Explore. Serve. Understand.

"No, I don't want to bathe with cold water." Notes from WVU's Mexico Service-Learning Course

2010-06-22T22:16:00.001-07:00

Thanks again to Kat Stackel, WVU-Amizade Course Facilitator, for contributing from the road:

Here goes my last e-mail from Mexico, and hopefully I can try to encompass our entire experience so far. I think that I should preface this e-mail by saying that Mexico is HUGE and every place is so different that it is difficult to give an explanation of "how it is," and better to remind you that our experience has been limited to two parts of a very diverse country. In the words of a student I'm traveling with, "my stay in Guanajuato has made me question my previous classification of Mexico as a poor, developing country lacking the infrastructure necessary to maintain safe and healthy conditions." For the last week I've been questioning my assumptions of Latin America in a new way. I know that my experiences in the Peace Corps and otherwise are the backdrop of my knowledge and this is something different.

To start, we finished our volunteer projects in Puerto Morelos on 6/14. The kids at the pre-k center were an absolute delight. I think that my students would say they learned more from the kids than they actually taught them. Their Spanish went from zero to about 2.0 pretty fast.. with them having a great, big vocabulary for directing students to learn and play, and a working knowledge of enough Spanish to ensure their survival.

Our favorite project was completing a video translation for the visitors' center in that town. It was an 8-minute video about the reef national park and the history of the settlement. At first we were confused on how we would go about this project since I am the only one who could understand the video. Well, my English-translation skills are mas o menos when it comes to sentence construction, and with a grammar expert in the group, it turned out to be a very inclusive project for all. We translated all of the text, timed the video perfectly, and re-recorded all of the audio in English. It was fun, frustrating, hilarious and completely satisfying.

We were sad to say goodbye to the Puerto, but we think we'll be back. Actually, all 5 of us ended up taking a parasitic souvenir from the place, which wrecked the beginning of our stay in Guanajuato, but left a special memory in our hearts for forever. Dignity was lost, but things could only go uphill at this point!!

We arrived in Guanajuato at the level of "fist" on a scale of fist, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (think hands). Two got sick first, then two more, and then our "MVP" who lasted until the 3rd day. We were out of commission for about 4 days total and the Mexican mothers were having a field day with suggestions for our improvement. With my help, the students learned some new and very important vocabulary:

No, no quiero bañarme con agua frio... No, I don't want to bathe with cold water

No, no quiero tomar bicarbonato con limón...No, I don't want to drink baking soda with lime

No, no quiero sopa de verduras... No, I don't want vegetable soup

Last one- very important.

Since we've recovered, we are discovering how different Guanajuato is from the Puerto. We are up at 6,700 feet and north of Mexico City, and our homestays were arranged with some pretty wealthy people in the area. In contrast, we are volunteering with some extremely disadvantaged groups. Most of the beginning of work was filled with heartbreak and guilty feelings. We are moving past that somewhat and getting down to what needs to be done.

Our project here is to work with an NGO called Arco Iris, and a convent, battered women's shelter, and girls' orphanage. Arco Iris is a group of Mexican, American and Canadian women that work with the latter 3 groups. The latter 3 are all inter-connected yet separate at the same time. At the convent, we've been doing some serious spring cleaning for a group of nuns that are elderly and need a lot of help. I am always hesitant to use this word when talking about volunteering, because it has a lot of implications and the power structure is skewed, but, they need helping hands.

We are also working with the children of the women's shelter. Pretty much, these children were taken out of their homes because of death threats against their mothers, and they are currently at risk of being kidnapped by other family members. They were taken out of school, relocated, and are not able to re-register until the next full year begins. They do not have their friends, other family members, many of their possessions, etc. We are playing with them, working with them to express certain values (given by their group leader), and for those that care to learn- teaching English.

In the girls' orphanage, we are simply spending time with a group of 30 girls that is otherwise only attended to by the two very busy people that run the orphanage. The girls range in age from 4-17 and it is clear that they all have very different needs. We are happy to take a few hours to just play with them. Simple things like coloring books, sidewalk chalk and jump ropes can really change a child's day and so that's how we went armed. I love watching my Amizade group remember all of their games from camp, and the girls are loving learning them.

This is how we will continue our last week in Mexico, with slight interruptions for certain (ahem), World cup games, never to be missed (the hum of those horns can be heard at any time from any place here in GTO). Also, we are going to be attending a special ceremony for some of the girls and will hopefully get to visit another much bigger orphanage before we depart. It's been a great learning experience.

Thanks for reading about our adventure. The rest of the pictures (so far) have been added to this album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/k.stackel/MexicoWAmizade2010#

- By Katherine Stackel

WVU - Amizade Latin American History Service-Learning Course Rolling in Mexico!

2010-06-06T17:19:00.000-07:00

A GUEST POST from Katherine Stackel, Amizade's Facilitator for the WVU-Amizade Latin American History course taught online by Dr. Evan Widders, and including excellent cultural experience and service opportunities in Puerto Morelos and Guanjuato. Take a look:

Amizade site coordinator Luis (*see below) and I have been leading the students around and getting everybody ready for our month in Mexico. Since the first day things have been great. We are staying at Luis's family's inn, a 10-room hotel on the beach. It is rustic yet beautiful, and it has been very interesting to learn more about this region. I've traveled through the Yucatan peninsula before, but the other times what I saw was a little different.

We are working on a couple of different service projects. First, we are teaching ESL in a kindergarten across the highway on "the other side" of Puerto Morelos. This community is divided in a sense, because half of the town is located on the side of the highway with the beach (the highway runs parallel to the beach). On "the other side" you can definitely see what a difference it makes when community members do not see the good impact of tourism, i.e. money. The houses are much bigger on this side, and although I would call this a sleepy town, there are still various small, and professional, tour companies here. Many people speak at least some English. The schools on this side, since they are visible to tourists, are in better financial situations because they receive many more donations than those on the other side.

On the other side most of the houses are "casas de interes social" (social-interest houses: built by the government for people with no savings/money. These citizens can get these houses by agreeing to pay a small-ish monthly fee for the following 15 years-- though people in town say that the fee is actually quite exorbitant compared to what the houses are actually worth-- credit options for the poor... always a debate-able theme...). Luis and his family, and Amizade, have worked on the other side of the highway for years.

Because of this project our days have been filled with hours of planning. Kids learn so fast! We have been having fun trying to remember all of the songs that helped us learn things when we were children. Songs we have sung so far are "one little, two little, three little indians," "hokey pokey" (to learn body parts), "head, shoulders, knees and toes," an invented song about colors, among others. There is no shame in this work. The kids love to see us make fools of ourselves. They love learning English and have been really good about participating. But I think their favorite activity is dragging us around the playground. There's an album at the end here.

Other than that we spent a good part of today translating a video for the tourist information center in town.

Basically, Playa del Carmen and Cancun's mega-tourism infrastructures have destroyed much of the ecosystem in this part of the country. There is not sufficient infrastructure for controlling these resorts. Puerto Morelos is located almost directly between the two. Giant building projects have destroyed reef areas, caused flooding, sewage problems, and are not really providing jobs for people in this area or (for the most part) in the cities where the operations are located. It seems that most of the workers in these big places come from other areas of the country, or other countries in the world. This is not to say that the region doesn't gain from this tourism. The transportation systems (highways, airports, etc) are phenomenal- which can be of great help. Having such large, important projects in the area has also brought high schools and even a university to the area. There is a give and take happening, but it is definitely happening more on the latter end.

Puerto Morelos is an extremely organized community dedicated to changing that. In 1995 the community got together and gained enough support to get national park status for their area. They are protecting 21 km of reef, and some great mangrove areas that are important for fish hatching and bird migration. They got government support to limit the amount of development that is happening in the area. They continually lobby against plans to continue developing the town (and especially limit its tourism operations) until they are able to achieve proper sewage and water control. The workers at the tourist information center (and many hotels involved in these projects) volunteer their time for these efforts. You can sense a big culture of conservation and it is very refreshing. They are also careful of how they talk about the mega-tourism operations. Their idea is to learn from them and continue working towards positive change and better regulations.

