ISSACHAR INTERNATIONAL: TRAINING INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE WORKERSTraining and Education

Especially critical in the fight for justice is the need for change at the systemic level in institutions and policies that either ignore or promote oppression.

Issachar International is committed to supporting the education of individuals who are on the cutting edge of the intellectual and legal fronts of the justice movement. Becoming qualified to assume positions where one may leverage influence in the decisions of government and non-government entities is of key importance. Seeking higher education in order to gain the additional knowledge, credibility and access necessary to influence public policy on justice issues has tremendous strategic value.

Jennifer Hendrixson

Jennifer is pursuing a Master of Arts degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies as a representative of Divine Inheritance and their work in rescuing child soldiers. Her objective is to research the issues surrounding the exploitation of women and children and to leverage her access to policy makers and programs in the nation’s capital on their behalf.

For the next two years, Jennifer will be producing research on the issues surrounding the use of children as soldiers in Southeast Asia and will be working to create replicable models for addressing the needs of rescued child soldiers (aftercare). She will establish connections with government and non-government agencies in Washington, DC, for the purposes of fundraising and advocacy.

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies is one of the world’s premier academic institutions for the study of international affairs and is the only school in the United States that has a regional focus on Southeast Asia.

Johns Hopkins has several of the world’s top experts on Burma and an entire research institute devoted to the study of women’s and children’s rights with regard to human trafficking and labor exploitation. It is the perfect forum for shaping policy on the care of child soldiers. Jennifer is uniquely qualified for this type of education. She was a dual-major honors graduate with a 4.0 grade point average from the University of California, Davis. After working for 2 years in China, she served as Director of Operations for Divine Inheritance and is now starting a new nonprofit organization called the Child Soldier Rescue Alliance.

Issachar International is seeking funds to support Jennifer’s education. The cost of attendance at Johns Hopkins would ordinarily be prohibitive for a justice worker who has devoted years to the causes of the oppressed. Jennifer has earned a 50% scholarship but needs to raise an additional $45,000 per year to cover the balance of tuition and living expenses for her two years at Johns Hopkins.

Required Annual Investment:

(for each of the Next Two Years)

Tuition (Balance After 50% Scholarship) $20,000
Research (Travel and Supplies) $5,100
Living Expenses (Conservative Estimate) $16,000
Language Study (Thai/Burmese) $3,900

Yearly total: $45,000

Jennifer is a woman of supreme excellence and integrity who is a real world-changer. Your financial help and now will keep her on track and making steady progress in the forethought and implementation of justice solutions. See contact information below.

DAVID & PEGGY FITZPATRICK ISSACHAR INTERNATIONAL FOUNDERS

From the beginning of our marriage, our dinner table has created an ongoing forum for thoughts and ideas from each member of our family as well as others joining us. Any of us who are parents understand well that through the lives of our children our own worlds are enriched, challenged and expanded. Our lives have been no exception.

As our energies were poured into the well-being of the church and into the defining and refining of a fresh and current church model, our children were on a journey of their own. Our second-born announced at the age of eight that she would be adopting orphans and possibly running an orphanage. She never wavered from this vision. Our first, always one to ponder and sift through the status quo, began early to ask, “If the church is about Jesus, and Jesus is about the poor, why is the church not about the poor more than about all these other subjects of church life?” Hmm, good question. What to do, and how?

Of course we had this person or that over the years spending a season with us in our home, from new believers to those with significant trauma that left them mentally unstable or even homeless. We did short term trips to less fortunate places to help with a construction project or visit the poor. But this was not enough to satisfy him, and he sought out the people living under Nashville’s bridges, and then with nothing but the clothes on his back and his backpack, the villagers left in the wake of the Serbian war, eventually on to the laborers of India, and always in those teen years, our dinner table was the gathering place for our children’s friends, who were together forging their own version of what it meant to follow Jesus.

They had a passion and a quest; we had a roof and a table, and so began the early dawning of what is now Issachar International. Some of the individuals featured on this site were among those around our Shabbat dinner table, and others are more recent friends, but born out of these days was the warmth and support that has culminated in the vision statement of Issachar International.

PLEASE DIRECT INQUIRES TO:
Select Here to Email

TRAINING INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE WORKERS
Training and Education

ISSACHAR LOGO GREEN

DAVID & PEGGY FITZPATRICK ISSACHAR INTERNATIONAL FOUNDERS

WRITINGS AND MUSINGS