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Global Social Event: The Middle East

Global Washington volunteer Michelle Alten reports on our September 16th event

Kristin Hayden, Founder and Executive Director of OneWorld Now! spoke to a gathering at Global Washington’s Salaam Maleukum Middle East Networking Event on Wednesday, September 16th.  The event was part of Global Washington’s ongoing series of Global Socials the 3rd Wednesday of each month that convene development organizations around geographic regions or issue areas.  Kristin spoke about how she created OneWorld Now! and talked about her separate but related project, One World 2011.

Kristin came upon the idea of starting OneWorld Now! in 2002 when she returned to the United States after living and working abroad.  She recalled that at the age of 15, she went on a student exchange to South Africa when the country was still under Apartheid.  The sojourn was a life changing experience for her and led to a passion for learning languages.  Upon her return to the United States in 2002, after living overseas, Kristin was disturbed by the reaction in the United States to the events of 9/11.  Witnessing the fear and stereotypes that Americans showed towards Arabs and Muslims, Kristin started OneWorld Now!, a program that provides language and leadership training as well as study abroad opportunities for low-income and minority youth.

The program of OneWorld Now!, Kristin pointed out, deliberately focuses on Arabic and Chinese because these languages are strategically important but not typically offered in the public schools. Students also learn leadership by digging into underlying beliefs and stereotypes.  They commit to a year of the program, and then go abroad in summer to work on their language skills, participate in community service, and live with families.  Currently students go to Morocco, Egypt, and Jordan.  Upon their return they participate in a give-back project.

Proud of the impact the program is having on its participants, Kristin explained that 100% of the youth go on to college.  OneWorld Now! serves 150 youth per year and has arranged for students to receive credit for the program through Seattle Public Schools.  In the last year and a half, Kristin and her mentor, Bob Walsh, have taken the philosophy behind OneWorld Now! and the experience of the successful 1990 Goodwill Games to develop an important and large scale project called One World 2011.

Bob and Kristin are planning a month-long “mega-event” that will open in Seattle on September 11, 2011.  The goal of One World 2011 is to build a bridge between the U.S. and the Muslim world.  The extensive program will include a press conference on the Middle East, athletic events, a health summit, a trade bazaar, music, art, and film festivals, and a large youth exchange program with countries from the Muslim world.  Funding and support for the program are beginning to take form.

The U.S. government has shown support for the project along with Farah Pandith, the U.S. special representative to the Muslim world, and the Washington State Congressional delegation.  Kristin is hoping to have Michelle Obama, Melinda Gates, and Queen Rania of Jordan act as co-chairs of the event.  Seed funding has been provided by the Gates Foundation through the Tides Foundation and from philanthropist, George Russell.

Q&A

At a Q&A following her presentation, Kristin was asked about the organizations she works with to provide exchange programs abroad.  She explained that she arranges exchanges through American Field Service for Egypt, AMI for Morocco, and the Jordan River Foundation for Jordan.

When asked about further funding for One World 2011, she said that funding is being sought from corporations such as Nike, foundations, and organizations in the Middle East.

In further discussion about world language education in the U.S., Kristin pointed out that 1% of U.S. high school students study abroad, less than 1% study Arabic, and less than 3% study Chinese.  It was pointed out that Startalk is an organization that provides funding for their summer language programs for Arabic and Chinese.

Kristin was also asked about challenges she faces with planning One World 2011.  She feels that visas are frequently a problem and that visa complications are discouraging wealthy business people from the Arab world from coming to the United States.  She explained that they hope to push the visa issue in general with One World 2011.

Kristin also pointed out that many Arab and Muslim nations feel that they have lost a generation, because young people are being educated abroad.  She added that 60% of the Arab and Muslim world population is under the age of 25. This, she explained, means a large number of people who don’t have positive feelings about the U.S. and OneWorld 2011 aims to change that!

Some of the other organizations represented at the Global Social who are also doing work or share an interest in the Middle East include:

International Organization of Folk Art, http://www.iovworld.org
Middle Eastern Legal Association of Washington, http://www.melegal.org
Associates in Cultural Exchange, www.cultural.org
EarthCorps, http://www.earthcorps.org
Arab Center of Washington, http://www.arabcenter.net/
Crooked Trails, http://www.crookedtrails.com
Growing with Books, http://www.growingwithbooks.org/
Brown Eyes Gallery, http://www.browneyesgallery.com/
Surge Consulting

Global Social Event: East & Southeast Asia

Jackie Peterson reports on our August 19th event

This month’s Global Social focused on East and Southeast Asia as well as China.  Ketty Loeb from Wokai was invited to present briefly on Wokai’s micro-credit work and poverty in China.

Currently the poverty rate is 8-10%, Loeb notes, and there is a growing divide between rural and urban populations.  According to Loeb 75% of the people in China do not have access to credit.  In China, it is not legal to loan to individuals so micro-finance organizations serve as brokers or intermediaries in that process, using a model somewhat similar to what KIVA does.  The micro-finance organizations in China are the entities to which outsiders can loan money and the organization matches funding with individuals.  The microfinance organizations also determine the loan rate.

The process has a number of challenges.  Those who loan will not be repaid in the traditional sense of recouping their money.  The loans are repaid to the micro-finance organization but the principle amount is then re-invested so the loans should be considered more as a donation rather than a traditional loan.  It is also a challenge to find reputable micro-financing organizations using sound training practices, transparency in lending and solid risk analysis measures.  Wokai has, to-date, found about 100 reputable organizations and continues to look for more.