At night we have 2-hour long classes based on academic service-learning articles, and the students' overall experiences and how they compare to the stereotypes that we brought to the country. We are analyzing our own way of life as well, and how it relates or absolutely does not relate to what we find during our experience. We will continue working on these and other projects (eg. cleaning out and preparing for organic gardens, etc) until June 15th, when we head to Guanajuato in the central hills. We have other service projects planned for that time. I am lucky to be traveling with 4 very open-minded, well-behaved and somewhat reserved (and observant) college students. We are learning a lot from our Mexican partners and we know that we are all very lucky to be having this experience in paradise!

Here is a short album of everything so far: http://picasaweb.google.com/k.stackel/MexicoWAmizade2010#

Farleigh Dickinson University Students Report on their Amizade Navajo Nation Experience

2010-05-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

Check out THIS Feedback. And many thanks to Jackie Chua for sharing the team's feedback with us at Amizade!

Kadi Cisse "Life changing experience"

Anassa Tulloch My life went beyond the stereotype.

Christina Marie Holowinski "I would do this every spring break. I am so glad I got the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life. Even though we only spent just a few days with the kids, I know I have made great bonds with the people I met. It was definitely a life changing experience.

Olga Fridman "I gained a lot more than I expected and never imagined that I would have the opportunity to experience such a fascinating and surreal culture."

Angel Rose Santiago " The best thing I ever did with my life, hands down."

Simone Hawkins "Arizona was beyond amazing. I learned to lead with my heart, something i couldnt have learned anywhere else."

Kevin Celisca "Its an experience you have to have in your college career."
"The people, the culture, and the way of life changed how I see my own life."

Stefania Trelles "College is a time for new experiences. Alternative Spring Break (ASB) is an experience no one should go with out. Although it was only a week, ASB not only allowed us to make a difference in the lives of those on the Navajo Nation but also gave us the chance to reflex on our own lives. Whether we were climbing to the top of a Canyon, playing games with Navajo kids, herding sheep, or bonding around the bonfire, each moment of ASB changed us more than we could have ever imagined. "

Jordan DeGroat "my experience on the spring break trip to tuba city will always have an imprint on my heart and mind. The experience completely changed my perspective on how precious the life given to me is here in New Jersey. It is also comforting and inspirational to see first hand a selfless society in the United States that are proud of who they are, where they live, and the kindness they share with others. I will never forget the friendships and new cultural views I have taken away from the Navajo Nation and would not have to think twice if given a similar opportunity like this in the future."

Ludger Sparks Deryce One word extraordinary…..I had one of the most amazing times in Arizona. It is the ultimate college experience, a life changing experience. It helps with setting new goals in life and refreshing your memory with the old priorities. The Alternative spring break should be an ongoing program at FDU for the years to come; it is an experience that could only benefit the school in the long run and shape student character in the process. Caroline Malia What we learned in a week was more than I will ever learn from books or class lectures. The culture and tradition made me appreciate my own culture and everything I take for granted. The trip left me thinking what else can I do and learn. I would go back in a heartbeat just maybe with more sunscreen! Thank you to everyone who helped us and please continue to support other trips!

Madeleine Morales One of the very many memorable moments that stood out for me while on this Alternative Spring Break in Arizona, was the enthusiasm, flexibility and positive attitude that everyone in our group had every morning. We had somewhat of a basic schedule everyday, but there were a few days that we had to make changes. Tracey, the site director complimented us every day at how well we all adapted to the activities planned each day. When we're in school we have our routines and at times feel uneasy about not sticking to them. Going on trips like these allow students to take a break from hectic schedules to get to know other students and learn about new cultures.

Amizade Plays Role in Haiti Forum at West Virginia University

2010-03-16T06:39:00.001-07:00

Aftershock: Knowing Haiti Now

The Earthquake in Context—History, Politics, Culture

a public forum

7:00 pm

March 23, 2010

Ming Hsieh Hall (Oglebay G20)

The January 12 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince launched Haiti into the world’s spotlight with scenes of unimaginable suffering. Too often, those are the only media images to come out of Haiti. And they leave us with more questions than answers: Why did the buildings fall so easily? How can Haiti be rebuilt? Will international aid do good? Does the Haitian political system work? And, amidst dire conditions of poverty and disaster, how do the Haitian people manage to show such resilience and faith?

This forum aims to answer these questions and more by putting the earthquake in context. Panelists from across the university will discuss Haitian history, US-Haiti relations, the economics of development, and media response to the earthquake. There will be plenty of Q&A with the audience following the presentations. Haitian music will play as we serve refreshments following the discussion.

Panelists

Karleen Jones West (Political Science)

"The Impact of Colonialism on Haiti's Development"

James Siekmeier (History)

“US-Haitian Relations in Historical Context”

Kayode Ogunfolabi (English)

"Surviving the Kingdom of this World, Or Transgressing the Margins of Imagination"

Eric Hartman (Amizade and International Studies)

“The Solutions are Small, The Effects are Large: Locally-Driven Development”

Moderator

Gwen Bergner (English)

"Haiti in the US Imagination"

Exhibitor

Michael Vercelli (Music)

"Survival Instincts: African Musical Influence in Haitian Vodou Tradition

Yes, We will Offer a 2010-11 Winter Break Ghana Service-Learning Course!

2010-03-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

Click here for more information on this past winter break's course.

Tanzania: Water Access Updates from the Field

2010-03-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to Stephanie Vickery and Brandon Cohen for putting together the paragraphs I'm simply pasting below. And thanks to Stephanie, Brandon, the All People Be Happy Foundation, and the many, many other Amizade volunteers and essentially good people who are volunteering, serving, and extending themselves to build a better world.

The community has decided to shift gears in their approach this year, and are using Amizade/APBH volunteers and funds in three new ways: (1) quality of construction (2) quantity of water-drinkers, not water-tanks (3) use of family labor and local materials. The real big news is in the construction of the Chonyoyo Water Tank, which will soon be able to provide hundreds of people with year-round access to clean water!

Chonyoyo Tank:

Prior to the commencement of the 2010 Amizade spring semester program in Karagwe, Tanzania in Spring 2010, Amizade signed a partnership with Mavuno - the leading water tank experts in the district. This partnership has yielded a significant amount of materials (such as cement) and volunteer labor to allow for the construction of a massive, 300,000 L water tank in the village of Chonyoyo. The manual labor that has gone into this project is almost unbelievable: a hole, deeper than 5 meters, dug entirely by hand! The gutters feeding water into the catchment area run along the roof of a very large, food storage building which is also approaching completion. The plan is for this storage structure to enable farmers to transform their wasted surplus into profit, and to provide food for purchase during the rainy seasons- after harvest has long passed and people are struggling to put well rounded meals together. The vision also involves the purchasing of communal farming machinery to be stored at the building. The water from this project will provide an incredible amount of relief for the community in the very near future, literally providing several hundred people with access to clean water, as well as nurturing the unfolding of the master plan:

Working in conjunction with Amizade staff, Mavuno recently sent an application to the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania for funds to build a dormitory with the capacity for 240 female students at the secondary level. Funds have already been secured through the relationship between Mavuno and German Engineers Without Borders for two smaller tanks which will provide the dormitories with water. Meanwhile, the huge tank Amizade/All People Be Happy Foundation has helped to fund, will provide water not only to community members in the village, but will also meet the needs of what will be the teacher's quarters and the administration building (set to follow the construction of the the dormitory.)

