Clinton Global Initiative Announces Student and University Winners of CGI U Outstanding Commitment Award

Wal-Mart Foundation will support philanthropic projects through forty-five student grants and two university grants

(CSRwire) NEW YORK, NY. - October 9, 2008 - On September 26th, Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) and the Wal-Mart Foundation announced the winners of forty-four student grants and two university grants through the CGI U Outstanding Commitment Awards. The grants, made possible by the Wal-Mart Foundation, will support innovative, high-impact commitments to improve communities and lives around the world.

"CGI U is an empowering platform that brings together students and universities to make a positive difference, whether locally or on a global scale," said Bob Harrison, CEO of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). "The Outstanding Commitment Awards funding from the Wal-Mart Foundation will expand the impact and reach of these exceptional commitments, which were made by students and universities who are working hard to improve the lives of others."

Through a grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation, winners will receive funding for their CGI U Commitments to Action: new, specific, and measurable plans to address a global challenge of the winners' choosing. The CGI U Outstanding Commitment Awards are designed to support innovative, high-impact work that creates lasting and positive social change, most notably within CGI U's focus areas – energy and climate change, global health, human rights and peace, and poverty alleviation. The awards recognize students and student organizations from a wide variety of graduate schools, historically black colleges, Ivy League institutions, religious and tribal universities, and state schools.

"As a company focused on environmental sustainability at every level, the Wal-Mart Foundation is proud to partner with CGI U to reach hundreds of students and university officials who, like Wal-Mart, are committed to making a change to improve the environment for generations to come," said Margaret McKenna, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation. "By partnering with organizations like CGI U, we are also able to connect with pioneering experts that will, in turn, help Wal-Mart in our goal to become a more sustainable company."

In March 2008, President Clinton encouraged students and universities attending the inaugural meeting of CGI U at Tulane University in New Orleans to apply for the awards. More than 1,000 commitments have been made through CGI U since its launch in September 2007. CGI U is a youth-focused project of the Clinton Global Initiative, which was founded by President Clinton in 2005 to mobilize world leaders to take action on major global challenges.

The forty-five student award recipients include Patricia Compas from the California Polytechnic State University, whose new water treatment device will revolutionize same-day relief efforts and quell the spread of water-borne diseases, and Julie Carney from Yale University, whose Artemis Project will digitize documents and records gathered by truth commissions around the world to be made available globally online. Additionally, Mark Young of Tulane University will receive a grant for a commitment he made based on his invention, SafeSnip, a low-cost method for cutting umbilical cords in the absence of proper medical delivery services; and Tony Anderson of Morehouse College will be recognized for his pledge to deliver one million energy efficient light bulbs to low-income areas.

Two awards were granted to universities: one to support a commitment made between Providence-based Brown University and Dillard University in New Orleans, whose initial partnership was announced at the 2006 CGI Annual Meeting. Their 2008 CGI U commitment builds upon this partnership by focusing on sustainability at Dillard University, ensuring that Dillard is rebuilt in an environmentally sustainable manner, encouraging faculty, students, and staff from Brown and Dillard to collaborate in advancing energy efficiency, curriculum and research development, and community projects, incorporating recycling and transportation improvements into Dillard’s new community.

The second university award was given to the College of Menominee Nation in support of its commitment to ensure that principles of sustainability are adopted at all tribal colleges in the United States. The Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nations is developing a toolkit which will enable other tribal colleges to monitor their own sustainability performance.


Below is a full list of CGI U Outstanding Commitment Award winners.

UNIVERSITY AWARDS

Building a Sustainable Campus: Advancing the Brown-Dillard Partnership
Ruth Simmons & Marvalene Hughes (University Presidents)
This commitment will expand the Brown-Dillard partnership by providing Dillard with the academic, administrative, technical and consulting assistance to support the University's efforts to become a more environmentally sustainable campus. The commitment focuses on greening the physical infrastructure on Dillard's campus, but also includes strong research and education components. Faculty, students, and staff from Brown and Dillard will work together to advance energy efficiency, course and curriculum development, research activity, and campus and community projects in areas ranging from recycling to sustainable food and transportation improvements.

Tribal College Sustainability Indicators
Verne Fowler (College President)
This commitment will develop sustainability indicators and establish a process and guidelines for tribal colleges and universities to measure and monitor sustainability performance in a realistic, reliable, and culturally appropriate way. These indicators will be identified, bench-marked, and disseminated by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) at the college, and will integrate students into the process. All the data, frameworks, and processes identified by SDI will be collected into a toolkit that other tribal schools can use as they assess prospects for increased sustainability efforts on their respective campuses.



