GRADUATE – ERIANA RIVERA-ROZO
ON THE AMERICAS PEACE PATH in WASHINGTON
Eriana Rivera-Rozo meeting in Washington D.C. with former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and right: a few months earlier graduating the Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester
In the summer of 2010, Columbian born Eriana Rivera-Rozo graduated the innovative 5-month Masa-Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester in Israel.
A few months after graduating and returning to the United States, Eriana landed a post with The Carter Center where she now works in the Americas section.
“I met President Carter when he participated in the 3rd Andean-US Forum that was held in Washington D.C. in September as I am now involved with one of The Carter Center Peace Programs called the Americas Program, a project consisting a forum made up of prominent members of civil society from five Andean nations (Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela) and the United States,” explains Eriana.
“They come together under sponsorship of The Carter Center and International IDEA to look for common ground to strengthen relationships within the region and with the United States. They have split up into five different thematic groups: Media, Drug traffic and Organized Crime, Inclusive Development, Climate Change and the Common Agenda group, the Common Agenda being a document, still being finalized, that seeks to find common ground and goals among all involved nations. The final document will be presented to the respective governments as encouragement for diplomatic policy changes.”
In the short time that Eriana has been working at The Carter Center, she has had the opportunity to meet with the ambassadors of many countries in the United States as well as high profile and interesting staff from the State Department, USAID, and congressional/senate staffers.
“The best, of course, was meeting President Carter,” states Eriana and then jokingly adds “and to hang out with the Secret Service Agents!”
The Carter Center was founded by Jimmy and Roslyn Carter with an aim of ‘waging peace.’ Waging peace by resolving conflicts, strengthening democracy and advancing human rights worldwide a basic tenant of the organization opened in 1982. Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, strongly emphasized human rights throughout his career.
Living in the United States since her late teens Eriana - who holds a Masters in Conflict Management - came across details of the Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester whilst surfing the internet looking for an opportunity to experience life in a kibbutz for six months.
Seeking to take time out from corporate America where she had been working for the previous six years in an international corporation, Eriana took up the suggestion of her mother to spend a period on kibbutz, a communal way of life her mother had learned about when participating in a medical program in the country some 25 years beforehand.
“My mother returned to Columbia with a passion for the country and the people of Israel.”
Basically trawling the net for a kibbutz based program for overseas students, Eriana cyber stumbled over the Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester where students live and study at the nearby kibbutz of Barkai and are involved in community work in the Arab villages surrounding the kibbutz.
“I was attracted to the program as it offered a holistic experience, not only focusing on Arabic but also being involved with Arab and Jewish communities – that is what truthfully piqued my interest although I had wanted to learn Arabic for some time I thought the best way to do it would be where one is living in an immersed environment,” explains Eriana.
Being a Colombian citizen, but living in the States since her teens - meant that Eriana did not need a visa for Israel, a fact she says helped her not think in terms of studying Arabic in Jordan or Egypt as many students from North America do.
“Studying in Israel offered exposure to the Arab community without taking away the Western secular social dynamic to which I was used and I was very drawn to the coexistence work of Givat Haviva and valued the opportunity to be involved with an institution that was engaged in attempting to resolve the Arab-Jewish political and cultural divide.”
*** During her stay at Kibbutz Barkai, Eriana was photographed standing alongside a gigantic sunflower – the photograph later published in the Kibbutz Movement newspaper Daf HaYarok. With the kibbutz movement celebrating this year the 100th anniversary since the founding of the first kibbutz, the photograph of Eriana appeared alongside one from the kibbutz movement archives showing a kibbutz child and blossoming flower – but many decades before.
Eriana Rivera-Rozo on the pages of Daf HaYarok
Lydia Aisenberg