Rukole Tank:

For the first time, Amizade is embarking upon a family sized water tank made of all local materials! With the expertise and direction of Mavuno, which has installed nearly 500 water tanks since their initial tank in 1993, the spring semester group and Joseph Baraka of Mavuno have worked together to select the recipient of a 6, 285 L tank. This is more than twice the size of the 3,000 L plastic tanks Amizade and All People Be Happy Foundation gifted in the past. The model that this NGO employs begins with referencing its list of applicants who have applied to Mavuno specifically for a water tank. After visiting three applicants and assessing the composition and needs of each family, a 60 year old woman by the name of Verdiana, and the three orphans she is raising in the village of Rukole, were chosen as this semester's beneficiaries. There are two young boys, Franky and Faston, ages 2 and 3, and a 7 year old girl, Bertina, enrolled in her first year of primary school. The water that is used by this family until the tank is completed and filled with rainfall, continues to be fetched from a natural source which involves one heck of a journey. The trip is typically made one to two times per day, taking 3 hours for each roundtrip, and involving mountainous terrain which would be challenging for anyone- especially for very young children and an elderly woman like Verdiana.

Amizade has provided the funds for cement, gutters, nails, and labor costs, while the family has gathered stone, sand, water (fetched with the help of neighbors) and aggregate. This model has been proven to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility, and is a fertile avenue for direct empowerment as it engages the families in the installation of the tank, and enables them to see that in addition to receiving this assistance, they are capable of improving their own situation.

If you want to make a difference and support this effort, take part in the 3rd Annual Water Walk for Women's Rights in Morgantown or Pittsburgh, take part in a service-learning course or volunteer program with Amizade in Tanzania, or simply donate directly.

WVUToday: WVU students in Ghana help raise $1,500 to build library

2010-02-17T07:51:00.001-08:00

WVUToday: WVU students in Ghana help raise $1,500 to build library

Posted using ShareThis

"Bring a Friend" Amizade Study Abroad Scholarship Program

2010-02-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

Always wanted to do study abroad, but uncertain about going alone?
Ready to make a difference, but want someone with you through the experience?
Amizade is offering $350 scholarships for students who take the plunge, see the world, jump into the adventure, and make a difference - together.

Programs offered this summer include:

Never Again: Remembrance, History, and Genocide Prevention in Germany / Poland: 3 History, 3 Service-Learning Credits; Challenging Learning; Service to support historical landscape preservation and Holocaust Remembrance.
Reform and Revolution: Modern Latin American History in Mexico: 3 History, 3 Service-Learning Credits; Consideration of the last 60 years of Latin American History; Service in cooperation with local schools; travel through Guanajuato and along the Caribbean Coast.
Peace, Reconciliation and Identity: Literature and Politics in Northern Ireland: 3 English, 3 Service-Learning Credits; Consideration of the role of literature in shaping identity; Service in cooperation with local youth organizations.
Local to Global: Life Stories and the Politics of Rights in Tanzania: 3 English, 3 Service-Learning Credits; Literary Ethnography as an important technique in gathering the stories of women in rural Africa; Service in cooperation with a Women's Rights organization and a sustainable development organization.

Taking advantage of the Bring a Friend programs is easy - simply write, "Bring a Friend: YOUR FRIEND'S NAME" at the end of the "Background Information" section of your Amizade application. You'll immediately receive the $350 scholarship against your program fee - and your friend will receive the same (for a total of $700 between both of you) when he or she indicates your name in the same way.

We Stand for Human Rights - Amizade Responding to Uganda

2010-02-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

As many people are already aware, the Ugandan Parliament has proposed Anti-Gay legislation that President Obama recently and rightly called "odious" and "unconscionable." The proposed law further marginalizes the gay community in Uganda and threatens to hang homosexuals.

As a global nonprofit organization that emphasizes global citizenship and respecting all individuals' rights, we felt we had to do whatever we could to make our commitment to fundamental human equality clear. Amizade re-routed our Tanzania semester faculty and students to arrive in Northwest Tanzania via Kigali, Rwanda rather than via Kampala, Uganda. We did this because it is safer for all of our students and because we will avoid providing visa fees, airport taxes, and other incidental monies to a government that threatens to persecute a community.

Previous incidents of systematic violation of human rights make abundantly clear:

Stand up early.
Stand up often.
Remain standing.

Other nonprofit organizations, universities, and travel companies proceed through or work in Uganda. Frequently safari companies move through Kampala, as well as rafting companies interested in the upper portion of the Nile. If you're interested in expressing your support for human rights and ensuring your funds don't go to persecute the homosexual community in Uganda, it's time to take your business elsewhere. Spread the word.

And of course, just as soon as the Members of Parliament who are advancing this horrible bill take it off the table, we'll be happy to work in Uganda again. Most Ugandans are kind and welcoming. And based on the Ugandans I've met, I'd bet most are - like so many people in so many countries around the world - outraged and upset by the hate-mongering some of their representatives are advancing right now.

Let's stand against hate and for EVERYONE's fundamental human rights, together, now.

Globetrotting with Amizade: Worldwide Traveler Posts from Brazil

2010-01-18T07:24:00.000-08:00

Lee Spangler has just completed the Brazil portion of his round-the-world Amizade experience. He chronicled life and challenges in and around the Amazonian community where Amizade works, his trip through the jungle, and Amizade's ongoing efforts with volunteers and community members there in Santarem.

A few photos linked from Lee's blog appear below.

Above: Amizade's Site Director Geli Oliveira-Weiss with local children in Santarem.

Above: A community center underway through Amizade efforts in Santarem, Brazil. The community centers provide young people with desperately needed, safe and productive learning spaces after school. Many thanks to the recent volunteer group from Wake Forest University!

And below, photos from the jungle, the nearby rivers, the city, and local food!

Amizade Ghana Students Successfully Raise Funds for Library Desks and Chairs

2010-01-07T05:19:00.000-08:00

I've been pleased to learn that students on Amizade's Ghana Winter Break course - while studying international development, helping with the construction of a rural community library, and touring Ghana's Gold Coast - chose to raise funds for desks and chairs for the library building. By describing what was needed, writing a compelling email home, and sharing the situation with their friends and family, these students raised nearly $1,500 in just a few days.

The funds raised will fundamentally help create educational opportunities for children and adults in the rural community of Jukwa, where Amizade is helping complete the first public library. The Ghana group is doing great and inspiring work - recognizing that they can make a difference and that our choices matter everyday. I think that's Amizade's ethic - we can make a difference and build a better world if we choose to work carefully, connecting people across cultures through community-driven development.

The world has many challenges - and the world is also what we as a global community make it. That's the ethic expressed in this video below, which is my personal favorite in NAFSA Student Diplomat Video Contest. Take a look:

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

2009-12-29T15:22:00.000-08:00

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

Global Citizenship
Landscape and Beauty, and
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

2009-12-16T17:30:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2009-12-14T19:01:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-26T02:18:00.000-08:00

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:

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

2009-11-26T02:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-26T01:19:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-25T14:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-24T07:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-15T17:26:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

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:

Landscape/Beauty,
Cultural Immersion and Global Citizenship, and
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:

Landscape & Beauty
Cultural Immersion & Global Citizenship
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

2009-11-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

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:

Go to the Pittsburgh Gives website and create a LogIn now.
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.
Find “Amizade” using the search box in the top right quarter of the page.
Click “Amizade”
Click “Donate Now / Donate to Nonprofit” in the top right quarter of the page.
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

2009-10-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

$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

2009-10-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

In this post:

The Contest Has Become an Even Better Opportunity; Yes You can STILL Make a Difference with Just a Click!
Leveraging your philanthropy – Opportunity for 50% matching on October 28^th
2010 Service-Learning Courses are Online with Applications Available and 2010 Volunteer Program Opportunities are Coming this Week Too
The Challenge of Development and hints at site updates from Bolivia, Germany and Poland
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!

Stay up to date and be part of continuing to make a difference by following this blog or by joining our facebook group!