STUDENT AWARDS

LendforPeace.org
Sam Adelsberg of the University of Pennsylvania is connecting Palestinian micro-entrepreneurs with individual lenders across the globe through his website, LendforPeace.org. The website facilitates direct loans to Palestinians working towards a peaceful community, and aims to create a virtual, multi-cultural network to promote the growth of business amidst current conflict.

Let's Raise a Million
Tony Anderson and his colleagues from Morehouse University have committed to financing, distributing, and installing one million energy efficient, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) in low-income areas. His student group, Let's Raise a Million, aims to empower an underrepresented demographic to take part in the clean energy movement.

A Locally Sustainable Food Loop for Lafayette College
Jennifer Bell of Lafayette College is leading a group of students who have committed to reducing food waste and increasing the use of organically grown local foods on their campus. They aim to develop an institutionalized composting system and create gardens which will incorporate the entire university community into the process of a sustainable food system.

Threads That Teach Public School Program
Patricia Brady's NYU organization connects university students with New York City public schools, facilitating entrepreneurial-based art classes and fundraising efforts that can offset shrinking arts education budgets. Workshops organized by the program help students design, market, and sell apparel within their communities, and guide them towards understanding the basic principles of management through hands-on business experience.

Campus INPower
Joanna Calabrese of the University of Maryland and her student group Campus INPower focus on encouraging university students to bring clean energy awareness to the administrations and the curriculums of schools around the nation. Campus INPower members facilitate student action by giving "An Inspiring Truth" presentations, developing campus toolkits, connecting an online network of INPower students, and gathering commitments from high-profile university presidents.

The Artemis Project
Julie Carney of Yale University and the Artemis Project aim to establish databases of truth commission documents for global availability through the internet. By establishing a central database of data and helping countries which lack technological capacity to digitize their documents, Carney and her colleagues have committed to creating a method to upload relevant media from a wide range of truth commissions.

Gardens for Health International
Emma Clippinger of Brown University and her organization Gardens for Health International (GHI) work to provide healthy food for people living with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda, which in turn increases the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy. GHI aims to establish community agriculture throughout Rwanda, and has committed to create five additional co-ops, expanding their support to 1,500 people living with HIV/AIDS.

Water Treatment for Disaster Relief
With the help and guidance of several students and professors at California Polytechnic State University, Patricia Compas is working to develop and distribute the Polytech Waterbag, a lightweight device which can provide drinkable water within a day to people living in disaster zones around the world. This device has the potential to play a crucial role reducing refugees' exposure to deadly water-borne diseases that all-too-often arrive in the wake the disaster itself. Compas is currently collaborating with the CDC and the Red Cross with the hope of bringing these filtration systems to relief efforts by the end of 2009.

Peace in Focus
Kyle Dietrich and Kate Fedesova of Tufts University are using photojournalism to engage underprivileged youth who are affected by violence and political instability. Peace in Focus uses creative, interactive workshops to encourage grassroots peace photojournalism. As the first phase of the commitment, two pilot workshops have already been taken place in Boston and Bujumbura, Burundi during the summer of 2008.

Mali Signs Project
Lizzy Dupont of the University of Texas is working through the UT Rural Enhancement through Education and Design program to connect schools for the deaf with university institutions and resources, and provides educational health materials online based on community needs. Dupont's initiative, the Mali Signs project, has committed to creating a three-way partnership between two Texas schools and the University of Texas ASL department, and is currently researching ways to expand their operations into West Africa.

Banaa.org
Through his website, Banaa.org, Evan Faber of the George Washington University provides talented Sudanese youth who have lived through atrocity with undergraduate scholarship opportunities in the United States. Faber has made a commitment to help Sudanese scholars further their education in public health and political sciences, in order to eventually improve Sudan’s communities through peace in the future.

Climate Change and Indoor Air Pollution Abatement in the Himalayas through Novel Solar Technology
Frank Scot of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and fellow students are aiming to develop a solar cooker and heater which could be distributed in the remote Himalayan regions of China. Scot's group is hoping to teach communities to construct, use, and repair these devices, while increasing their availability across the region. These solar cookers and heaters will reduce indoor air pollution, reduce rural fuel combustion and its effects on climate change, and diminish the time spent by women on gathering fuel, freeing them to cultivate their educations and incomes.

