Amizade Exposed Photos are UP! - Your Chance to Vote!

For the second year, Amizade has arranged a photo contest around the categories of:

1. Global Citizenship
2. Landscape and Beauty, and 
3. Black and White

The photos have been submitted and they are ---- absolutely beautiful. To see all the photos and cast your votes, click here. A few examples from the contest follow:

Study Abroad with Amizade Improves Employability

In an authoritative study published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, researchers interviewed 352 firms, organizations and agencies across a wide range of industries throughout the United States to investigate how studying abroad impacts a student’s employability. The study concluded that employers’ value the intercultural/global competence and skills learned from studying abroad and that studying abroad can have a positive impact on a person’s employability.

Specifically, employers highly value experiential-learning programs with service learning and internship components.

The study found that the following opportunities make students more attractive to employers:

·         4-10 week summer service learning program

·         14-18 week semester program with classes outside university

·         14-18 week semester service learning program

Qualities that Employers Recognize are Enhanced by Study Abroad Include:

• -          Listens and observes well
• -          Flexible, adapts well
• -          Curious; wants to discover more
• -          Non-judgmental toward other world views
• -          Willing to take risks and to learn new things
• -          Recognize own world view is not universal

Personal Skills that Employers Realize are Enhanced by Study Abroad:

• -          Works well under pressure
• -          Analyzes, evaluates, interprets well
• -          Communicates effectively in intercultural situations
• -          Understand global economic and political trends
• -          Well-informed re: world events/history
• -          Effective socializing/doing business elsewhere
• -          Knowledgeable re: other history/culture

By participating in an Amizade service learning study abroad program, students gain these prized skills for future employment.

Amizade empowers individuals and communities through worldwide service and learning. We offer programs in nine countries, and those programs range from semester long service learning courses, short term individual internships.


Many thanks to Amizade Intern Laura Hoch for summarizing the information featured above! 

*Tooboff, Stevan, Michael Vande Berg and Jack Rayman. “Employer Attitude Toward Study Abroad.” The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. http://www.frontiersjournal.com/documents/TrooboffVandebergRaymonFRONTIERSJOURNALXVWinter2007-08-pdf.pdf.

What Do Human Rights Mean to You? - Blog Contest!!!

The Pittsburgh Human Rights Network will be sponsoring a monthly blog contest for the next three months. Each month’s winner will get either a $50 gift card or a $50 donation to a charity of their choice. The only rules are that the blogs be posted in the Pittsburgh Human Rights Network’s blog section and that they have something to do with human rights as envisioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Details:
Month 1 – December 10, 2009 – January 10, 2010
Month 2 – January 11, 2010 – February 10, 2010
Month 3 – February 11, 2010 – March 10, 2010

Members of the Board of Directors and staff of Global Solutions Pittsburgh are not eligible for this contest. Winners will be selected within one business week of the end of each month and will be selected at the sole discretion of the staff of Global Solutions Pittsburgh. Winners will be notified via email at the address listed with their Pittsburgh Human Rights Network membership. Winners will be give a choice of several different gift cards or an equivalent donation to a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. For more information, visit Pittsburgh Human Rights Network

Fall 2009 Bolivia Semester Photos on Flickr!

The photos are available here. There aren't photos from the orphanages because there is a specific Bolivian law against showing photos of orphans online or for promotional purposes - the only exception being if the children aren't identifiable, as in this photo to the right, taken by a friend who was volunteering with us briefly in Cochabamba.

Enjoy the photos of Cochabamba, La Paz, Parque Tunari, and the surrounding areas. 

Thankful for: Safe Programming, Community Outcomes, Excellent Academics, A Few Features of the US

This Thanksgiving Day I chose to take the opportunity to reflect upon what I'm thankful for in Amizade and more broadly. As you'll see, I'm thankful for:

1. Amizade's 15-year Safe Programming Record
2. Countless exceptional community efforts completed around the world
3. The way in which global service-learning enhances student learning 

Mostly, I'm thankful for the people around the world who make Amizade work: the community partners, the volunteers ranging in age from the early teens to late eighties, Amizade donors and foundation partners, Amizade staff, faculty members, and interns. Of course, I'm thankful for my friends and family and all the support they offer Amizade and me personally. And - I took this Thanksgiving Day to reflect upon what I'm thankful for in the United States of America. Here's an extended version of the essay published today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 

From Abroad: Thankful for the American Experience

A friend from Singapore once told me that if he ever got the chance to visit the United States he wanted to have an American breakfast at a truck stop at 4am. His vision struck me. He managed to gather into one wish the unique American approaches to breakfast (waffles), work (where else so many 24-hour truck stops and diners?), and wide-open spaces.

Thanksgiving is also uniquely American, and this year, as I connect American volunteers with community development projects around the world and prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with my American Students and their Bolivian host families, I’m taking a moment to consider what I’m thankful for in The United States of America. Thankfully, we have:  

Water: The vast majority of citizens of the United States can turn on tap water in their homes and drink it, unfiltered. This is a daily miracle.  Nearly 1 billion people around the world (that’s more than three times the population of the United States) do not have access to safe water. And the vast majority of people who do have access to safe water do not have it flowing directly into their homes on a continuous basis.