How YOU can make a difference RIGHT NOW for families in Tanzania

2009-10-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

Amizade makes an important difference everywhere it works, but the possibility to make a difference and the outcomes of that effort are perhaps among their most extreme at our partnership site in Karagwe District, Tanzania. In Karagwe Amizade works with local organizations FADECO and WOMEDA to ensure women and families have access to water. Before working with Amizade to develop sustainable water harvesting systems on their houses, the families must walk as many as four miles every day for water – in each direction – and often the water sources are contaminated.

Gaining access to water is deeply liberating, and the manner in which Amizade works to support access to water is based on locally appropriate technologies and community investment in the effort. Our water harvesting initiative, which is kindly and generously supported by the All People Be Happy Foundation, involves installing aluminum gutter systems on homes to capture rainwater in plastic or cement tanks. This simple solution, managed properly to account for dry seasons, helps ensure continuous access to water. When families have access to water they are empowered; women have chances to work or attend school, children have more time for school and for homework.

All of the families that received tanks this year contributed something to the effort. Often their contribution was the stone and sand for the cement base for the tank. In a region with annual per capita incomes hovering near $300, their labor to collect the stone and sand served as clear testimony to their real commitment to having and maintaining a harvesting system. An entire home water harvesting system costs approximately $400, which is a great deal of money in the local economy but a small price to pay to unleash potential for a whole family. It’s a small price to help individuals have their own opportunities to attend school and to work.

I’ve commented before on the continuously impressive and inspiring work completed by some of my friends in Karagwe District. Ensuring water access simply liberates people and gives them the time and most basic of resources to allow them to develop and innovate for their own communities. If you’d like to help us in these life-saving and empowering efforts, there are three ways you can do so right now:

You can vote for the water harvesting project on Africa Rural Connect. Vote for us because our solution is simple and elegant, it is locally supported, and it is sustainable. This could help us receive more funding in the future, so please vote now, and have your friends do so too. It will take you about 30 seconds, because you need to register, and it will make a huge, empowering and liberating difference for Tanzanian families if we win. Please make the commitment. And of course, please share the page with others and ask them to endorse!!!
You can give to support the initiative, and if you give on October 28^th, your donation will be matched at 50 cents to every dollar. Matching funds are limited, so go to the Pittsburgh Foundation website right now, create a LogIn, and mark your calendar to return to the site on October 28 promptly at 10 am. Any donation between $50 and $2,500 that you make at that time will be matched at 50% and you can, in the notes section, designate that you want your donation to go toward the Tanzania Water Harvesting Initiative.
You can become a fan of Amizade on Facebook or otherwise spread the word by sharing Amizade volunteering and giving opportunities with your family, at your religious institution, at your school, college, or university, or with your community group. Every group that volunteers in Tanzania plays some role in supporting this initiative, so the more people who know about the opportunities, the better. During 2010, we'll have semester programs, a summer service-learning course, and open volunteer programs (link coming soon) for volunteers of all ages in Tanzania. Please spread the word and/or share this video:

Thank you for doing what you can to ensure others have basic access to water.

International Student Video Contest, $3,500 Prize

2009-10-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.internationalstudent.com/contest/ - Check out the contest for students who are studying abroad or who WANT TO study abroad. A great potential opportunity to raise funds toward study abroad!

Global Service-Learning: Academically Rigorous and Personally Challenging

2009-10-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

Photo: Hannah Caughman, Winthrop University, Current Bolivia Semester Student with Amizade and West Virginia University, pictured above at right connecting with a child at an orphanage supported through Amizade volunteers and students

Service-learning is a pedagogy - a teaching method. It is a delivery vehicle for clear course content. But it has the unpopular academic position of having unequivocal rootednesss in reality. At times, this leads to the suspicion that students receive credit simply for volunteering. This should never be the case with academic service-learning, and through the Amizade-West Virginia University partnership and course approval process*, it never is the case.

I'll write more on service-learning in the coming weeks and months, but for the moment, I've just posted below a set of student reflections that characterize one important characteristic of service-learning. That is, service-learning removes the common illusion that ideas studied in courses, personal values, and individual actions - are fundamentally separable. The quotes below are small excerpts from the students' larger reflections on the history and present reality of international development and their own personal roles and commitments in relation to global social challenges.

*All Amizade-WVU Courses are approved by the proposing faculty member, me (as Amizade's Executive Director), and at WVU: The Director of The Center for Civic Engagement, the appropriate Department Chairperson, the Appropriate Dean, the Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and the Associate Provost for International Academic Affairs.

Student Voices: Justice Rather than Charity

2009-10-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

When you treat ending poverty as an act of justice rather than an act of charity, it places an individual responsibility on each of us to act in ways that are more just, rather than just nice.

- Alanna Markle, Political Science Student, West Virginia University, Current Bolivia Semester Participant through the Amizade-WVU Partnership (Pictured at right waiting to enter Cochabamba's soccer stadium)

Student Voices: The Courage to Make a Difference

2009-10-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Drop worry, hold hope, forget about your fears
Spread your love every moment, every day
Do your part, hold your hope, and remember
Things are never quite as they appear

- Margaret Roche, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Current Bolivia Semester Student with Amizade and West Virginia University (Pictured at right with Amizade Bolivia Site Director Jean Carla Costas in Plaza Colon, Cochabamba)

Student Voices: Emerging Identity and Desire to Make a Difference

2009-10-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

Always it has been the assumption that my parents work more so that I could work less, but in a way, they work more as a mechanic and a waitress, so that I could work just as much as a doctor or a lawyer, and herein lies the contradiction: I want to work more so that I can make less, and somehow, make more of a difference, and actually, I’m not so sure I can say at this point where that value came from. Maybe it’s neither my mother nor my father speaking. Maybe that is my voice beginning to emerge.

- Weenta Girmay, University of Pittsburgh, Current Bolivia Semester Student with Amizade and West Virginia University (Pictured above learning how to stucco and then assisting with an orphanage construction project that Amizade supports)

Student Voices: Children Begging in Cochabamba

2009-10-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

It's absolutely heartbreaking to be approached in a restaurant by a four or five year old child begging for change. To be honest, it makes me angry for a number of reasons. First, because these children are denied by their circumstances the opportunities afforded to so many; to scratch out a living, they must learn to beg before they learn to read. It also upsets me that I haven't done anything to help or even realized the weight of the issue of global poverty until recently. Finally, it bothers me that more people aren't willing to help and are content to live their comfortable, isolated lives and ignore the condition of a great majority of the world. Who could blame them though? Everything we experience, everything we are force-fed by the media and by society tries to make us focus our attention inward.

- Sean Buuck, Indiana University - Bloomington, Current Bolivia Semester Student with Amizade and West Virginia University (Pictured above right at a Cochabamba Soccer Match)

$500 Travel Voucher Prize in Student Travel Photo Contest

2009-10-01T03:18:00.000-07:00

Glimpse Magazine and STA Travel are teaming up to offer a $500 Travel Voucher for first prize in their "Best Shot" student travel contest. Good luck Amizade Students!

The Ethical Dilemma of Internet Access Abroad (Article Link)

2009-09-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

A good reflection and important question: http://glimpse.org/stories/view/ethical-dilemma-limiting-students-internet-access-abroad/.

New Video: Amizade's Semester Programs in Bolivia, Brazil, and Tanzania

2009-09-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

Parties and Productivity II

2009-09-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

The following photos will make a great deal more sense if you read this first, so I'm posting it again:

The photo I'm beginning with is from September 14 - Catorce de Septiembre - an annual holiday in Cochabamba celebrating independence from the Spanish and the city's official founding. Most of the city was off that day for parades, parties, and heaps of good food sold, given away, and pushed on revelers and passers-by.

On parties, the students' Spanish professor was recently discussing generalizations, saying each person has un nombre y un apellido - a name and a last name. Each person is an individual, she was saying, so much so that people should avoid stereotyping Bolivians or people from the United States. At that point our local coordinator interjected to say, si, but it's "a little bit true that people from the US work too much and Bolivians like to enjoy life more."

