Highlights
May 2008 |April 2008 | February 2008 | January 2008
Citizen Exchanges Program
American Participants See Challenges for Minorities Communities in Belgium
Twelve American participants traveled to Belgium from March to April 2008, as part of a continuing series of Citizen Exchanges programs focusing on the integration of predominantly Islamic communities in Western Europe. The twelve community leaders, NGO activist educators, and youth advocates from Denver, Seattle, and Atlanta met with Belgium counterparts in Brussels, Antwerp, and Liège. The program looked at the challenges Belgium is facing with the growing numbers of immigrants in the educational system and employment sectors. They also learned about issues surrounding language proficiency and religious tolerance.
The American participants noted that continuing Belgian identity issues regarding Flemish and French culture color every discussion and issue and can leave immigrants caught in the middle. They also noted the change that has occurred in Belgian immigrants between first-generation newcomers who viewed community activism and political engagement as helpful and second-and third-generation who have grown more skeptical and disillusioned as a result of their marginalization from the rest of Belgian society.
This program is continuing with the arrival of eleven Belgian participants to the U.S. on May 3, 2008. They are going to New York City, Atlanta, and Denver where they will be hosted by the American participants and begin working on action plans and projects to be implemented back in Belgium. The program continues through 2009.
Sports Initiatives
Soccer Envoys Score a Goal in El Salvador
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) Sports Envoys Cindy Parlow Cone, former Gold Medalist and World Cup champion, and Jeff Pill, National Staff Coach for U.S. Soccer, conducted clinics for 900 young soccer players in El Salvador over four days. The clinics focused on basic skills training, including everything from dribbling to shooting to keeping goal, and a lesson on the value of sports on health. Local coaches who assisted in the clinics were so inspired that they are planning to start a new league for girls. “We certainly felt a lot of excitement from the players, and enjoyed their enthusiastic responses wherever we went”, Pill remarked about his experience with the program.
Performing Arts Program
Tony Award- winning Playwright, Actress and Poet Sarah Jones kicks off Israel’s 60th Anniversary of Independence Festival and Celebrations
Sarah Jones traveled to Israel on the occasion of the country’s 60th Anniversary celebrations. She performed two shows before sold-out audiences at the 18th “Theatronetto Monodrama Festival” at the Arab-Hebrew Theatre in Old Jaffa. Seats were added to accommodate the overflow of audience members which included top cultural figures, theatre critics, students and a broad cross-section of Israeli theatre aficionados. Ms. Jones portrayed a number of different characters in a direct and easygoing manner. The festival was one of the first events celebrating the 60th anniversary of Israeli independence.
During her short visit to Israel, Ms. Jones also offered extremely successful workshops to a mixed group of Arab and Jewish actors at the Arab-Hebrew Theatre. Arab-Israeli writers, actors, educators, and journalists attended her workshop at the Al Afuka Association for theatre and culture. Over 40 student actors participated at the Yoram Loewenstein Acting Studio. Another workshop was held at the Arab-Hebrew Theater for Arab and Jewish actors, where participants included students from a local college theatre department and actors from the Al-Midan Arabic Theater in Haifa, as well as both theatre directors. The participants were amazed by her skill and were eager to exchange ideas.
Performances and workshops ended with loud, sustained ovations and received broad press coverage in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Her message of peaceful multiculturalism was heard and understood throughout Israel.
Cultural Evoys
U.S. Cultural Envoys Break Clichés of Contemporary Dance in Kosovo
During their two week-long visit to Kosovo in April, Cultural Envoys Colleen Cintron and Marie Morrow worked with various dance groups; a traditional folk dance ensemble in Shota; the National Theater of Kosovo Ballet Troupe in Pristina; “Art Design" in Gjakova; and folk dance groups in "Mladost" in Strpce. The Cultural Envoys demonstrated new techniques of contemporary dance to the Ballet troupe, whose repertoire is mostly classical ballet. They also worked closely with the Ballet Troupe for two-weeks to create a "Contemporary Dance Dialogue Show" at the National Theater of Pristina on May 3. The "dialogue show" broke the clichés of contemporary dance in Kosovo and gave an audience of over 300, including the new Minister of Culture, a new perspective of this style. Envoys and the show itself received Kosovo-wide media coverage, with the envoys, U.S. Embassy staff, and dancers interviewed by the major Kosovo newspapers, TV, and radio stations about their collaboration. The Ballet Troupe hopes to bring the Envoys back to Kosovo to develop more styles, techniques, and an extended program.