World Faith Emergency Rest Centers
Frank Fredericks of New York University has committed to mobilizing a team of religiously-diverse youth to train members of houses of worship for emergency situations. The team will work with other disaster management centers and local governments in order to enable houses of varied faiths to satisfy the needs of a crisis. Fredericks has made a commitment to expand the World Faith work internationally.

Community Reintegration Program
John E. Goetz of the University of Alabama and his group are working to establish a community re-entry program for ex-offenders within Tuscaloosa County area. Their goal is to successfully reintegrate this population into the business community with faith-based mentoring programs, employer networking, and relationships with Alabama social service providers that could assist with resume-building and interview skills.

Implementing Holistic Responses to Health Problems in Pemón, Venezuela
Yongjun Heo of Swarthmore College has made a commitment to send students to an understaffed medical clinic in Venezuela every summer. As a result, this work will have a major impact on addressing the crises of pollution, malnutrition, and malaria for over 3,000 Pemon people. Heo will also lead students to create and expand a waste management program, to reduce the incidence of bacterial infections, improve crop yields, and use low-cost incentives to promote community involvement in recycling and the reduction of pollution.

Multifunction Energy Platform (MFP) Pilot in Uganda
Janelle Heslop and Columbia University's Engineers Without Borders chapter have committed to implement a Multifunction Energy Platform in Uganda, which will use jatropha oil as a sustainable fuel source. The program will work with a Ugandan NGO to install one MFP on a farming cooperative, and will further gauge the viability of using MFPs and jatropha oil in eastern Africa.

Improving Health Literacy Through Health Information Resources Books
Maria Kambouris of Charles Darwin University has committed to producing a resource book which will provide basic health information to young people in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Personal Health Resource Book will indicate positive health strategies, and through a two year pilot period, will test the ability of the program to increase health literacy throughout the region.

Loyola Microfinance Initiative
Aaron Kirsh of Loyola University New Orleans is working with his group to provide capital to under-financed entrepreneurs in the New Orleans region who are attempting to rebuild the post-Katrina economy through grassroots micro-enterprise. The students at Loyola have committed to collaborating with other student-managed microfinance organizations, to create a national network of loans which will alleviate poverty by facilitating small business.

Designing Peace
Arianna Kouri and fellow University of Florida architecture students have committed to designing and constructing a recreational space for young members of the New Hope Ministries in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They plan to construct the building adjacent to the current New Hope facility, with the help of the founder of the Ministries, Edson Souza.

Global Peace Exchange, Free IT Center for Rwandan Orphans
Maria Kuecken of Florida State University and the Global Peace Exchange have committed to funding the creation of a self-sustaining IT center in Gitarama, Rwanda. The IT center will provide free primary and technical education to the boys of the Umuryango Children’s Network and the surrounding communities. It will also support itself economically by functioning as an internet café in off-hours.

Improving Health and Well-Being Through language Access in Post-Katrina New Orleans
Victoria Lattone of the Tulane University School of Social Work and her colleagues at Tulane have made a commitment to establish interpretation services which will connect low-income, Limited English Proficient (LEP) populations in Post-Katrina New Orleans with healthcare and social services. Latton's group is devoted to helping the growing Spanish, Portuguese, and Vietnamese speaking LEP demographics to find necessary care in the recovering city.

Innovative Healthcare Financing in Sikoroni, Mali
Rachel Levenson of Brown University and the Mali Health organizing Project (MHOP) have made a commitment to exploring the potential for a community-based health financing program (CBHF) in Sikoroni, Mali. The Brown University students will create locally-specific models designed for each Malian community, and will investigate whether the CBHF scheme will actually increase access to healthcare for low income citizens.

Diagnostic Lab in a Backpack
Di Ling of Rice University and her peers have committed to prepare a medical diagnostic backpack for nomadic doctors working with the Pediatric AIDS corps in Tanzania, Lesotho, Botswana and Malawi. The group will provide specialized items to suit the needs of the different regions.

Ensuring the Sustainability of Donated Medical Technology
Mambidzeni Madzivire of the Mayo Graduate School is committed to examining ways in which her peers at Mayo can assist in providing medical technology through the donation and rehabilitation of used medical equipment to communities that need it the most. Those involved with this commitment will identify the needs of health care facilities, build a database of students and staff who have expertise in global health, and train engineers and technicians in developing countries to repair donated medical equipment.