Last Monday we celebrated Catorce de Septiembre, this Monday we celebrated Dia del Amor (the first day of spring, students' day, and lovers' day, all wrapped into one), and one service-learning semester student and one volunteer just had birthdays - and each one was celebrated multiple times. Despite - or perhaps because of - all of this festivity we have been quite busy and productive.

The semester students are whizzing through Spanish and complaining to anyone who will listen that there's too much reading in the politics and history courses (that I teach), but we all took off Monday to serve with the current Amizade volunteer group. Eight people from all over the US - Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina, and New York - came to volunteer with us and are helping add an additional bathroom and some living space at the orphanage we've completed outside Cochabamba. Twenty-two children stay there, and at the end of a hard day of painting, ditch digging (for plumbing), plastering, and tiling, they gave home-made birthday cards to each of our celebrants, sang happy birthday, and proceeded with the very Bolivian tradition of then putting confetti in each person's hair. (The photo upload function is not working very well right now, so I'll put these pictures at the end).

This Monday end-of-work-day celebration followed a Sunday cake for Laurie and a separate weekend celebration for Hannah. The volunteer group protested our early work stoppage to no end!!! (Particularly those who didn't know of the coming children's surprise party). Those are the kind of volunteers that Amizade regularly sees on programs. These folks decide to give up some vacation or retirement time to support a community effort somewhere else around the world. While they're here we're sure to take them on some excursions, introduce them to local cultural events and opportunities, and do our very best to be sure they have a good time. But they see the community projects we're working on, they connect with the kids, and they learn about their lives - and they just want to work. That's part of the beauty in being here for an extended amount of time - it's possible to see all of Amizade's effects over the past twelve years of working with volunteers in Bolivia.

There is an entire orphanage that houses twenty-two children and their caretakers. Before the Amizade orphanage they lived in buildings constructed of corrugated tin and cardboard. There are five new school classrooms improving educational opportunities for kids in Viloma. We support an orphanage for newborns in Cochabamba called Millennium, and we also provide volunteers for a center for children with disabilities called Ceoli. All of these organizations struggle to build a better world, and all of them are strengthened through the goodwill of Amizade volunteers. It's great to see in person, again and again.

And of course, the volunteers are great and incredible people. The last photo I'll post is of Judy Haaste and Jim Williams, who reminded us early on Monday that you're never too old to work hard - and on a break reminded us that you're never too old to play hard either.

2009-09-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Amizade volunteers Judy Haste and Jim Wallace enjoying a break from their morning of ditch-digging.

2009-09-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Amizade open group volunteer Laurie Linnes-Bagley celebrates her birthday with children at the Hogar de Ninos orphanage in Vinto, Bolivia.

2009-09-22T19:08:00.000-07:00

Hannah Caughman celebrating her 20th Birthday with the help of one of the local children in Vinto, Bolivia.

Parties and Productivity

2009-09-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

The photo I'm beginning with is from September 14 - Catorce de Septiembre - an annual holiday in Cochabamba celebrating independence from the Spanish and the city's official founding. Most of the city was off that day for parades, parties, and heaps of good food sold, given away, and pushed on revelers and passers-by.

On parties, the students' Spanish professor was recently discussing generalizations, saying each person has un nombre y un apellido - a name and a last name. Each person is an individual, she was saying, so much so that people should avoid stereotyping Bolivians or people from the United States. At that point our local coordinator interjected to say, si, but it's "a little bit true that people from the US work too much and Bolivians like to enjoy life more."

Last Monday we celebrated Catorce de Septiembre, this Monday we celebrated Dia del Amor (the first day of spring, students' day, and lovers' day, all wrapped into one), and one service-learning semester student and one volunteer just had birthdays - and each one was celebrated multiple times. Despite - or perhaps because of - all of this festivity we have been quite busy and productive.

The semester students are whizzing through Spanish and complaining to anyone who will listen that there's too much reading in the politics and history courses (that I teach), but we all took off Monday to serve with the current Amizade volunteer group. Eight people from all over the US - Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, North Carolina, and New York - came to volunteer with us and are helping add an additional bathroom and some living space at the orphanage we've completed outside Cochabamba. Twenty-two children stay there, and at the end of a hard day of painting, ditch digging (for plumbing), plastering, and tiling, they gave home-made birthday cards to each of our celebrants, sang happy birthday, and proceeded with the very Bolivian tradition of then putting confetti in each person's hair. (The photo upload function is not working very well right now, so I'll put these pictures at the end).

This Monday end-of-work-day celebration followed a Sunday cake for Laurie and a separate weekend celebration for Hannah. The volunteer group protested our early work stoppage to no end!!! (Particularly those who didn't know of the coming children's surprise party). Those are the kind of volunteers that Amizade regularly sees on programs. These folks decide to give up some vacation or retirement time to support a community effort somewhere else around the world. While they're here we're sure to take them on some excursions, introduce them to local cultural events and opportunities, and do our very best to be sure they have a good time. But they see the community projects we're working on, they connect with the kids, and they learn about their lives - and they just want to work. That's part of the beauty in being here for an extended amount of time - it's possible to see all of Amizade's effects over the past twelve years of working with volunteers in Bolivia.

There is an entire orphanage that houses twenty-two children and their caretakers. Before the Amizade orphanage they lived in buildings constructed of corrugated tin and cardboard. There are five new school classrooms improving educational opportunities for kids in Viloma. We support an orphanage for newborns in Cochabamba called Millennium, and we also provide volunteers for a center for children with disabilities called Ceoli. All of these organizations struggle to build a better world, and all of them are strengthened through the goodwill of Amizade volunteers. It's great to see in person, again and again.

And of course, the volunteers are great and incredible people. The last photo I'll post is of Judy Haaste and Jim Williams, who reminded us early on Monday that you're never too old to work hard - and on a break reminded us that you're never too old to play hard either.

So You Want to Change the World

2009-09-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Good. No matter how you define justice, there’s a great deal of injustice in our world today – 30,000 children dying daily due to largely preventable causes, 1.1 billion people living in extreme poverty. And working to somehow stand against injustice rather than just sit comfortably by is step #1. I’m writing this entry for the many people who regularly contact Amizade with questions somehow related to: “There’s a great deal of injustice in the world, what can I do about it?”

Most of the time, when people contact us, they’re asking about global issues. Of course, there are a great deal of social challenges and community needs in the United States. We actually have partnerships in the Navajo Nation and Washington DC too. If you’re interested in service in the US, you should definitely check out the Corporation for National and Community Service (which has opportunities for people of all ages), if you’re a college student, see if there’s a service-learning office at your university, and if you’re at our partner institution West Virginia University, connect with the Center for Civic Engagement.

But if it’s social concerns outside the US that are calling you to serve, read on. First, of course, there is Amizade. We were founded and continue to serve as a dual-mission organization: we do community-driven development around the world, while also connecting people across cultures through service. Part of that second part of our mission – connecting people across cultures – ensures that we work hard to provide well-supported, deliberate, entry-level service opportunities for people who are new to working outside of their home countries. I once wrote an article for Transitions Abroad about three different ways for university students to approach international service, so I won’t elaborate further here. But suffice it to say that young people have many opportunities to either (1) go it alone internationally and take on all the risk, (2) go with a new student initiative and mediate some of the risk, or (3) go with an established program like Amizade, with a clear and strong safe programming record, and many years of experience working sustainably in the same communities. What Amizade frequently provides students is an entry point into what becomes a lifelong commitment to community development and social change.

Yet Amizade is not for everyone, or perhaps you’ve already completed an Amizade program and are now considering next steps. I recommend taking some time to sit with and sift through the many jobs listed on Idealist, which is a massive clearninghouse of service-related opportunities. Don’t get discouraged immediately – you won’t have the qualifications that most of the organizations are looking for. Nonetheless, it's a great place to consider the kinds of jobs you may want in the future, look at what they look for, and figure out how to get there.

