and to do it well. We better get moving!

I channeled my experience in Honduras into an internship with IJM in Washington, DC, and now into this new fellowship in the Midwest. In my role at IJM, I will be connecting Midwesterners with resources and training to support the policy goals of our team here in Washington, DC. I’m grateful to be here and excited to be working with this stellar team.

And of course, if you are from the Midwest and want to get more involved with advocacy, I look forward to working with you!