Performing Arts Program
Taiwan: Battery Dance Company Connects with Aboriginal Students
The Battery Dance Company (BDC) arranged educational outreach workshops and master classes, a professional dialogue, a press conference, and one public performance during their visit to Taiwan in late April, 2008. Jonathan Hollander, the BDC’s artistic director gave a presentation at the Taipei Artist Village, was joined by the Executive Directors of the world renowned Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and the Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture. Nearly 60 Taiwanese art administrators, managers, dancers and university students enjoyed a rare opportunity to hear different perspectives on the management and presentation of the arts. Approximately 100 young Taiwanese dancers from two high schools in Taichung, and 30 professional adult aboriginal dancers at the Taiwan Indigenous Cultural Park in South Taiwan participated in a series of master classes with the members of Battery Dance Company. Twenty aboriginal student dancers of Szu Chen Junior High School in Taichung Country worked with the BDC dancers in an international cultural exchange program called “Dancing to Connect.” With BDC’s help, the student dancers created a new dance of their own and presented it at the Chung Shan Hall performance. Over 15,000 people attended the performance, including government officials, Taiwanese aboriginal groups, art and dance professionals, teachers, students, media, and the general public. The performances were highly theatrical, gorgeous, and mysterious, and they deeply impressed all audiences in attendance
Cultural Envoys
West Bank Women's Painting Workshops Foster Talent and Friendships
Washington, DC artist Helen Zughaib spent a month (February 16 through March 15, 2008) in different areas of the West Bank as a Cultural Envoy. A core group of twelve West Bank female artists worked together with Helen, using art to explore themes such as women’s issues. They shared their own stories of strength, courage and hope in works that were then presented during Women's History Week at The Sabatini Cultural center in Ram Allah. A beautiful exhibition catalog produced with artists’ biography and images of their works were also on display at the Cultural Center. The workshops were co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the U.S. Consulate. Local press was extremely supportive of the artists and Ms. Zughaib's participation. In addition to working with the core group of women artists, Ms. Zughaib worked with youth in the community.
Visual Arts Program
Cultural Heritage Preservation in Kosovo is Highlighted through the Lens of Landmarks of New York Exhibition
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs(ECA)-organized Landmarks of New York exhibition opened at the National Gallery of Art in Pristina, Kosovo to an audience of over 100 local architects, representatives of the Kosovo Ministry of Culture, and the general public in April, 2008. The opening was widely covered in Kosovo media. The exhibition commemorates the 1965 law to protect New York’s historic buildings, and the Charge d’Affaires Tina Kaidanow highlighted the U.S. Embassy’s commitment to preserving Kosovo’s cultural heritage, regardless of its ethnic affiliation. She further commented on how New York’s buildings have come to define the city as a place of multiple ethnicities, religions, and traditions, all powerfully expressed through art, architecture, and culture. This exhibition serves as an inspiration for Kosovo to develop its own cultural heritage in a similar manner, respectful of all ethnicities, their diverse histories, and traditions. At the conclusion of the Kosovo program, the exhibition will travel to the Cultural Centers in Prizen and Strpce.
Performing Arts Program
The Neo Classic Blues Duo Rocks Audiences in Ghana and Togo
The U.S. Embassy of Ghana in Accra invited Neo Classic Blues Duo Gaye Adegbalola and Roddy Barnes to perform in Ghana and Togo from April 3 - 13, 2008. Roddy and Gaye perform blues melodies from the 1920s and 1930s and narrate the history of these songs as a way of preserving the genre and promoting the universality of its expression. The duo held concerts in four cities throughout Ghana as well as Lome. Attendees included senior government officials, diplomats, NGO representatives, academics, and members of the media. Audiences appreciated the music accompanied by a brief narrated history of African-American society during the period and requested multiple encores. The duo's last evening in Ghana featured a concert at popular American-owned music venue JazzTones and a jam session with local musicians from Ghana and Cameroon.
Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad
Rhythm Road musicians thrilled audiences during Washington, D.C. tour
On April 17th, 2008, New Orleans Jazz ensemble Devin Phillips and the New Orleans Straight Ahead and The Dana Leong Band thrilled Washington, D.C. audiences with their individual musical styles and their accounts of foreign travels to Africa and Asia as part of their participation in the Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad tours. Members of the domestic outreach audience, assembled at the National Geographic auditorium, later sought out Cultural Programs Division Chief Colombia Barrosse to register their appreciation for this special brand of cultural diplomacy and encourage continued support for musical tours abroad. On the 50th anniversary of their creation, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs invited Bureau of African Affairs' colleagues, including Deputy Assistant Secretary Carol Thompson to the concert.
Cultural Exchanges Program
American Writers Engage Audiences in Oman and Saudi Arabia
From April 13 - 19, a delegation of four prominent American writers engaged students and local writers in Oman and Saudi Arabia on a variety of issues related to the writing process. While in Oman, the American authors also took part in a poetry competition of students reading sonnets at the Sultan Qaboos University. They discussed with the students their sources of inspiration and the importance of creative writing as a form of communication and expression. They also presented lectures and participated in discussions at Bayon College and Nizwa University, leading workshops on how to write for newspapers and other media. Later, the American writers visited Riyadh and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, presenting their work to an audience of doctors and professors of Arabic and English at the Jeddah Literary Club. Audience members commented on the writing and discussed the difficulties that journalists face in Saudi Arabia. These events were part of the grant with the Iowa Writers’ Program.
Cultural Envoys
American Cultural Envoys Teach Jazz to Nicaraguan Musicians
American jazz musicians Alejandro Aviles (saxophonist) and Raul Romero (guitarist) engaged 40 music students, teachers and local musicians in Nicaragua through a two-week intensive jazz course call Introduction to Jazz, from March 23 – April 6, 2008. The participants represented a variety of musical styles and groups, including the Polytechnic University’s Music Conservatory, the Nicaraguan Music Academy, the Municipality of Managua Band, and the Nicaraguan Army Band. Through the jazz course and master classes, students, teachers, and musicians of lower economic means were able to develop their musical repertoire under the instruction and guidance of these two professional musicians. The Americans also performed at five well-attended concerts that were free to the public. In total, the jazz duet reached out to nearly 700 Nicaraguans during their concerts, jazz courses and master classes and shared the American musical tradition of jazz with a wide variety of audiences from diverse social and economic backgrounds in Nicaragua, and overall the program received wide print, television and radio coverage by the Nicaraguan media.
Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad
The Maya Azucena Band Brings Songs of Hope to Burma and China
Maya Azucena and her band opened their Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad tour of Asia with a program in Burma, followed by programs throughout China from April 2 - 14, 2008. The group thrilled local audiences in both countries with an incredible repertoire of American music, from jazz and reggae to the latest hip-hop styles, and won the hearts of hundreds of new Burmese fans and Chinese students. In Burma, their program included three highly attended performances, four energetic workshops with local youth on performance techniques and one jam session with two of Burma's most well known hip-hop stars - Kaung Myat and J-Me. After visiting Burma, the group visited Beijing, Shenyang, and Ghangzhou, China. In China, their program reached approximately 1,150 Chinese students through performances and workshops at four major universities. They promoted messages of hope, strength, freedom, inclusion, and participation. At one performance in Guangzhou, many of the fifty disabled students who were in attendance commented they danced for the first time in their lives at this event.
Youth Exchange Program
Students Use Technology to Embark on Roadmap to Middle East Peace Project
The Mason West Group, made up of ten talented high school students from Birmingham, Alabama, visited the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) on April 10 to present their peace plan project and get feedback from Kurt Medland of the State Department’s Office of Israel-Palestinian Affairs. The students presented the history, current conditions, and major issues of the conflict. During their Washington D.C. visit they met with officials at the Israeli Embassy and the PLO Mission. The students were specially selected to travel to Washington, D.C. as part of their leadership development program at their high school. As part of their foreign policy component, they decided to tackle the Middle East crisis and come up with a realistic peace plan.