If you decide international development interests you, or even more local sustainable development, Appropedia is a wiki dedicated to sustainable development and appropriate technology. But if it's definitely international development you’re after, and you’re looking through graduate school options, the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) is comprised of member schools where it's possible to get a master's in something relating to development. APSIA’s website is pretty lackluster, but it gives you the relatively short list of schools in the US that are serious about development studies (Europeans tend to have many more options within the field of development).

Clark University is not an APSIA member, but it offers great programs relating to International Development, Community, and Environment. Moving away from broad development schools to more specific training, opportunities exist both within social work and public health. Social Work, to be completely forthright, is challenged to figure out its approach to the international realm. At least among social workers in the US, there has been a very strong attempt to standardize and clarify the profession, which has led to rather precise rules for what can count for a social work internship or field placement. Typically field placements must be supervised by another Social Worker, and there aren’t that many licensed social workers in the most poverty-stricken parts of the world. Nonetheless, there are a few innovate programs that are finding ways to engage in international social work. Boston College is one of the few programs to offer a real emphasis on international opportunities, along with Monmouth University in New Jersey.

Public Health programs are also great entry points for working with international development concerns, and the Association of Schools of Public Health allows you to search by degree and focus area, so it's possible to create a list of master's level programs with an international focus. Some of the most interesting approaches to learning about community perspectives or engaging in community-driven research are coming out of Public Health. Though my Ph.D. focused on development (at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs), I regularly find myself reading and drawing from public health approaches.

Finally, the Rotary Peace Fellowship program allows opportunities to earn fully-funded Master's Degrees in Peace Studies or Peace and Conflict Studies. I have a friend who did it and for him it was an incredible springboard into a breadth of good work. He's now had stints with the UN, Save the Children, and is currently working with a mid-size British NGO involved with development work in Afghanistan.

This offers a bit of a start. There are also many good books relating to development, but I’ll try to address some of them over the coming months. The crucial lesson, from any text or whatever approach to development that one chooses to take, is to remember that many people have attempted development with far too much arrogance. When working across cultures around the world, it’s important to stop, listen, be patient, find ways to work together, wait, be patient again, remind yourself to be humble, and hopefully through this slow but important process, move forward together.

Futbol is Life

2009-09-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

Jugarias en el cieolo - Moriria por verte. If you play [soccer] in heaven, I will die to watch you.

That was the message on one of the signs at the end of Wilsterman Stadium. And today all Cochabamba was rapt with concern for Wilsterman, the home team. A loss would mean dropping down a division, the equivalent of The Phillies (or more likely, The Pirates) bumping down to the minors.

Yesterday and this morning was a frenzy over tickets: who had them, how to get them, whether they'd be available. We secured seats in La Preferencia, the nicer section, and entered the stadium about 4:30 for the 6:00 game. Wilsterman wears red. Our two-thirds of the stadium was blazoned with their red jerseys, the track was red, and - as the day broke into evening, the sky went red and the mountains glowed in favor of Wilsterman.

Both ends of the stadium were filled with los fanaticos. They drummed, chanted, and moved the rest of us to swaying and rocking. Wilster. Wilster. Wilster.

When the team entered for the game, the place went raucous. Our songs repeated. We now knew them too. We chanted. Each end of the stadium shot fireworks into the air. Confetti dropped, smoke bombs exploded. And then we settled into the steady tension that is soccer. Wilsterman had more shots on goal. The first half ended scoreless.

At half-time the vendors reappeared. The game is too important to interrupt. Early in the second half one of our strikers was cut down by Oruru's goalkeeper. We had a penalty kick. Oruru contested it for five solid minutes. They placed and replaced the ball. Finally, our player moved forward, shot, block. Oruru's fans went wild. Fireworks from their side. Chanting - a sea, one-third of the stadium, all blue and white.

Ten minutes later though, our moment came: a shot to the left side of the goal, past the keeper's dive, into the back of the net. New songs, more chanting. We are incredible. We are euphoric. We are Wilsterman.

Bienvenidos a Bolivia!

2009-09-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

"Simply superlative - this is Bolivia. It's the hemisphere's highest, most isolated and most rugged nation. It's among the earth's coldest, warmest, windiest and steamiest spots. It boasts among the driest, saltiest and swampiest natural landscapes in the world."

Thus begins Lonely Planet: Bolivia and thus began the semester for my students and me, as we dropped into La Paz's airport at 13,325 feet. Our plane landed higher than most US residents will ever hike. The air was cold and clear. Mt. Illimani loomed on the horizon, snow-capped and stark, hovering another 8,000 feet above the capital itself. We soon transferred to our flights on BOA, Bolivia's state-run airline, which has good service and fantastic rates.

Jean Carla Costas, Amizade's Bolivia Site Director, greeted us at the airport in Cochabamba. Cochabamba is a beautiful, temperate city filled with avenues of palms and ringed by mountains. It's population is near 600,000, making it roughly similar to Baltimore for a US comparison. But Cochabamba has a different pace.

Yes it has its hardworking professionals and many others bustling about, but there is an unmistakable emphasis on friends, family and warm relationships. The students learned that soon after we dropped them off at their homestays, as their whole new families and many members of the extended families were soon home for lunch. Life is distinctly different when every member of the household returns each day for a family lunch meal, followed by a nap.

Bolivia is of course a developing country, but that category itself is so broad as to be meaningless. Much like life in a developed country - in New Orlean's 9th Ward or in New York's Upper West Side - has substantial variance, so too does life in a developing country. The students are staying in North Cochabamba, a section of town populated primarily by professionals. They are pleased with their accomodations and enjoying their new families.

At left, an Amizade Homestay room.

The homestays are the bases from which the students will go out to take Spanish classes, learn more about Bolivian development, history, and politics, experience the energy and diversity of Cochabamba, serve with an orphanage and center for children with disabilities, and perhaps - get involved with environmental initiatives, hike an Andean peak, and visit one of Bolivia's many natural wonders, whether jungle or salt flat. For the moment, they're just getting their bearings, and I'm working to share those bearings with you.

Cochabamba is at once modern and traditional. Quechua people, the indigenous group descendant from the Incan Empire, regularly sell vegetables and other goods at local markets and stalls. Quechua and Aymara traditions predominate in the rural areas, exist in parts of the cities, and have recently been influential in the government of President Evo Morales, Bolivia's First Indigenous President.

The picture at right is from the intersection at the opening of El Pando, an area bursting with young professionals, students, and the attendant happening bars and restaurants. Two Quechua women are in the foreground, selling flags to pedestrians and stopping cars. Immediately behind them is a large moon-sliver statue, commissioned for a summit of the Americas held in Cochabamba in the late 1980s, and looming in the background - one of El Prado's less happening restaurants.

Like in the United States, wealth and poverty tend to fall along class lines here. Also like in the United States, a representative of a historically under-represented group has recently assumed the Office of the Presidency. Nonetheless, the poverty within the city is mostly located in the predmoninately Quechua South. And the experience of the campesinos - the mostly indigenous rural farmers - is profoundly different from what exists in Northern Cochabamba.

The average Bolivian makes $900 a year. Of course, the professionals I've been referencing don't hover anywhere near that rate. The upper twenty-five percent of the population, in terms of income, averages about $6,000 per year. I don't have the data for the upper 5%, which is no doubt much higher. There's a middle group, about thirty-five percent of the whole population, that has an average annual income of about $3,600. It includes rural and urban people working almost exclusively in the informal economy (also called the black market).

The informal economy is massive in developing countries. Today a Bolivian business person told me about buying un-copyrighted computer programs on the streets (or DVDs or CDs). He said that less than three percent of Bolivian businesses use copyrighted Microsoft programs. All the rest are knock-offs. That is one small, incredibly meaningful, indicator of how much business - and at what levels - does not pass through the official radar.

