Behind We Encourage: Introducing the team — Meet our Content Creator Emily
As we move into our piloting phase we thought it would be important to introduce our core team to the world via a series of blog posts based on interviews with the team. First up: me!
Nice to meet you — I’m Emily, our content creator. I am currently based in South Korea as a teacher, which makes attending meetings interesting due to the time difference! But, I am so pleased to be involved and to bring attention to this important issue.
How did you join We Encourage?
I met Anna, our wonderful founder, by sitting next to her at a conference in Oslo when she was just starting We Encourage. She gave me her card and 6 months later, while in South Korea I found it and thought I would see how the project was going. Little did I know that she would invite me to send my resume over and a few days later I would be content creating!
Forced marriage has always been a periphery issue in my life. I know about it, I have read about and I have heard about it. But I wasn’t doing anything about it. Before I moved to South Korea to teach I was doing a masters in International Conflict Studies, having come straight from a Psychology undergraduate. Most of my academic interest lies in North Korea and the process of trauma, migration and trauma resilience. I’d written essays about the trafficking of people into forced marriages across China. Primarily across the North Korean border where this provides a lucrative opportunity for brokers. But the forced marriage issue is much wider than this, it is far more prevalent in western societies than people assume, and it is damaging to so many people.
Once Anna began explaining to me at our first meeting I knew I was interested, but it didn’t seem feasible to do anything. Luckily for me, the South Korean internet is notoriously fast and I can work remotely.
What is a content creator?
I create titles and write articles for our Medium blog based on research or interviews with our partners. I create topics with both the team and by myself. All of the graphics for my articles are credited to the lovely Kristina.
Motivations and Morals
I intern here because I am passionate about change. I love my job but doing humanitarian outreach enriches and fulfills me. There are too many issues in the world to tackle all of them, and you have to be selective. Historically I have chosen refugee work, academic interest in authoritarian regimes and their propaganda, and now forced marriage. I believe we have a right to help others if we are in a position too. Injustice is wrong and biased structural systems are wrong. But if you are in a privileged position you should use that to do what you can where you can to make change and create equality, even at a potential detriment to your own position.
I am also motivated to help people help themselves. For too long the white saviour’ ideal has created more problems for people, and I have been a part of that in my former naivety. When given aid people can fix their own problems, they have the expertise, they know the local culture and what works far better than an outsider does. Yes, altruism can be selfish. It feels good to help, but if there are experts in a particular area use them. This is where We Encourage is great as our partners are local people inspiring local change like Idea Nepal.
Make 3 changes on Earth and choose a superpower
If I could change 3 things on earth I would first wish for equality, not in legislature or false promises but in reality. Them a reversal of the climate issue and for it to be taken seriously and prioritized in government. Finally for human rights to be upheld, not just as an ideal but as an actuality. As for a superpower, teleportation would be great! I love travel and reducing the carbon footprint of travel and the time it takes would be amazing- especially as I live so far from my family.
Thank you for reading, and look forward to our next Behind We Encourage blog!