Throughout the year the students will be communicating with Israeli teens in Tel Aviv and Palestinians in Ramallah through the ECA-funded Global Connections and Exchange programs, which are implemented by Relief International-Schools Online in the West Bank and iEARN in Israel. Students will collaborate with the Middle East students both online and through digital video conferences. They will use a common platform for serious discussions while also using Facebook for social interaction. The Birmingham students will return to Washington D.C., possibly with Israeli and Palestinian teen partners, in April 2009 to present their results.
Dutch Muslim community leaders speak on the radio following their U.S.-based program.
|
Citizens Exchange Program
Muslim Participants Get Major Press Coverage in the Netherlands
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs' Citizen Exchanges’ outreach to predominantly Islamic communities in Western Europe recently received a great amount coverage in the Netherlands' press. Following a visit by a group of Dutch community activists, educators, and local government officials to the U.S., several participants were featured in the Dutch press talking about their U.S. experiences. Media attention in the Netherlands included an article in the Dagblad de Limburg (Limburg Daily) in the south of Holland, the national paper NRC Handelblad (NRC Business News) and De Volkskrant, the third largest newspaper in the Netherlands. Coverage also included several local and national radio interviews. Alumna Leyla Cakir, from Geleen, chair of the Muslim women’s organization Al Nisa was quoted in the Limburg de Dagblad : “That’s what I found to be so nice in America. There is literally and figuratively more room to be different.”
Citizens Exchange Program
Southeast Asian Islamic Scholars in the Interdenominational Mix in the U.S.
Twelve religious scholars and civic leaders from Thailand and the Philippines were in Washington, D.C. from April 12 to April 18 on the final leg of a three-week Faith and Community program. The group visited Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. The group was animated in their debrief and enthusiastic about their experiences with Islam in America and the interaction among religious communities. They had special praise for the program’s emphasis on non-Islamic groups: A Muslim teacher from Chiang Mai, Thailand said, “I had never had contact with Jewish groups, but I found the meetings with Rabbis among the most informative of the program.” The Ministry of Education representative from the predominantly Islamic region of Mindanao, the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines, plans to copy the program format in meetings with universities in the predominantly Christian north. Also, the group has elected to have U.S. experts of religions other than Islam on the return delegation to visit Thailand and the Philippines.
Citizens Exchange Program
Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in South Africa
As part of a Citizens Exchange grant to Meridian International on April 18, 2008, participants in the “Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in South Africa” program presented their action plans as the final portion of an intensive three-week course in entrepreneurship and business skills, held at the Center for Women and Information Technology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Following the presentations, Mandisa Manjezi, Chief Director, Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa, who also accompanied the group on their U.S. program, announced that she was so impressed with the women over the past few weeks that she had received approval to send one program participant, to represent the group and make a presentation about this program at the National Small Business Conference in Durban, South Africa in August.
Youth Exchange Program
Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship and Civic Engagement in Bangladesh
The winners of this year’s Youth Grant Competition organized in Bangladesh were announced on March 20th in an award ceremony held in Dhaka. The competition was arranged by Relief International – Schools Online (RI-SOL) through the ECA-funded Global Connections and Exchange (GCE) program. The event brought together ten youth aged eight to sixteen from the Comilla, Chittagong, Jessore and Dhaka districts, who were awarded mini-grants to implement service projects in their communities. Selected from a pool of 37 applicants, the finalists submitted detailed proposals for projects on issues such as education, social awareness, online dialogue, youth volunteerism, and adolescent health. Proposals were judged based on project effectiveness, innovativeness, appropriateness, motivation, potential for replication, and usefulness. Proposals focused on critical issues students identified in their communities, which also concern youth around the world. For example, one participant will create a Bengali-language website and use multimedia presentations in workshops organized for local farmers to raise awareness in her community about avian influenza and how to prevent and combat it. One winner of the mini-grant competition proposed to open a Bengali-language educational and social networking portal where Bangladeshi youth would meet, socialize, share resources, and collaborate on projects. Other winning projects focused on environmental conservation, birth registration, an online database of youth volunteers ready to be ‘activated’ for community service and in the case of natural disasters, HIV/AIDS prevention and the rights of persons living with the illness, and a virtual library. The award ceremony, where winners had a chance to showcase their action plans, was followed by a training session on website creation using free blog technology. This year’s winners’ profiles and projects can be accessed at http://www.connect-bangladesh.org/content/view/477/101/..
