Springfield, MA

The World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts will present US Representative of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic in Washington in conversation with Nina Nedrebø, on The Rights of the People of Western Sahara: The Human Face of the Conflict on Thursday, February 9 at 5:00 PM ET, in the 9th Floor Gallery at 1350 Main Street in downtown Springfield.

The event is free and open to the public, but advanced registration is required. Light refreshments will be provided.

Mouloud Said has served as the Representative for Western Sahara in Washington D.C. since 1990. He also served as the people’s ambassador to the African Union from 1976-1986 and representative to the United Nations from 1986-1990. Mr. Said grew up in the Western Sahara but was displaced from his homeland when the Moroccan and Mauritanian occupation occurred in 1975. Mr. Said advocates for the rights of the people of Western Sahara, both those living in their homeland, and those in one of the oldest refugee resettlements in the world in southwestern Algeria.

At Mount Holyoke College, Nina Nedrebø studied the conflict of Western Sahara, and received a grant to collect the memories of Saharawi women of the southwest Algerian refugee camps of Tindouf. While in the camps, she interviewed women, and researched children’s educational conditions at the request of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Algiers. In 2013, she traveled to Western Sahara, recording testimonies of human rights abuses there. Having witnessed the profound impact of the conflict on children and youth, she went on to research the needs of refugee children with UNICEF Norway, focusing on the medical, nutritional and educational conditions of Saharawi refugee children in light of the UNICEF Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nedrebø serves as a math teacher with Teach for America at Holyoke Public Schools.

Special thanks to NAI Plotkin.