Creating Waste Management Solutions in the Slums of Mali
Waste build-up is the cause of innumerable public health issues in Malian slums. Caroline Mailloux of Brown University and her peers will collaborate with Malian leaders and the Mali Health Organizing Project to implement a waste management system in Sikoroni, Mali, which will extend higher levels of waste management to three times as many community members by the end of 2008.

Giving Hope through Universal Education
Kroo Bay is a slum located near Freetown, Sierra Leone which holds over 2,000 children. Joseph Martin of the University of Texas and the Kroo Bay Initiative have made a commitment to ensure that these children receive renovated solar-powered educational facilities with a computer literacy program. Additionally, they plan to secure funding which will decrease instruction fees and supplement the salaries of local under-funded teachers with merit-based pay.

Improving Lifestyle Health
Rachel McCandless of the University of North Florida is one of the many students who have committed themselves to reducing health disparities in urban populations by highlighting the benefits of physical activity and proper diet. Students at the university will set up community gardens, provide classes on culinary arts, and train mentors on how to forge a sustainable, socially responsible community.

Design and Implement Teen Fatherhood Program
A teen father himself, Rajen Mehta of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor aims to develop a program which will teach other teen fathers to become actively engaged in their families. The program will help young fathers understand their paternal responsibility, and demonstrate the principles of basic care and parenting.

A's & Aces
Tulane University student Anna Monhartova's program A's & Aces works to provide academic assistance, life skill education, and tennis lessons to New Orleans public school children. The program brings together the greater New Orleans community with Tulane University and local businesses to help children gain access to quality athletic and academic programs.

Bicycles Against Poverty
Through fundraising efforts at Bucknell University, Dick Muyambi was able to commit to create the project Bicycles Against Poverty, which will provide at least 100 bicycles to low-income families in the district of Gulu, Uganda. Each bicycle will be shared among a group of five individuals who will maintain the bicycle and contribute 1000 shillings (50 cents) every month to go towards expansion of the program.

VVOCF:
Psychosocial Support for Children and Youth Made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS Through collaborative efforts of Michigan State University and the community of Zonkizizwe, Guateng (South Africa), Ramya Naraharisetti and her peers have committed to maintaining a children's center which will provide physical and psychosocial support to orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. During the upcoming year, these commitment-makers will focus on increasing attendance to programs and increasing the availability of testing for children in the community.

Use of Mobile Phone Technology to Create Better Disease Surveillance System
Mayuri Panditrao of the University of California at Berkeley has committed to developing a method of reporting cases of vector borne diseases in India through mobile phones. The use of mobile phones to submit data will increase the accuracy of geographical studies of disease, and will expedite responses to outbreaks while enabling efficient allocation of resources to potential epidemic areas.

Addressing Pesticide Exposure in Paraguayan Farming Communities
Alison Quady of Tufts University will work with Alter Vida, a local Paraguayan NGO, to implement pesticide monitoring workshops for Paraguayans living near genetically modified soy plantations. Quady will implement her monitoring program in five communities, in addition to teaching individuals to test for water contamination and studying the prevalence of disease in individuals in exposed versus unexposed communities.

Using Solar-Energy to Power Telemedicine Services in Rural Sindh, Pakistan
Ambreen Rahman of Columbia University has committed to providing solar-powered telemedicine terminals to regions with scarce access to reliable electricity in Sindhi, Pakistan. These terminals will allow doctors in major cities to communicate with patients and caregivers in rural areas, and the solar power will allow these terminals to be consistently available.

ESL Initiative
Shelley Ramsey of Trinity University in San Antonio and the Trinity ESL Initiative have committed to providing the janitorial and dining staff of the University with free English lessons from student tutors. Tutors will benefit from the practice of speaking Spanish with employees who serve them during the semester, while the project will be a serve as a small step towards educational equality within the greater San Antonio community.

New Orleans Project
Lafayette College student Katherine Reeves, a member of the Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project Team (EEGLP) at Lafayette, has committed to partnering with residents in the Lower 9th Ward (L9W) of New Orleans. The EEGLP will help to develop the community in a way which is environmentally conscious and economically just.