Cultural Envoys
Los Angeles Theater Experts Present Innovative Workshops to Young Salvadoran Musicians
Early in March, three U.S. theater experts from the 24th Street Theatre in Los Angeles traveled to San Salvador, El Salvador, as U.S. Department of State Cultural Envoys. They presented a series of 90-minute workshops entitled, "Unmasking the Musician." These workshops, designed for at-risk youth, and were attended by 120 young musicians of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of El Salvador (OSJ), as well as public school teachers and 200 children from a Catholic orphanage. These performances are popular among tourists and well-attended by local communities. With a little help from the L.A. Theatre Experts, the goal of enabling young musicians to gain confidence in their ability to explore and interpret music, communicate more fully through their musical instruments, and express their emotions was accomplished. This project helped support the development of arts and education programs, professional training and development of the musicians, which will also ultimately enhance the tourism industry in San Salvador.
Chinese dance students test out their Hip-Hop moves during a recent Cultural Envoy program in Urumqi, China
|
Cultural Envoys
Cultural Envoys bring Hip-Hop to China’s Muslim West
Hip-Hop dancers/choreographers Michael Parks Masterson and Quae Parks traveled to China for a two-week Cultural Envoy program this March. The Cultural Envoys taught Hip-Hop to 45 mostly Uighur students from the Xinjiang Arts Institute in Urumqi, Xinjiang, capital of the Muslim-dominated autonomous region in western China. The students have largely been trained in ballet and traditional dance forms. Workshops and subsequent performances throughout this ten-day program were designed to reach out to underserved youth in this autonomous Muslim-majority region of western China. The first performance, which successfully integrated audience participation, included a mix of Uighur music and dance as well as U.S.-style Hip-Hop dance. It was attended by students, school administrators, and other members of the community. The program was well received by the dance students, and is expected to expose a great number of other people in the region (particularly youth) to an increasingly popular and modern form of American dance, thus helping to foster positive inter-cultural communication between the U.S. and China.
Citizens Exchange Program
Landmark Rule of Law Project in China Gains New Sources of Support
The U.S. Department of State's Office of Citizen Exchanges has for several years funded the University of Massachusetts-Boston’s successful and innovative Rule of Law project featuring mock trials with U.S. judges throughout China. Momentum from this pioneering effort continues. Three judges who are alumni of this program have now been approved for Fulbright programs in China. Under Fulbright sponsorship, Judge Jack Lu visited Sichuan University last fall; Judge Peter Anderson (Ret.) will be at Yunnan University from April to the end of May; and Judge Wendie Gershengorn has just been approved for a 2009 Fulbright scholarship, with her assignment location to be determined. Moreover, largely owing to the success and visibility of the project, the university has just received funding from USAID for a three year project to work on the themes of evidence and discovery, mediation and judicial court information and transparency with judicial training colleges, legal educators and provincial high courts in China. Partners include the Massachusetts Judges Conference and the American Bar Association. The two projects, while separate and distinct, will reinforce and complement one another.
|
Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad
On The Road to Morocco
The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program launched the tour of the Bronx-based urban music ensemble UNIVERSES in Morocco from January 25th to 31st, where they were a “big hit” with audiences of inner-city youth. Included were two jam sessions with local bands from Casablanca’s Sidi Moumen neighborhood.
