Chris Bradley, Program Officer at Equitas The 3rd session of the East Africa Human Rights Program has just started its second and final week here at the MS-Training Centre for Development and Cooperation a few kilometres outside of Arusha, Tanzania. There are 31 participants from 7 different countries from the Region; Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda. This diversity is really appreciated by all of the participants and the facilitation team alike. The facilitation team have been really amazing and we have all learnt a lot from them and also the coach George Mwai Gichuki, who is someone special. I should not fail to mention Irene Nakasolya, the Regional Coordinator and our two volunteers who have been working hard to keep everyone happy. Dignity, Participation and Freedom During the Opening Ceremony on March 11th, we had the honour to have as host the Canadian High Commissioner and to have two former participants who shared how their Human Rights Education work has been enhanced by Equitas’ International Human Rights Training Program (IHRTP). The Chair of the Steering Committee also asked the participants to sing their respective national anthems which enabled them to reflect on the spirit of Nationalism that should drive certain values in their work; dignity, participation and freedom. A funder spoke, as did I, and representatives of our Regional partner organization, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project. In sum, the Program has been running very smoothly and it is safe to say that there are a lot of smiling people around here.