Public  Education: The United States invests in people. The effort to provide accessible and strong public education is nearly as old as the country. That effort has been unequal, unfair, and subject to continuous contestation. And it should be an area of argument – it is where we make or break the future of individuals and the future of the country. Looking around the world, the message is crystal clear: countries that invest in their people flourish economically, support democracy, and respect freedoms.

Democracy: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...” Putting this radical idea to paper in 1776 put many lives at risk, and as the ideal was expanded to include women, African Americans and other minorities, more lives were risked, more advances were made for human freedom and human dignity, and our American Experiment grew ever closer to the ideals it espoused. Blood is spilled everyday over precisely what democracy is and who has the right to define it. We do well to remember that our foundational understanding of democracy derives from the radical idea that each individual has inalienable rights, and “among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”   

Work Ethic: In fairness, people work hard all around the world. That was one of my first impressions of Africa – men and women were moving crops, hauling water, exerting themselves continuously. And there are doubtlessly millions of lazy Americans. But – our culture is associated with obsessive and excessive concern with work. We’ve even produced a substantial self-help literature on how to escape the work obsession, how to achieve better balance, how to escape the ostensibly unhealthy hyper-focus on achieving the American dream. Reality check: One doesn’t take every weekend and holiday off and fly to the moon. One doesn’t take a siesta everyday and also play a primary role in creating the financial architecture of the world as we know it. One doesn’t sleep early and wake late and support the steady flow of ideals of freedom and democracy around the world. Hard work yields dividends. For those who don’t agree, see “Contemporary China.”  

Timeliness: Scandinavians and Germans are slightly more obsessive about time than Americans, but much of the world tends to be far more laidback. Timeliness helps us get things done (see work ethic).  

Freedom and Open Spaces: I’m well aware that there is a substantial subset of the population that complains that “The American West,” “The Frontier,” “Freedom,” and the “Rural American Dream” are all in one way or another mere mythologies. And to anyone in that subset I say, stop reading, go west, and experience your beautiful country. Breathe in Dwight D. Eisenhower’s internationally unique achievement – The American Highway System. Zip past acres upon acres of sunflowers in Kansas; grab a six-pack and hang out with rural Nebraskan kids floating up and down on the backs of oil derricks, drinking and talking about eight-man-football as the sun drops below the plains. Then, somewhere in the massive and intimidating Rockies, throw a tent and sleeping bags into the back of a pickup and drive a full day over dirt roads deep into one of our numerous National Forests to camp. American Freedom is fundamentally intertwined with the freedom to move and to experience; to see and to learn on your own. Now go.   

Diversity: There is always room for improvement; there is always need to become better at accepting one another, but America has accomplished a functioning multicultural democracy to an extent unmatched elsewhere and unparalleled in history. This is a beautiful thing. It’s also an effective thing – history shows us that strong societies are adept at incorporating and adapting ideas from other cultures. I was in Washington DC several years ago on July 4^th. The National Symphony Orchestra was playing, Tony Danza was emceeing, the capitol building was in the background, and all around me this multicultural menagerie was celebrating the same set of ideals, the same shared purposes and commitments to individual human dignity. It was radical and beautiful and becomes more diverse and therefore more dynamic every single day.   

Volunteer Military: The United States Military is the strongest and most capable military in the history of the world. This is due to many factors, but one primary among them is the decision a generation ago to ensure that our service men and women would only be enlisting voluntarily. Our strength and power sometimes makes us a target – and our volunteers step forward to put their lives at risk, anonymously. War – and the effort to create stability that follows it – is horrible and profoundly complicated. That should never prevent us from honoring the men and women who volunteer to keep us safe, who serve under the direction of our elected officials, who prevented further genocide in Bosnia, who toppled the oppressive Taliban regime, and who continue to risk their lives on behalf of American Security and American Ideals.  

Pancakes, Waffles, Hamburgers, French Fries and Fusion Food: For a country so rich in history, we’re poor in our own unique culinary traditions. But the sweet, syrup-topped, simple and affordable breakfast foods – pancakes and waffles – those are all ours. Yum. And burgers – made with ground beef, which for some inexplicable reason is hard to recreate elsewhere around the world – are our own form of magic. Most interesting is that in America one can experience the fine foods and culinary traditions from almost any corner of the world, anytime.

Incentives for Honesty: James Madison laid this out for us in The Federalist Papers, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary… In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men … you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Throughout our history, we’ve continued to work at that project – the project that is simultaneously enabling human freedoms to the fullest extent possible while also acknowledging human vices and limitations – in government or in the private sector. I see too much corruption and graft in my work around the world, but it’s helpful to remember that good behavior is built with institutional reform over time. The lending crisis has shown us another area where we need to better control excessive impulses while still providing people opportunity to access credit; that is a current project. Our institutions have and should continue to be built with an eye toward simultaneously expanding individual freedoms and incentivizing honest practice and fair play.    

Philanthropy: Yes, other developed countries spend a greater portion of their budgets on social welfare at home and abroad. But Americans give from their own pockets in a way that is not matched elsewhere. Individual involvement tends to lead to greater oversight, which has led to the development of thousands of dynamic and responsive nonprofit organizations and social sector movements. It has also led to a hyper-production of small and mid-size global nonprofit organizations like the one I direct. While organizations of this size are not able to address issues for everyone in a country or region, they are more deeply connected with individuals in the specific communities where they work. Their size permits them to be more responsive to community members’ real lives and concerns.  