Jordanian participants picking up the sport of lacrosse during program activities on the campus of American University
|
Sports Exchange
Jordanians Connect to U.S. through Sports Exchange
Ten Jordanian boys and girls aged 13 to 15, along with three adults, spent eleven days in late January in the United States to learn the important role physical fitness and activity play in the lives of Americans. The group attended classes with high school and middle school students, discovered how American collegiate athletes train, learned new fitness routines, and experienced the role sports plays in the lives of ordinary Americans. The group concluded their visit with a session at the President’s Council for Physical Fitness and a meeting with Mike Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Citizen Exchange Program
Minority Integration Project in the Netherlands Makes Headlines
The Volkskrant, an influential leading national daily newspaper in the Netherlands, featured ECA’s Integration of Minority Communities Program in a January 2008 article. The article highlighted the Dutch program participants and how their attitudes and perception of the U.S. have changed since the project began. Mohamed Azahaf, a project leader with the Amsterdam youth center Argan, recalled his visit to a mosque in Massachusetts during a U.S.-based program last fall. At the mosque, Sunnis, Shiites, and other Muslims from various ethnicities pray together. “If you ask what they are, they say American”, says Azahaf. “If the Muslims here [in the Netherlands] were also to feel Dutch, then they are part of society and you can approach them about the environment and other issues.” Rotterdam community worker Fatima Lamkharrat became inspired by the sense of public responsibility she saw at the Imam Community Center in Chicago. “It was established by Muslims, but they mostly help underprivileged Latinos. Here [in the Netherlands] petty-mindedness prevails and we help our own sort only.” The project, one of five programs in Western Europe, is examining how community-based work on integrating minority and immigrant communities is being done in the U.S. and in Europe, and how minority communities are rapidly changing the face of modern European and U.S. societies. A delegation of U.S. participants will travel to the Netherlands in April as this project continues.
Youth Exchange Program
A-SMYLE, FLEX, and YES Students Gather to Develop Leadership Skills
On February 1st and 2nd, 39 high school exchange students in the United States, under the auspices of the American Serbia & Montenegro Youth Leadership Exchange Program (A-SMYLE), Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX), and Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES), attended a joint mid-term program and the Iowa Student Global Leadership Workshop in Des Moines, Iowa. During the mid-term program, students worked with images that form leadership habits and attitudes. Students discovered their leadership style and score and developed plans for utilizing their leadership skills at home and school, in addition to their volunteer work, communities, and home countries. At the Iowa Student Global Leadership Workshop, the students joined American students and other international students to participate in interactive activities using the Global Peace Index and an international trade simulation.
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Professional Exchanges Alina L. Romanowski and National Endowment of the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia participate in the opening ceremonies of the Big Read Egypt program in Cairo.
|
Global Cultural Initiative
Launch of Big Read Egypt/United States
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Professional Exchanges Alina Romanowski and Cultural Programs Division Chief Colombia Barrosse, along with the National Endowment for the Arts Chairman, Dana Goia, coordinated the launch of the Big Read Egypt/U.S. program during the International Book Fair in Cairo on January 31st. Four Egyptian partner organizations have been selected by the post in Cairo, in conjunction with grantee organization Arts Midwest to organize groups of Egyptian participants who will read and discuss Arabic versions of three classic American novels. The launch received positive press in the local media and piqued tremendous interest among the public for the project. The program will bring communities together by reading and discussing selected books. The project will create a forum for the citizens of Egypt and the United States to learn about each others' cultural history, traditions, people and civic life by reading and discussing selected works of literature that represent, reflect, and comment upon each country's culture. The authors selected for the project are Egypt's Nagib Mahfouz and America's Ray Bradbury, Harper Lee, and John Steinbeck.
Professional Exchange
Kazakh and U.S. Delegation Sees Civic Education in Action in India
As part of a Citizen Exchanges grant to the Center for Civic Education, a joint delegation of four representatives from Kazakhstan and five from Maryland, comprised of educators, government officials, and civil society leaders, visited Uttar Pradesh, India in December to discuss civic education with local education authorities, teachers, and students. The delegates attended a showcase by students participating in Project Citizen India, a program that motivates young people to take an active role in civic life and demonstrates how they can influence public policy. A highlight for many delegates was a visit to a rural school, Jawar Novodaya Vidyalaya Sujanpur (JNV), where delegates had an opportunity to discuss educational issues with school administrators, tour school facilities, interact with students, and view a student cultural performance.
