CARRY ON, CARRIEBRIGHT

by Ana Olson | Thailand ‘15

The Carriebright Fellowship on the ground, 20 years later

For some PiA Fellows, one year in Asia is not enough. The Carrie Gordon Tribute Grant, also known as the Carriebright Fellowship, seeks to nurture the wild ideas of PiA Fellows and transform them into meaningful action. Established in memory of a beloved former PiA Executive Director, the grant offers up to $10,000 for a PiA Fellow or recent alum to pursue a work or service project in Asia. Grants are awarded based on a project’s feasibility, sustainability, and impact. Since its creation in 2005, the Carriebright has funded 17 projects in nine different countries in Asia. As PiA prepares to relaunch the Carriebright Fellowship, we wanted to check in on a few past grant recipients and see what’s happened in the years since.

Wes Hedden (Vietnam ‘06) moved to Cambodia shortly after finishing his PiA posting in Can Tho, Vietnam. Through his work in both countries, he’d encountered what seemed to him to be a shared history of animosity and suspicion between Cambodians and Vietnamese, one that manifested in mirrored forms of oppression and systemic exclusion in both countries. He imagined a comprehensive exchange program for potential young change-makers, incorporating in-country site visits, volunteering, and language practice. He drafted a proposal for the Carriebright and won the grant in 2011 for the Sarus Exchange Program, named for a crane that migrates between both Vietnam and Cambodia annually.

In its first year, 24 university students – a dozen each from both Cambodia and Vietnam – pursued separate community projects in their home countries before meeting together in both Siem

Reap and Ho Chi Minh City for service-learning opportunities. The program grew organically as Sarus collaborated with other local organizations to respond to the needs of its participants. After four years of the initial exchange curriculum, Sarus partnered with Volunteers in Asia to facilitate sports-based exchange programs between Cambodia, Vietnam and the US. Sarus later became more explicitly focused on peacebuilding and conflict transformation and in 2016, it began an all-women-identifying exchange program between Bangladesh and Myanmar, placing participants in longer-term internships with regional peacebuilding organizations. Most recently, Sarus led a Peace Leadership Incubator program in Yogyakarta, Indonesia which invited all former Sarus alums to apply for a 10-day peacebuilding and conflict transformation training; six participants completed the program, receiving grant funding for local community projects.

Some parts of Sarus remained relatively unchanged throughout the years. To this day, Hedden believes the foundational element of the peace circle was the most transformative part of the program: facilitated discussion groups where participants could explore what they were learning and feeling, using a restorative justice model. Raymond Hyma of Women Peacemakers Cambodia, a Sarus alum, noted the unique perspective

Hedden

former Sarus participants bring to WPC’s facilitated listening work. Sarus provided its participants with their first “meaningful encounter with the other” helping to shift their consciousness to be able to lean into discomfort.

Hedden is certain the Sarus program would not have been possible without the unique funding structure of the Carriebright. Other grants can come with restrictions that limit creative potential and cross-border exchange. As noted by Dan White (Vietnam ‘05), another Carriebright recipient in Can Tho, “the fact that the Carriebright exists gets Fellows thinking… ‘how might I contribute, get involved, or learn in a different way than what’s already preestablished?’”.

For Clare Gallagher (Thailand ‘14) and Haley Read (Thailand ‘14), deep attention to their host community inspired their Carriebright fellowship. Posted in Bangsak and Phang Nha, respectively, the two recall spending almost every weekend in the water. Gallagher taught English at R35, a boarding school within sight of the ocean, and quickly realized that none of her students ever came to swim. Why, Gallagher and Read wondered, were the beaches of one of the world’s top tourist dive locations seemingly inaccessible to the local children? Eager to understand, they discovered that most of the students couldn’t swim. Additionally, the ocean was a place of broken trust – Bangsak, located near Khao Lak in Southern Thailand, was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Despite their proximity, the students seemed to live a world away from the sea.

Gallagher and Read began asking their Thai co-teachers about the possibility of taking the kids for a beach day. What began as a field trip suggestion quickly evolved, with the help of the Carriebright, into “Earthraging with English,” an ambitious program combining water safety, ecological responsibility, and marine science. Gallagher and Read developed a curriculum that included ocean swim lessons, beach clean-ups, and a snorkeling trip, all carried out in partnership with local dive shops.

In the years since its creation, Earthraging - which takes its name from a cavalier phrase for outdoor adventuring, borrowed from Read’s friends back home in California - has become a staple extracurricular activity run by the English Department at R35. R35 students now learn to swim in a local pool with the help of local dive shop partners. Snorkel trips are a reward for engaged participation in swim class. Sam Snyder (Thailand ‘19) says at least 300 kids got to go snorkeling during his time at R35, the culmination of many days spent in the pool. Many students repeat the program each year for fun and Earthraging is still sustained by local dive shop partners who donate equipment and staff and additional support from fundraising efforts in the US. Gallagher and Read stay in touch with each new class of Fellows who arrive in Bangsak, to give an overview of the program and offer their guidance. If Earthraging occurs “even one day of this a year, that’s a success,” says Gallagher. As she sees it, the message of Earthraging is simple: “the water is for you.”

The COVID-19 pandemic necessarily put most regional programs on hold, offering a chance for reflection and change. The Sarus Exchange Program has elected to go dormant for the time being. Earthraging with English continues, though considerable turnover in the local dive shops – often staffed partially by foreigners who were unable to travel to Thailand during the pandemic – means the Fellows in Bangsak will likely need to build new relationships from scratch. But the pause has also given necessary time to consider the successes. Sarus has produced well over 200 alumni, who now work in a variety of fields. Clare and Haley estimate that well over 1500 children in Bangsak have had at least one day in the water.

The lives of the grant-recipients have also been forever changed. Wes Hedden’s work with Sarus ultimately led him to pursue a PhD in Peace Studies and Sociology at Notre Dame, where he is currently in his second year, and Clare Gallager and Haley Read have remained close, and point to the Carriebright fellowship as the foundation of their friendship. All three have never fully turned their gaze from Southeast Asia and the potential work to be done. And so the Carriebright carries on, creating small but meaningful change in the places and people it touches.