Desire: Humans have desire, so I of course cannot claim that emotion as uniquely American. Yet I will suggest that the American Story, the American Mythology, the American Dream and American Ideals are tied up with the notion that we can do better, again, and again and again. We dare not relax until the project is complete. We continue to build a better society. We work to redress the excesses of past generations. We are now concerned with ensuring our society becomes sustainable. We need to cooperate with other countries and people around the world – to ensure greater access to inalienable rights for every man, woman, and child. We continue to want to improve the human experience – and we continue to work toward the goal of expanding individual human freedoms in our own country and around the world.

For these things and for so much more, we should be profoundly thankful. Throughout world history, few peoples have broadly had the opportunity to experience long lives. Few peoples have had the opportunity to voice and hear internal debate in the run up to free and fair elections. No other peoples have had the opportunity to hop on a motorcycle and cruise across a continent on smooth and well-manicured roads, stopping at truck stops along the way at any hour of the day or night for fast, efficient service and savory food. I am thankful to be an American in the world today.  We have a lot of problems. We have a lot of disagreements. We create injustices. We attempt to redress them. We mess up and sometimes we fail. Today, pause. Be thankful for the broad contours of this American reality. Tomorrow, let’s get back to work making it continuously better. 

 

Thankful for: The Way Service-Learning Courses Enhance Understanding and Deepen Learning

For a full decade, and for five years through cooperation with West Virginia University, Amizade has been offering global service-learning courses around the world. The courses' key features are rigorous academics, intercultural immersion and exchange, community-driven service, reflective inquiry, and exploration of global citizenship. Importantly, all of the courses and instructors are approved through a thorough process developed in cooperation with WVU, to ensure that every course offered through the partnership meets the standards of a Research 1 University in the United States. Amizade's many years of experience in this area have provided it with the opportunity to offer global service-learning professional development conferences and to present on the topic at universities and events as diverse as Bucknell University, Cornell University, Winthrop University, the conferences of The American Political Science Association, The International Service-Learning Research Organization, and Vermont Campus Compact.   What is perhaps most interesting, about Amizade-WVU global service-learning courses, however, is how they enhance student learning.

Here in Bolivia, on one of our semester programs that integrate study of international development with history, language, and local service placements, one of my students recently suggested that what she most hoped to communicate about her experience was - she searched for the phrase ..... its complexity. The other students agreed: it's one thing to study international development and Latin American History on campus. In the safety of their campus classrooms and individual experiences, students can easily embrace or reject the a-new-world-is-possible musings of Jeffrey Sachs or development-aid-is-dead diatribes of William Easterly. But when those arguments are considered in light of the stark reality of living and working in a developing country - their certainties disappear in the face of continuously challenging and contradictory information.

Students have the opportunity - and deep challenge - to understand theoretical arguments in the context of inescapable empirical realities. It leaves them with truths that are in many ways less certain, less comfortable, and far more realistic. In addition to providing this challenging academic experience, global service-learning courses provide students with a clear and unmistakable opportunity to make a difference. Amizade-WVU programs also dispel the myth that our knowledge, our actions, and our ethics are held in separable spheres. Global service-learning demonstrates the inextricably intertwined nature of what we do, what we believe, and how we understand the world.

I'm thankful for the challenges and deep understanding global service-learning catalyzes in students and faculty. For a brief, volunteer-produced video on our service-learning semesters, click below.

   

Thankful for: 15 Years of Amizade Volunteers Making a Difference

Fifteen years ago, Dan Weiss organized a group of friends for a volunteer project in the Brazilian Amazon. The group saw things they had never before imagined and made a difference in a way they hadn't previously thought possible. When he returned to the United States, Dan founded Amizade - using the Portuguese word for friendship - to provide people who want to make a difference around the world with the opportunity to do so through volunteer programs. Since that time, Amizade has connected thousands of volunteers with community-driven service programs around the world - and also expanded to offer academically rigorous service-learning programs in cooperation with West Virginia University. Volunteers and students join our programs from across the country and around the world, and collectively, they have:

• Built classrooms, a children's center, a kitchen, community centers, and offices with Pastoral do Menor, a Brazilian organization that supports children's educational opportunities and safety.
• Provided thousands of hours of tutoring at schools in the Navajo Nation while learning in-depth about Navajo life, history, and culture.  
• Cooperated with an exceptional community development organization in rural Jamaica, The Association of Clubs, to provide children with tutoring support, computer skills classes, photography and videography workshops, and  educational and fun summer camp experiences. 
• Raised awareness, improved understanding, and completed historical landscape preservation at and around Auschwitz in ongoing efforts to support Holocaust Remembrance and Contemporary Anti-Genocide Programming. 
• Learned about and supported efforts to address severe poverty, hunger, and homelessness in Washington, DC. 
• Provided volunteer support in health clinics and hospitals and also nearly finished construction of the first library in the area in Jukwa, Ghana. 
• Built an orphanage and school classrooms in Cochabamba, Bolivia, while also providing thousands of hours of direct service with children in orphanages and a Center for Children with disabilities.
• Supported youth programming and built a peace labyrinth in Northern Ireland, all while learning more about the Peace and Reconciliation process there.
• Ensured the environmental preservation and historical restoration of the OTO Dude Ranch, the first guest ranch in the American West, in Gardiner, Montana.  
• Beautified a school and supported English as a Foreign Language learning along the Mayan Riviera. 
• Cooperated with organizations and individuals in Pittsburgh, PA, to enhance literacy and numeracy tutoring programs for newly arriving refugee populations. 
• Increased water access and improved basic women's rights in rural Tanzania by cooperating with local organizations to install water harvesting systems, an effort now marked every spring in Pittsburgh and Morgantown with the Annual Water Walk for Women's Rights. View the video from a previous year's water walk below. For more information, or to get involved in the 2010 Water Walk, email Laura Hoch in Pittsburgh (Laura@amizade.org) or Anna Phillips in Morgantown (Anna@amizade.org). 