There is also a general lack of a philanthropic culture directed toward those outside the family in China. Donations or giving in the way thought normal in the US is illegal in China but there appears to be some shifts beginning in cultural norms around that philosophy.  There is also some hope for banking reforms and that the high demand for credit may encourage opportunities.

As is true in many areas, the greatest poverty is in the rural areas and isolation and poor infrastructure contribute to the fact that less help gets to those areas and people.

About 98% of the money Wokai loans is to women who live on less than $1.00/day and they use that money for things like agricultural pursuits and purchasing animals etc. in rural areas and sales of textiles and establishment of produce stands in more urban locations.  The average loan is about $350.

Some of the other organizations represented at the Global Social who are also doing work in East and Central Asia and China include:

Lutheran Community Services, www.refugeechildren.net
Bridges to Understanding, www.bridgesweb.org
Peace Winds America, www.peacewindsamerica.org
Women’s Enterprises International, www.womententerprises.org
The China Club of Seattle, laoBao206@aol.com
Sankara Eye Foundation, www.giftofvision.org
Breakthrough Partners, www.breakthroughpartners.org
Prosthetics Outreach Foundation,  www.pofsea.org
Crooked Trails, www.crookedtrails.com
Antioch University, www.antiochseattle.edu/academics/creativechange/index.html

Representing Global Washington was Bookda Gheisar, Executive Director.  Gheisar encouraged attendees to access the Global Washington website, www.globalwa.org, to register their organizations and post upcoming events.  Gheisar also spoke to the benefits of membership in the organization.

Gheisar solicited input from the group as to how Global Washington can help facilitate communication between various groups doing work overseas and noted that the first annual convention for Global Washington members will occur in December of 2009.

Global Social Event: Convening Central & South Asia

Global Washington intern Lindsay Jackson reports on our July 15th event

This month’s Global Social event focused on Central & South Asia, confronting the issues of environment, poverty, education & health. The event consisted of a large variety of representatives from various global development organizations, which included; individual representatives, The National Council for Eurasian & East European Research, EarthCorps, “Journey with an Afghan School” Ayni Education International, Jackson School of International Studies of University of Washington, International Organization of Folk Art, University of Washington (Bothell & Seattle), Health Leadership, Wokai, Seattle International Foundation, and Global Washington.

The event opened up and began with an introduction from Bookda Ghesiar, the Executive Director of Global Washington. She introduced herself and explained what Global Washington was all about, its background and future goals. Prologues then led to the Bookda introducing Ethan Casey, the event’s primary speaker on Pakistan.

Ethan Casey is the most well known for his works & authorship of the book Alive and Well in Pakistan: A Human Journey in a Dangerous Time (2004). Ethan is also a frequent speaker on Pakistan at venues ranging from universities, The Pakistan High Commission in London, and locally around Seattle where he is from. Ethan has continued to use his position as an American traveler and author with 15 years’ exposure to Pakistan to help foster historical and geographic perspectives, human connections, and conversation between Americans and Pakistanis. Ethan gave a brief explanation of how he became so connected and interested in Pakistan through his early travels, he then brought the Pakistani situations alive by reading quotes and passages from Pakistanis that he had come across in regards to the American mistreatment and unawareness of Pakistanis. Ethan’s future plans consist of a second book to be published in 2010 that will be a follow up of Alive and Well recapping and covering the recent past five years in Pakistan since the publication of Alive and Well. For updates and further discussion Ethan regularly blogs at www.aliveandwellinpakistan.com and writes a column for the Books & Authors section of the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

Ethan Casey’s stories quickly and successfully opened the group discussion up between attendees working in the Central and South Asian regions.  Some questions that were brought up included;

· What is the best way to assist refugees, such as programs, for people who do not have a lot of experience?

Ethan’s response was to educate your self as much as possible about the situations that have occurred other than just the news, and have better communication and connections to American Pakistanis who are fully socially aware of what is going on. The main stream Americans need to start the conversation (Casey)

· How can you deal with open military?

The response was to find the right community to keep going back (Casey)

· There is great barrier in understanding the impact of the past 10-15 years in Pakistan, so where do you go from there?

The response was to make more and incorporate 1-on-1 human connections, and expose your self to travel writing for literacy expression (Casey)

Questions then began to shift from being focused on Ethan to more open group and responses.

· With the current economy that has caused enormous funding challenges, how can be help support each other?

Response was for NGO’s to partner and collaborate on events rather then individually, where this would benefit everyone and can make different missions be more congruent

· Is there a way to get a better influence over the media, giving it more balance?

Response was that local communities i.e. American Pakistanis, need to get connected to a reporter for more personal stories

Lastly, the remainder of the questions and discussion were directed towards Global Washington and their role.

· What are some recommendations for Global Washington; how do you want them to be able to help?

– Bring vast amounts of individuals working on Global Development in Washington State together to work on the smaller scale and build up
– Help the reservation of different arts and traditional culture, make sure it isn’t looked over
– Have the ability to be able to find and research more organization of massive diversity by having a more comprehensive and enhanced search that is very specific of organizations working internationally- extending international grid of access
– Difficult to connect when overseas, great value to develop an easy accessible way to communicate with others overseas in the same sector

Discussion and conversation was carried on for over an hour, and was closed for individual conversation and networking between various organizations to find out more about each other and make stronger connections for collaboration and support.