Youth Exchange Program
Efforts Made to Recruit GCE Palestinian Students with Disabilities
In an effort to recruit students with disabilities, the Global Connections and Exchange (GCE) program in the West Bank organized two disability awareness campaigns in December 2007 that involved schools and community members in Tobas and Jenin. Government representatives joined teachers, parents and students in all-day events that focused on disability rights. Two local NGOs, Medical Relief and Future Youth Center, helped students with disabilities with their speeches and songs and then donated books, notebooks and other school supplies to the schools. Following each event, participants visited the Governor's office to discuss disability rights and to ask for support. ECA grantee organization Relief International-Schools Online organized these campaigns and intends to invite interested students with disabilities to technology trainings, online forums, and other events.
|
Cultural Exchange Program
Creation: An Exchange between U.S. and Hong Kong Visual Theatre Artists
Members of the Hong Kong Theatre of the Silence presented a visual theater piece entitled “The Beginnings of Everything.” The performance, intended for a hearing-impaired audience, used sign language and other theatrical visuals in order to examine the origin of creation. The presentation took place on January 18 and is part of the 2008 Quest Fest, which showcases visual arts theatre and includes workshops and master classes conducted by twelve Hong Kong performing artists for students with multiple disabilities at five schools across Maryland. The program has received extensive national media coverage including coverage by the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and Voice of America. This visit was funded in part by an ECA grant to the Maryland-based Quest: Arts for Everyone organization.
Milica Kajevic, Marko-Antonio Brkic, and Bozana Katava assume the roles of legislators in a mock session during
their orientation in Phoenix |
Professional Exchange
Faith and Community Delegation Arrives in Phoenix, Arizona
Fourteen participants from Bosnia-Herzegovina have completed a three week program in Arizona as part of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affair’s Faith and Community Program. The delegation includes religious leaders, community activists, and academics from the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faiths. The program was designed to enrich participants’ understanding of the democratic values underlying religious expression and religious diversity in the U.S. The program included interactive seminars, meetings, discussions, and site visits to a number of public and private organizations including the Arizona State Legislature, Arizona Ecumenical Council, and the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona. Upon returning home, the leaders are committed to sharing their experiences of interfaith cooperation and communication with their respective communities, many of whom have been isolated from each other since the civil war in the first half of the 1990s.
Sports Exchange
U.S. Ambassador Emphasizes Importance of Sports
U.S. Ambassador to Jordan David Hale met with 13 Jordanians who will travel to the United States from January 20 to January 31 as part of the King Abdullah II Awards for Physical Fitness Visitors Program. The delegation, consisting of ten youths who have excelled in the program as well three professionals, will participate in a cultural exchange with American youths and adults in the areas of physical education, recreation, and sport while developing a deeper understanding of American culture and a greater appreciation for the important role physical fitness and activity play in the United States. In remarks to the group, Ambassador Hale stressed that sports play an important role in American society, like in Jordan and that both societies share the common values of teamwork, leadership, and respect that are expressed in athletic competition. The Ambassador invited the group to act as cultural ambassadors for Jordan.
Youth Exchange Program
GCE Mini-Grant Supports Disaster Preparedness Workshop
Global Connections and Exchange (GCE) high school students from the SMA Lab School Rawamangun in East Jakarta, Indonesia hosted a five-hour Natural Disaster Preparedness Workshop in their school’s Media Resource Center on December 15, 2007, thanks to funding from a mini-grant. The workshop brought together students from several schools and an orphanage to learn about how to prepare for an earthquake. Participants were shown how to devise safety strategies, locate safe places to take cover, identify evacuation sites beforehand, and prepare a safety kit with food and first-aid supplies. The students were selected through a competitive grant process to receive a $200 mini-grant to implement the community service project as part of the iEARN Global Connections Community Youth Service Club. The mini-grants are a new feature of the Global Connections program this year, and are intended to help students develop leadership skills while impacting their communities.