• Amizade volunteers have completed all of these things and much, much more, and I'm thankful to be part of these Amizade efforts! 

Thankful for: 15 Years of Safe Programming

For 15 years, Amizade has been safely connecting individuals with volunteer and service-learning programming around the world. We have been able to do so safely and securely throughout that 15-year period, because

• we've followed the best practices articulated by NAFSA: The Association of International Educators,
• we've been rigorous in our review of sites, potential homestay families, and service partners,
• we've stayed up to date with State Department and local news media whenever there are concerns in an area, and, 
• most importantly, because we hire, work with, and trust our very competent and committed local site coordinators. 

Amizade is very thankful for the competent and committed people with whom we work around the world, and the role they have played in ensuring volunteer and student safety, consistently, for 15 years. 

Oregon Man to Volunteer Around the World with Amizade

A fantasy volunteer globe-trotting community-driven service expedition that few have imagined and even fewer have completed. Lee Spangler, a 63-year-old retired individual who keeps a daily photo blog in his hometown of Bend, Oregon, is only about a month away from embarking on a three-month journey during which he will serve and learn with Amizade in Brazil, Bolivia, Tanzania, Jamaica, and the Navajo Nation. Lee has already started blogging in preparation for his experience, mentioning the beautiful Pico Iyer travel essay that's part of the Amizade Journal.

Lee's journey also demonstrates a substantial commitment to giving one's time, energy, and resources in efforts to support communities worldwide. That commitment brings to mind another striking and important essay featured in the Amizade Journal, Princeton Philosopher Peter Singer's "What Should a Billionaire Give -  and What Should You?"

Check out Lee's Amizade Adventure blog and sign-in as a follower. It's sure to be an adventuresome several months!

Amizade Places 3rd in Rural Development Contest; Development Successes & Inspiration

Thank you all for voting! Amizade placed third in the November Africa Rural Connect contest for innovation in rural development efforts. 


Two articles appeared in the New York Times today that are directly related to Amizade success and rationale. One featured a region in Afghanistan that is seeing development success at rates unparalleled elsewhere in the country: "If there are lessons to be drawn from the still tentative successes here, they are that small projects often work best, that the consent and participation of local people are essential and that even baby steps take years." In other words, the successes in this region suggest what Amizade has found to be true over the past 15 years - development efforts that are locally-driven are the development efforts most likely to meet with success. 


On another page, Nicholas Kristof profiled a woman who went from being a Cattle herder in Zimbabwe to now pursuing a PhD at Western Michigan University. As Kristof correctly pointed out, while this woman's story is inspiring and unique, her kind of talent and drive are not in short supply in Africa; what is in short supply is opportunity. That is why Amizade continues to work to support access to water, to education, and to opportunity. 


Thank you all for helping us bring more water access to rural Africa by voting in the online contest!  

2nd Annual Amizade Exposed Photo Contest!

Amizade is thrilled to announce the 

2nd Annual Amizade Exposed Photo Contest! 

Showcase your photography skills and share your Amizade experiences! Prizes will be awarded to top winner of each of the following categories: 

1. Landscape/Beauty,
2. Cultural Immersion and Global Citizenship, and 
3. Black & White.  

Photo entries may also be used in the 2010 Amizade Calendar, on the Amizade Website, or in other outreach materials!


Official Rules:



1. All returning Amizade Global-Service Learning students, volunteers, group leaders and faculty are encouraged to enter the Second Annual Amizade Exposed Photo Contest.



2. Images must have been photographed by an Amizade program participant, leader, faculty member, community member, or community partner.



3. Applicants agree to allow the use of their photo submission for Amizade Global Service-Learning & Volunteer Program promotional purposes and in related Amizade publications.



4. The top five winners will be displayed in West Virginia University’s Cultural & Arts Center.  Top prizes will be awarded in each category.



5. Photos will be judged by an open vote between December 23 and January 10, 2010 from all who access the Gallery on Amizade’s website ( http://www.amizade.org/ ) on the basis of their content and quality.



6. Winners will be announced on January 15, 2009.

Submission Guidelines:

There will be three categories in which participants may compete:

1. Landscape & Beauty
2. Cultural Immersion & Global Citizenship
3. Black & White

Individuals may submit up to three (3) photos in each category.



Photos must be submitted by December 15, 2009 at midnight.


Voting will take place through the Amizade website between December 23 and January 10, 2010.

Any submissions missing required information may be eliminated from the competition.



Winners will receive recognition, a unique prize and a set of greeting cards hand-painted by individuals at Amizade’s Community Partner Site in Cochabamba, Bolivia, The Ceoli Center for People with Disabilities.