Forty percent of the Bolivian population survives almost exclusively in the informal economy, largely engaging in subsistence farming. Most of that group lives on less than $1 per day (This, the data above, and much more come from Dunkerly's Bolivia: Revolution and the Power of History in the Present). Amizade's service partnerships support community organizations working with that lower seventy-five percent of the Bolivian population. We've built an orphanage, supported children with disabilities, cared for children in orphanages, added classrooms onto schools, and much more.

Visiting Amizade's Bolivia site right now are Martie and Marvin Wachs, two retirees who have been working with Amizade in Bolivia for more than five years. They've helped complete the Hogar de Ninos Orphanage, started a program supporting a Center for Children with Disabilities by selling fair trade greeting cards, built school classrooms, donated furniture to furnish the orphanage, and otherwise dedicated substantial time and resources to support and empower many Bolivians.

That's Marvin Wachs at left, laughing with Margaret Roche this afternoon at a barbecue for the Wachs at Jean Carla's house. Margaret is a student at the University of Massachusettes, and has joined Amizade and West Virginia University for this semester program in Bolivia. The Wachs keep a website to update friends and family about their travels. You'll see that soon after they began traveling, they decided to commit to Bolivia through Amizade.

The Wachs are eagerly anticipating an upcoming Amizade Open Volunteer Program, where additional volunteers will join them on another community-driven construction project. The students are acclimating to the area, appreciating the mountain views and good weather, and preparing to attend tomorrow evening's vitally important regional soccer match before beginning classes this week. For the moment, I'll leave you with a few scenes from the Cochabamba streets, which are as indicative of the enticing culture and severe class differences as anything I've written above. Pictured below: a typically festive public bus, a party leaving a recent wedding, and another fairly common scene - a family on a motorcycle (but in this case only 3, not the normal 4).

Why are people raging about the G-20?

2009-09-09T06:38:00.000-07:00

Pittsburgh, beautiful city that it is, is about to host the G-20. No one – protestor, policymaker, nor politician – seems able to provide a clear articulation of what this meeting is about and why it matters so much. I’m going to work to clear it up here.

First, the G-20 says (and news agencies frequently repeat directly) that it is a group of twenty “systemically important industrialized and developing economies” that “promotes open and constructive discussion” in an effort to “strengthen international financial architecture,” and thereby enhance global economic stability. Translation: Especially rich countries that were part of the G-7 noticed that their largest corporations took some hits during the financial meltdown of the late 90s, so they invited thirteen newbies to the table and said ‘we’ll let you roll with the big kids if you put some safeguards in place, because we all know that the best form of capitalism is the form that socializes risk and privatizes profit.’

In fairness though, there are many other positive things that may come along with government measures that enhance global economic stability. Things like ensuring financial transactions are transparent and therefore traceable (this helps combat things like terrorism and tax evasion, and therefore supports the possibility of public goods). We have a globalized economy. There’s no doubt about that. What we don’t have are safeguards to prevent abuses with the money and resources flowing rapidly around the world. Any smart business person wants as much clarity on their investments as is possible, hence the G-20.

The protestors come for a whole set of perfectly logical reasons. First, the most powerful people in the world are gathered together. Really, it doesn’t get any more knights-of-the-round-table than this. And if you are advocating for peace, supporting environmental protections, or fighting for the rights of workers, you want to remind the most powerful people in the world that you exist.

Second, and related, history suggests that economic agreements precede agreements on human rights and environmental protections. It takes people a long time to realize that their capitalistic self-interests often lie with cooperation with a broader community, but they tend to come around to it (Check out the Olson book at right, Power and Prosperity). In the United States we were agreeing to drop tariffs between states long before we were agreeing to recognize real nationwide equality; Europe had the European Coal and Steel Community a half century before it got into labor and environmental agreements with the European Union; and if you check out T.H. Marshall’s review of rights developments in Britain, you see three centuries of steady march from civil (e.g. right to work), to political (e.g. right to voice in governance), then social rights (e.g. a right to an education). This history makes me believe that as our economic linkages become clearer we pave the way for addressing important social and environmental issues. And many of the protestors believe it to, and they have to be in Pittsburgh to speed that process as much as they can. (Side note: Yes, some protesters are just anarchists who aren't looking for cooperative solutions - and unfortunately, they tend to get a wildly disproportionate amount of the press - but for the most part these are smart and civil people with good ideas).

Protest matters because it does have a strong history. Its history includes ending slavery in the British Empire (again, economic incentives were important first, with a boycott of slave-grown sugar), advancing civil rights, and advancing environmental protections and labor rights.

I’m writing this on my Amizade blog for two primary reasons. First, we work directly with the people who see no immediate benefits of enhanced global economic stability. Benefit may – and I even suspect will – come over the long term. But children in developing countries who have no access to clean water or education today will not be helped during their youths by sound G-20 fiscal policy. Protestors call attention to the 1.1 billion people in the world who are mired in destitute poverty (Check out Collier's Bottom Billion). Some of those people are my friends (See "African Innovation and Entrepreneurialism" on my Amizade blog). They are innovative, smart, independent, and they would have staggeringly better possibilities for human flourishing if basic government structures existed to stabilize markets, reduce corruption, and provide basic public goods.

The photo above is from a town in Bolivia, a beautiful place with incredible people that also happens to be the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

The second clear connection to Amizade is that all too often economists (and, by extension, finance ministers) are functionally clueless to the real world, as Paul Krugman recently argued in the New York Times Magazine. The extent to which this is true is astonishing and staggering. Protestors call attention to real world issues. I’d like to take the finance ministers out of their air-conditioned offices and invite them to join me on a course on community and international development, where they not only recite the meaning of informal economy, but also bargain for business with me on what are frequently the wildly capitalistic dirt roads of Africa. In some ways, there are few freer markets than the markets in developing countries.

Of course, corruption by government is a huge problem in many of those countries, and government alone is no solution to many of the issues above, but these big fish will be fried in later blogs. For now, future finance ministers ought to take advantage of the kinds of courses that deepen their understanding by putting them in contact with the places and people our concepts and policies affect.

In Search of a Solution – En Route to East Africa

2009-09-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

We’re bound for Kayanga, Tanzania: departing Pittsburgh for Altanta, then Amsterdam, and finally Uganda’s Entebbe airport before 8 hours over road to our rural village destination. As is the case with allAmizade experiences, we go in search of a solution. The solutions we seek are partly informed through service and somewhat illuminated through learning. On this program the service includes working with a sustainable development organization, Family Alliance for Development and Cooperation (FADECO), as well as a women’s rights organization, the Women’s Emancipation and Development Agency(WOMEDA). These local organizations have already created a set of beautiful solutions for the issues they address. We simply work to support their efforts.

In a region where 25% of the local crops were spoiling before reaching the market, FADECO developed a set of value-added post-production processes, drawing on simple and affordable local materials. Regional farmers now also sell dried fruits. Tomatoes are shipped as far away as Sweden, where pizza shops can advertise Tanzania sun-dried tomatoes among their toppings. FADECO was central to educating and empowering farmers about these possibilities, and also central to bringing internet and radio to the region. As FADECO’s Director and co-founder Joseph Sekiku so clearly knows, education and information are central to success.

WOMEDA, simultaneously, has worked to ensure women are afforded the most basic legal protections and rights. Within recent generations, the situation in respect to women’s rights in this region was so poor that effectively one half of the population was not allowed to learn, to grow, or to meet its potential. Still today, women frequently farm, take care of the children, fetch water, harvest the crops, and sell the crops, only to be forced – at the threat or eventuality of abuse – to turn any small proceeds over to their husbands. The husbands frequently use the money to drink, to leave briefly, to do anything but support their families. In this context WOMEDA helps ensure young women have the right to schooling, women have the right to hold property, and – in the case of any disputes – women are permitted legal standing in court. WOMEDA advances basic respect and rights for women.