To enter:


Email a digital copy of the photo(s) to: anna@amizade.org



Include your name, email address, location/date of photo, and a brief description of the photo (no more than 3 sentences). 



We look forward to seeing your photos! 

Extremely Affordable Study Abroad: Amizade Cooperates with WVU to Ensure Access to Global Service-Learning for Everyone

Yes, it is true, it is possible to study abroad affordably - sometimes for even less than the cost of studying on campus. We want to make global service-learning as affordable and accessible as possible for all students. Though our semester costs are already below the average of semester college costs for out-of-state students, we have also worked to provide special opportunities for WVU and WV students. 

Amizade is pleased to be nearing its 5th year of partnership with West Virginia University, through which we cooperate to offer academically-rigorous, community-based, safe and secure global service-learning semesters and break programs. 

Three global service-learning semesters are currently offered through the partnership, and special scholarship opportunities apply to WVU students! Additionally, WV Promise Scholarships may be applied. Opportunities include: 

• Indigenous Politics, Service, and Development in the Andes in Cochabamba, Bolivia, which offers credits in Spanish, Political Science, and History. 

• Amazon to Atlantic: Development and Change  in Brazil, which offers credits in Political Science and Portuguese.  

• International Justice, Identity, and Sustainable Development in rural Tanzania, which offers credits in Philosophy, Swahili, and Political Science. 

Amizade anticipates continuing to offer these semester programs in cooperation with WVU indefinitely. 

According to the College Board, the average semester cost of college attendance for an out-of-state student at a public institution this academic year is $13,370, including room, board and costs. ALL of the Amizade-WVU semester programs cost less than that national average. Additionally, through the Amizade-WVU partnership: 

• Amizade guarantees special scholarships for WVU students participating in semester programs. The minimum scholarship provided to a WVU student entering a semester programs is $1,270. 
• WV Promise Scholarship Funding may be applied to semester programs.  

Amizade is committed to making global service-learning as affordable and accessible as possible. 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Helps in History Class

Populism. This is an important concept in the study of Latin American History, particularly during the last 60 years. The term is debated, but it tends to indicate a President who has a charismatic linkage with the people, who continuously suggests that he (it has always been a him, so far) knows the will of "the people" and he will exercise it against or in spite of "the elites" - usually at whatever cost.

President Chavez didn't actually come to class to talk with us about populism, but he was in Cochabamba for a recent ALBA summit. One of the Bolivia Semester Students, Bridget Winstanley, happened to be in the crowd as he left the conference hotel. He was connecting with the crowd when he saw her and said, in Spanish, "Where are you from?" Bridget froze. Chavez's rhetoric, and for that matter Bolivian President Evo Morales' rhetoric, has definitely not been US-friendly. He tried again, "You, white woman, where are you from?" Still frozen, Bridget was nudged into action by a few friends.

Los Estados Unidos - The United States, she told him. Ah! "Viva Los Estados Unidos! - Long Live the United States!" Chavez said. And then, in English, he exclaimed, "You are my sister!"

Connecting with the people, whoever the people are, whatever the rhetoric necessary, and not necessarily with any deep or consistent ideology - that's also populism, as President Chavez demonstrated. As it happened he was on the way to a rally in Cochabamba's stadium, where he proceeded to denounce the United States and refer to Americans as gorillas. Bridget blogs about this meeting and other class- and experience-related questions, including a recent post wrestling with the meaning of indigenous identity - on Bridget-in-Bolivia.  Actually several of the students are posting interesting blogs, all of which are linked on the right, along with the blog of Amizade Santarem, Brazil Long-Term Volunteer Coordinators Val Hess and Nathan Darity.

Val recently made an interesting, speculative post about the encroachment of soy farming into the Brazilian Amazon. Her post was extremely prescient as the New York Times seemed to follow her with a related, very popular, and controversial editorial by a livestock rancher suggesting local meat consumption may have less of an impact on the environment than vegetarianism, because of the environmental impact of soy farming.

Thank you, Mr. Chavez, for providing us with such a vivid example of populist political behavior. Thank you, Bridget and Val, for such interesting posts, and for the related pictures I linked from your sites.

Get Paid for Your Spring Semester Stories from Abroad

October 28th, Turn $500 into $750, Turn Green Paper into Good Works

This Wednesday (the 28th) we have an online gift matching opportunity. Any amount between $50 and $2,500 you give to Amizade will be matched at 50%. This is a rare opportunity and one I hope you’ll take. This is the first time – ever – that we’ve had a matching gift opportunity like this, so I hope you’ll forgive me for taking more than a brief moment to tell you about what we’ve been up to. Instructions on how to give and have your gift matched are at the bottom of this post.

Sometimes when I talk about Amizade I focus excessively on how we’ve been able to make the numbers work over the past few years – we’ve balanced the budget, expanded, hired new staff, and kept administration costs below 20% - but of course what really matters is the effects we have in communities and in individual lives. We’ve also seen continuity and improvement in those areas during the past year.

• Through cooperative efforts with West Virginia University, Central Michigan University, and Road Scholar (previously Elderhostel), we offered several programs in Germany and Poland that promote Holocaust Remembrance, Anti-Genocide Efforts, and historical landscape preservation. The recent rise in holocaust denial and genocide elsewhere in the world illustrate the vital importance of this programming.  

• In the Navajo Nation, we worked with Duke University's Duke Engage initiative to develop and establish a college preparatory program. Only 36% of Navajo college students graduate college in six years compared to 56% of the US population. The program addresses this challenge directly and will be offered again in 2010.

• In Brazil, we helped develop community centers in Alvorada and Livramento, near Santarem. Community members use the sites to offer courses, have sports activities, and offer cultural activities. The centers serve more than 100 children and more than 75 families. A recent study by the University of British Columbia suggested more than 50% of youth in Santarem report violence as their primary concern, making these community centers especially important as places for safe activities.

• Through cooperation with Carlow University, we offered a national conference on global service-learning attended by more than 70 individuals representing several states and institutions of higher education. The conference helped staff and faculty at other universities improve their institutions’ capabilities to offer critical, reflective, community-driven academic service-learning programming that stimulates students’ thinking on global citizenship.

• In Montana, for the second consecutive year, we offered a volunteer program for Dartmouth University alumni, who contributed to the historic and environmental preservation of the OTO Dude Ranch, an icon of the American West and America’s first dude ranch.

• In Puerto Morelos, Mexico, Amizade cooperated with Regis Jesuit High School of Denver, Colorado on the beautification of a kindergarten classroom and facilities.

• Through cooperation with the University of Idaho’s Upward Bound Program, Penn State – Abington, and Academy of the Sacred Heart of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Amizade supported Washington, D.C. programs to combat hunger and homelessness. Hunger and Homelessness have been on the rise in Washington DC since 2001, and have only gotten more acute in the current economic downturn.

• In Bolivia, Amizade built on more than twelve years of cooperation by completing classroom walls at Viloma Primary School, installing a bathroom at the Hogar de Ninos Orphanage, and supplying volunteers at The Ceoli Center for Children with Disabilities and at The Millennium Casa Cuna Orphanage. The Bolivian Government provides orphanages with only the equivalent of 47 US cents per day ($0.47) per child, so the volunteer support and material support that comes with it are sorely needed.

• In Ghana, Amizade cooperated with West Virginia University to continue efforts on the community library in Jukwa, Ghana. When completed, the library will be the first public library outside of the capital city of Accra.

• Through cooperation with Central Michigan University, Westfield University, Duke University, and West Virginia University, Amizade supported peace and reconciliation-related programming in Northern Ireland, both in Belfast and Ballycastle.

• In Tanzania, Amizade continued Women’s Rights and Water Harvesting efforts, ensuring women and children have improved access to water, empowerment, and education. Those efforts were recognized in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, WVU’sDaily Athenaeum, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania’s Advocate.

In these and other ways, Amizade connected more than 300 volunteers and service-learning students with community-driven initiatives around the world. The community outcomes I mentioned above are important, but also vital to all that Amizade does and stands for are the changes in each individual life that result from these experiences. Regardless of whether their careers are in public health, development, teaching, law, business, or something else, Amizade participants are strongly affected. They regularly report working in their own lives after programs to continue to support Amizade’s efforts to build a better world. They devote themselves to the ethical actions necessary – through work, life choices, and civil society – to build a more just, sustainable, and inclusive world.

Please support our efforts this year. This matching opportunity is nothing short of incredible and can substantially leverage your philanthropy for a strong and growing cause that creates positive social change at the community and individual levels.

To take advantage of this matching opportunity, please simply:

1. Go to the Pittsburgh Gives website and create a LogIn now.
2. Return to the Pittsburgh Gives website promptly at 10am on this coming Wednesday, October 28^th, LogIn, and make your gift. **Important** - The Pittsburgh Foundation has announced it will refresh its website at 9:59 am on the 28^th, so that no one can LogIn before 10am and simply wait for 10:00. It is important, therefore, to LogIn precisely at 10am.
3. Find “Amizade” using the search box in the top right quarter of the page.
4. Click “Amizade”
5. Click “Donate Now / Donate to Nonprofit” in the top right quarter of the page.
6. You will have just leveraged your philanthropy considerably! Thank you! 

Thank you for taking advantage of this opportunity while it’s available. I hope it came through in my post above, but if it didn’t: Please understand that giving to Amizade is giving to save lives, empower through education and opportunity, form friendships across cultures, and build a better world.

2009 Citizens for Global Solutions Multimedia Contest

$4,000 in prizes up for grabs. Get your creative juices flowing on representing Global Solutions - http://multimedia.globalsolutions.org/2009-multimedia-contest. Contest deadline = November 17. Good luck!

Why Amizade Supports Holocaust Remembrance and Historical Preservation Efforts

For fifteen years, Amizade has maintained a strong commitment to community-driven service. This has meant building schools, tutoring children, learning about specific cultural histories and practices, and restoring historic sites. When a community proposes a service initiative, we motivate volunteers and students to enact that initiative. In Germany and Poland, we work to honor the wishes of Holocaust Survivors, their families, the families of Holocaust Victims, and the global coalition of people organized in opposition to genocide, anywhere it occurs. We therefore support Holocaust Remembrance and related historic landscape preservation. Holocaust denials and contemporary genocide continue to clarify how absolutely vital Holocaust Remembrance and anti-genocide efforts are today.