It is these organizations that create the solutions. We support them by helping a breadth of efforts: English language tutoring, grant-writing, English writing and brochure development, conducting interviews with local women as part of creating a base-line survey, and assisting with the installation of gravity-based water harvesting systems to help ensure more families have water access. We do these things and more, always at the direction of our local partners. Yet we still search.

While in many ways FADECO and WOMEDA help us identify and implement some solutions, the scale of the challenges here is so great and the immediacy of the issues so overwhelming, that our work with them really only catalyzes our efforts to better understand. This program is part of a course offered through West Virginia University. The course focuses on International Development. We therefore read from and review many of the important, frequently oppositional, voices in the field such as Columbia’s Jeffrey Sachs andNew York University’s William Easterly. While Sachs writes with contagious optimism and suggests we have the power to end poverty in our time, Easterly heaps a similarly persuasive scathing disdain on people like Sachs. Easterly is appalled anyone might think poverty will be rendered obsolete through careful planning and guidance from above; he insists relief will come only through individual ingenuity and drive, and that there is no reasonable place for Sachs’ initiatives such as the Millennium Villages.

My students and I drop into the thick of this debate, but unlike many students or established economists (Easterly and Sachs both), we will consider these questions in the context of their application. We will dialogue with local people about the solutions they develop, the challenges they see, and the perspective they have. We will, no doubt, see kernels of truth and fallacy in both Sachs’ and Easterly’s approaches, as we cede the easy approach of aligning ourselves with one or another theory in favor of the much more challenging effort to better understand development as it works, in real life, on the ground.

But first – across the Atlantic, into Europe, over the Mediterranean, witnessing the desiccate brown of the Sahara distant below, and flying over increasingly lush and verdant Africa before touching down in what Winston Churchill called the Pearl of Africa - Uganda.

African Innovation and Entrepreneurialism

2009-09-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

I’ve reconnected with two old friends here in Kayanga, Tanzania. Together, they’ve reminded me why we’re here and shown me (again) the strength of local growth and innovation. Most people have missed it, but the vast majority of Africa has actually experienced steady growth over the past decade. That’s particularly true if you remove the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Darfur region of Sudan from the analysis. Two friends here exemplify this trend.

Joseph Sekiku is the director and co-founder of FADECO, the Family Alliance for Development and Cooperation. Since FADECO’s founding in 1993, he has identified challenges, innovated, struggled, gathered scarce resources, and developed countless solutions. A few years ago, he received one of the highest global honors for social entrepreneurship when he was named an Ashoka fellow. Over the past four years, we’ve been privileged to help support some of his efforts, through some funding and through some direct labor.

In the early 90s he realized his region wasn’t food self-sufficient. He educated landholders on sustainable farming techniques. Output exploded. Suddenly they needed markets. He helped develop a solar fruit-drying program to ensure goods had greater chances of getting the whole way to a market without spoiling. He realized sharing information was key to development, so he developed a newsletter for farmers. Then he figured out how to devise a satellite connection to get internet access to the region. Suddenly, people had information access – and soon additional internet cafes followed. He saw other NGOs were spending large amounts on educating community members, so he developed a radio station through innovation and accepting some donations.

He built his first transmitter and rigged together the first radio tower out of sections of rebar. These local radio broadcasts - used to educate people on farming practices, positive water usage and hygiene habits, women’s rights, and health concerns – are now heard by more than four million people, extending well beyond the immediate Karagwe region.

Joseph is keen on preventative and proactive efforts in community development. He applauds the US Government for its recent emphasis on providing treated anti-malarial bed nets and placing an emphasis on indoor spraying in homes. These practices, in his mind, are far superior to providing drugs or healthcare only after people have contracted malaria. In the region this year, the number of malaria cases dropped from previous years.

Joseph achieves all of this through a unique set of gifts and circumstances and also by being consistently innovative with the scarce resources he has. His family was originally from this region. His father was the region’s only doctor, but in Joseph’s youth they lived in Uganda. At the time, the schools were substantially better there. Joseph focused on his studies until he had a university degree in agriculture sciences, which he thought would give him more opportunity to help than a medical degree like his father’s.

Joseph’s biggest obstacle through the years – he says – has been community members and visitors who don’t believe improvement is possible. He recalls pointing toward bare hills that could be forested, declaring that fruits could be dried and sold, and beginning to build a radio tower – all to the sound of laughter and disbelief. Like any innovator, he has been forced to hold steady in his commitments and efforts despite the gathering community condescension.

Fortunately for Joseph and for the region of Karagwe, this area has seen steady growth. Joseph has had the chance to not only see the success of the efforts he spearheaded, but he has also seen the number of secondary schools, in just two decades, go from three to nearly forty.

During the four years I’ve been visiting the area, cell phone networks have appeared and become consistent and reliable, a water system has been installed in town (36% of people in the region now have access to water), an ATM machine has been installed at the bank, and – thanks to Joseph and others – local radio is available and multiple internet access points are possible. The harbinger of things to come: my friend Deo loaned me a Vodafone Tanzania wireless access point for my computer, meaning I should be able to pick up internet wherever there’s a cell signal. The signals aren’t consistently quite strong enough yet, but – next year.

And another friend, Peter Lazarus, is an inspiring innovator of another sort. Three years ago he had less than nothing, but a clear will to succeed and ideas for a business. Through work, smooth talk, innovation and serious effort, he’s now a very small business owner in town. Of course, he has ideas for growth. More about him – I call him Lazaro – next time.

Growing a Business: Nothing to Something in Kayanga, Tanzania

2009-09-06T19:01:00.000-07:00

When I first met Peter Lazarus he could barely communicate in English. That was three years ago. Sunday he showed me the room in which he keeps the materials for his screen printing business. He explained how he found clients, where he got t-shirts, how he created stencils or drawings, where he did printing, and how he was hoping to expand.

My first interactions with Lazaro, some call him Laz, came during a course I taught in the summer of 2007. He quickly won over the students with a broad and enthusiastic smile, a warm personality, and a clear, compelling, and keen interest in the world and learning more about it. He practiced English with anyone willing. He took us on hikes around Kayanga. He began to speak of his interests and dreams – he wanted to have more schooling on art and design so that he could open his own sign-making and screen printing shop. Now he has.

His shop developed through a great deal of his own fortitude, the kind donations of some former Amizade students, and now the proceeds of his initial clients are helping him move forward. He visits schools, shows him the t-shirts he can make, and gets their preferred design. He then writes out the letters for the school name and draws the school crest by hand. After these things are done, he uses great care with the finest point of a utility knife to cut out stencils for the words and the crest. From these stencils he then prints the shirts. He can get some shirts six miles away in Omurushaka, but if he has a large order or wants high quality t-shirts he must do business an hour and a half away in Bukoba or sometimes across Lake Victoria (one night’s ferry ride) in Mwanza. The finished t-shirts sell for about 5000 Tanzanian shillings each, or a little more than $4.00 US.

Laz is still smiling, still working hard, and still focusing on the future. He wears the same clothes all the time, must do all of his work out of a shared room about eight feet by four feet wide, and walks daily through the poverty-riddled and dust-chocked streets of his hometown Kayanga. Lesser souls would quit, but he is soaring. His newest business initiative is directly related to his current work. He is trying to find the funding or donations to buy a laser printer and a digital camera. With these tools he’ll take orders for photos from the kids in the schools he’s working with. All students who make it to secondary school want a school photo, and he has his eye on that market.

The life expectancy here in Tanzania is scarcely more than fifty. Nearly two-thirds of people don’t have access to water in their homes (Laz doesn’t). These conditions make opportunity rare, and initiative and innovation difficult to imagine. People like Peter Lazarus triumph with the assistance of some small help and donations. People like Joseph Sekiku demonstrate the empowering quality of a good education and clear conscience. Organizations like Amizade support the good works of community organizations like FADECO and WOMEDA, and organizations like Amizade help form the relationships that promote friendships across cultures and can be deeply enabling for people like Laz.