During our programs in Germany and Poland (one of which we recently facilitated for Elderhostel volunteers), groups are led by Dr. Christopher Kopper, an expert in modern German History and Holocaust Studies. During the September Elderhostel program, Amizade Director of Operations Brandon Cohen visited with the group to share his grandfather’s story as a Holocaust Survivor. Brandon added to the program’s overarching emphasis on communicating the human reality of the Holocaust.

That six million Jews were killed in that genocide is often cited and repeated, but it is somehow even more unsettling and horrifying to begin to understand each of those six million people as individuals with husbands or wives, children, parents, jobs, homes, hopes, dreams and fears. And of course, these genuine individual lives and experiences were just as present for all of the Nazi regime's victims, including Roma, people with disabilities, Slavic peoples, homosexuals, and others.

Visiting the sites where the Holocaust took place and learning more about the fear, intimidation, and systematic murder enacted by the Nazi regime makes the reality and horror of the Holocaust uncomfortably clear. Though understanding the Holocaust in that way is uncomfortable and challenging, it must be understood, and the historical reality must be made clear.

Holocaust deniers do a disservice to humankind when they subvert history. This disservice comes in several forms. First, their denials are direct and clear affronts to Survivors, their families, and the families of Holocaust Victims. Their denials are – six million times over – telling the families of murder victims that there was no murder. Second, denials negate a clear reality about the modern world: a ‘civilized’ Germany at one relatively recent point in history saw fit to exterminate a vast part of Europe’s people. If we as a human community do not understand and accept this historical fact we run greater risk of allowing such horrors to occur again - and again. Third, by sowing seeds of doubt within the historical record deniers create room for disagreement between Jews and non-Jews. Thus deniers sow seeds of dissension within the broader human community and create conflict where none should exist.

Unfortunately, deniers today are numerous and sometimes as powerful as President Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has made no effort to mask his fervent anti-Jewish stance. Also unfortunately, and as much as I have absolutely met some wonderful, reasonable and kind Iranians, the rest of Ahmadinehad's government appears to harbor similar hatreds, having voiced no objection to his recent appointment to Defense Secretary. This new Iranian Defense Secretary is wanted by Interpol for his suspected role in masterminding the bombing of a Jewish Center in Buenos Aires in 1994; a bombing that killed 85 people. Clearly, with such powerful and numerous deniers in the world today, all remembrance and preservation efforts are vital - and need even more support.

I want to take a quick aside to say that I once spent two wonderful weeks travelling around northern Ethiopia with an Israeli, a Swede, and a Swedish-Iranian. The Swedish-Iranian woman was kind, insightful, filled with love for all people, and harbored not one bit of ill-will toward our Israeli travelling companion. She, like other Iranians I've met, expressed her faith in her country, the beauty of its mountains, deserts, and date orchards, the kindness of so many of its people, and its proud legacy as having arguably authored the world's first known charter of human rights - some 2,000 years ago. All of which is to say denials must absolutely be contradicted and stopped, but let's be careful to remember that not all Iranians are as reckless and loathsome as their current President. What we're really seeking here, for Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, Arab Women and Asian Men, is a world where all people have basic human rights and respect one another's rights as well.    

And seeking that world, advocating for that world, and creating that world is the final component of why our work in Germany and Poland is so important. We are educating anti-genocide leaders of today and tomorrow. We are growing the global community who has witnessed the historical artifacts and reality of the Holocaust, and we are therefore growing the global community of people who understand the brutal reality of genocide and who will not sit idly by while tens and hundreds of thousands are killed today in Burma, Darfur, and The Democratic Republic of Congo. Through service organized around historical preservation at and near Auschwitz, we are preparing people of all ages for deep commitments to inspiring and unfortunately essential anti-genocide movements like this one:

I am proud to be part of these efforts and I'm proud that Amizade is part of these efforts. I want to thank Dr. Kopper, Michael Sandy, Dr. Daniel Weiss, Amy Scanlon, Brandon Cohen, Steve Zupcic, and especially Betty Lou Weiss and Dr. Elena Kamel for strengthening and advancing our role in this vital historical remembrance and anti-genocide work.

Today's Update: Those of you who are moved by courageous acts of individuals to save lives despite the genocidal acts of totalitarian regimes will appreciate this profile of 89-year-old New Yorker Dr. Tina Strobos published recently in the New York Times. 

Yes We STILL Can, Magic Money, Do Amizade, The Challenge of Development, Great Job!

In this post:

1. The Contest Has Become an Even Better Opportunity; Yes You can STILL Make a Difference with Just a Click! 
2. Leveraging your philanthropy – Opportunity for 50% matching on October 28^th
3. 2010 Service-Learning Courses are Online with Applications Available and 2010 Volunteer Program Opportunities are Coming this Week Too
4. The Challenge of Development and hints at site updates from Bolivia, Germany and Poland
5. Great Job Amizade Pittsburgh Staff and Carlow University Volunteers – Painting a World Map at Pittsburgh Public Schools’ International Magnet School!  

The Contest that has become an Even Better Opportunity: Yes You can Still Make a Difference

Many thanks to all the Amizade Friends and Followers who voted to support our water harvesting project in Karagwe District, Tanzania. The contest was a wild ride, and the conclusion looked momentarily like the melee surrounding the 2000 Presidential Election! But this one’s not going to the Supreme Court; in fact we’ve been handed a much better option. And those of you who emailed us in frustration right after noon today (asking if you could still vote) – we’ve got great news for you.

If you were following closely you know – last night we had 3^rd place, this morning we were in 5^th, through the day more than a hundred of you voted, we jumped to third, and at noon, we had fallen to 4^th by only 5 votes. The good news is that the organization that promoted this contest, Africa Rural Connect, has decided to offer one more round. The deadline for voting for this final round is November 15^th. The really good news is that we’re currently in first place for the final round. And the even better news is this gives us time to email friends and family; it gives us time to email people we know want to change the world for the better but don’t know how or feel like they don’t have time. We can let them know all they have to do is register and endorse the project here:  http://arc.peacecorpsconnect.org/view/965/rainwater-harvesting-in-rural-tanzania.

Above, a group of Amizade students interviewing a family that received a water tank this past summer (and here the same group is later getting briefed at the US Embassy in Dar Es Salaam). 

And finally, the best news of all, if we get the first place, $3,000 prize, in this final round instead of the $1,000 3^rd place prize we were chasing, we’ll be able to work with seven (instead of just 2) families to install water harvesting systems. We’ll therefore be able to help at least 70 (instead of 20) people get access to water. What that does for people in real terms is challenging to understand without the experience of watching young children and women wake every day to walk miles for water. It’s hard to understand without watching children, working hard at school all day, take their lunch breaks to walk in their school uniforms to distant water sources, instead of eating lunch. What I hope to communicate is that these water systems, which the families support by providing some of the locally available materials, are absolutely liberating.

This is the kind of water source many children and women are forced to utilize before having water harvesting systems. 

Water systems free women and children from daily water gathering duties and provide opportunities to go to school and to work. It is a simple solution, it is locally supported, it is empowering, and we have had clear successes with the systems we have installed over the past two years. When we visit families that have received systems, they are literally overcome with thankfulness. It is a priceless gift – and you can enable it. Here’s a little note one of my board members put together for his network. Feel free to cut and paste it to go to your friends and family:

Friends,

If you get a chance to go online tonight I have a quick way you can support a great cause at no cost to you.

1.     Click this link Rainwater Harvesting in Rural Tanzania | Africa Rural Connect

2.     sign up  

3.     click “Endorse it” for the Tanzania Water harvesting program. 

It will take 60 seconds. 

They are a few votes away from winning a grant to deliver a clean water harvesting system to some folks in rural Tanzania.  This is a non-profit I’ve been involved with for the past half-decade that does great work. 

Please forward this to any and everyone. 

Thanks!!

Please be sure every good and kind person you know – votes for this. Thank you.

Students, a Tanzanian Family and WOMEDA Director Juma Massisi in front of a new water tank 

Leveraging Your Philanthropy – We can Beat the Market

Yes, you’ve asked, and it’s true. On October 28^th, thanks to the Pittsburgh Foundation, we can make $50 turn into $75. We can make $2,500 turn into $3,750, and all of the parallel options in between. The Pittsburgh Foundation is matching gifts on the morning of October 28^th beginning promptly at 10 am. To have your gift matched at 50 cents to the dollar, simply create a Login at The Pittsburgh Foundation website and return to the website promptly at 10am on October 28^th. Matching funds are limited, so please be certain to return precisely at 10 am.    

2010 Service-Learning Courses and Volunteer Programs

Amizade makes a difference through a unique model of development: we promote community-driven service across cultures. All of our efforts are enacted by community leaders and volunteers working in cooperation with volunteers and students who are visiting the community to serve, to learn about local perspectives and experience, and to connect and form friendships across cultures. The 2010 Service-Learning Course opportunities are all online and the semester programs are featured in this volunteer-produced (Thanks, Brother Dave) video:

The 2010 volunteer programs will all be online here within a few days.

The Challenge of Development, Site Updates from Bolivia, Brazil, Germany and Poland

In supporting community-driven development, Amizade wants to support those initiatives that are empowering, enabling, and locally-supported. That is definitely what we have in the Tanzania Water Harvesting Initiative.

Sometimes, however unfortunately, our community partners have moments when they lack fundamental basic resources. Sometimes we are asked to step in to fill gaps. The orphanage we partner with in Bolivia, Millennium Cradle House, has been hit with some unequivocally hard times. I know several people are interested in helping Millennium in particular. If you want to help the children at Millennium Cradle House, you can also give on the matching day mentioned above and indicate that you’d like your donation to go to Millennium. I’ll write more about that soon.

Another site update is coming soon from our Holocaust Remembrance, Historical Landscape Preservation, and Anti-Genocide Awareness efforts in Germany and Poland. And a lot is happening (medical volunteering, environmental initiatives, more!) at the site where we were originally founded in Santarem, Brazil.

Great Job Pittsburgh Staff and Carlow University Volunteers, Painting a World Map at Pittsburgh Public Schools' International Magnet School!

Yes! As reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Amizade Pittsburgh Regional Outreach Coordinator Kat Stackel and other Amizade staff members (thanks too to Laura Hoch) recently worked with Carlow University students as part of Carlow University Service-Learning and Outreach Center's big 5^th Annual Mercy Service Day. Great work to all involved!

And of course, great work to all who supported us in the Africa Rural Connect Contest and to all who continue to support us. We're building a better world together! 


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