Gage Based Flood Relief in the Dominican Republic
Hilary Robinson of Rice University has committed to organizing the implementation of a flood alert system in the community of Bonao in the Dominican Republic. In a region highly susceptible to flash floods, the system will utilize a network of rain gauges to provide input to a hydrologic model and alert system which will be able to warn residents of future floods by cell phone messages.

An Easily Replicable Recreational Therapy and Anti-Obesity Program for Autistic Young People
Noah Rosenberg of the University of Massachusetts Medical School has committed to create a program of recreational therapy and anti-obesity training for children ages 6-12 with autism in Worcester, MA. The after school program will stress collaborative development within the group, which will both cultivate social skills and promote physical health and fitness.

It Is Only Through Attempting the Absurd...
Philip Schapker of Tulane University and his Juggling Club has committed to using startup capital to create a community garden and bicycle shop where free lessons will be provided on bicycle mechanics and gardening. The garden and shop will eventually support itself through revenues from vegetable and bicycle sales.

Building a School for Burmese Refugees on Thai/Burma Border
Jordan Spatz of the University of California Los Angeles, working with the Engineers Without Borders chapters at UCLA and MIT, has committed to building a new, three room school building for the Burnese/Thai refugee children of No Lao, Thailand in December 2008. Spatz and his colleagues plan on building the school in response to a request from His majesty, The King of Thailand’s Royal Foundation, and the group will also conduct a health assessment of the villages surrounding the school.

Housing Opportunities Program: Preventing Homelessness through Micro Loans
Lekha Tummalapalli of Harvard University and the Housing Opportunities Program (HOP) have committed to providing 100 no-interest loans of $500-$1000 to clients in danger of eviction from homes. These loans can ultimately help to sustain the long-term stability of those in danger of homelessness.

Recycle to Eradicate Poverty
The One Million Cell Phone Challenge invites participants to recycle one million cell phones, saving 350 trillion gallons of water and allowing 100,000 women to rise from poverty through microfinance. Brian Weinberg of the University of North Texas and the Recycle to Eradicate Poverty program at UNT have committed to beat this challenge, and to use the resulting funds from recycling donated phones to directly provide loans to the poor.

Brown-Providence Microfinance Collaborative
Mollie West of Brown University and the Brown-Providence Microfinance Collaborative have committed to connecting students with community organizations to help provide loans to low income people. In addition to providing small loans of less than $5,000 to individuals without the collateral or legal status to utilize the formal banking system, the collaborative will also establish a program to teach business skills to that population.

SafeSnip
Mark Young of Tulane University and his group of undergraduate students have committed to produce and distribute a device called SafeSnip, which provides a low-cost method to clamp, cut, and disinfect the umbilical cord, in a method that significantly decreases the risk of infection. SafeSnip will ensure healthier births in regions of the developing world that suffer from the absence of viable healthcare infrastructure.

FSU Service Organization returns from Africa

Global Peace Exchange continues efforts to bring sustainable development to Third World

By: Thomas Frobisher

Posted: 7/14/08

This week, Florida State University students volunteering with Global Peace Exchange returned from Africa after two months working on a series of projects to improve living conditions in Rwanda and Ghana. The projects included working with Liberian refugees on human rights and gender equality in Ghana, but the main project was centered in the village of Byimana, Rwanda, where GPE had recently raised the funds to underwrite the construction of an information technology center that would also double over as a boys' home for local orphans.

"We started this project hoping that students would really get a chance to work on projects that would still be functioning when they were gone, and that they would still have something to say for it after they left," said Alex Merkovic, FSU senior and co-founder of GPE. "And that's really the whole initiative that we had, about sustainable development."

Merkovic, who founded GPE in 2006 along with fellow FSU student Nick Fiore, said that the organization first developed because he and Fiore were finding that opportunities for volunteer work abroad were rather limited for students.

"Of all the volunteer opportunities that students have, sustainable development isn't really an option," Merkovic said. "If students want to volunteer abroad, they either have to be medical students or they have to have a religious affiliation."

Rwanda was chosen as the sight of the IT center - their "spotlight project" - Merkovic said, partly because of the enthusiasm of Rwanda's government and people for the volunteers, but also because of the country's violent past. The 1994 Rwandan genocide, which Merkovic called "one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century," left approximately one tenth of the country's population dead, and another third displaced. Many of the children living at the boys' home are orphans of the genocide.

"The fact that Rwanda was ignored by the international community for so long made us want to go there even more, I guess, to try to make up for the mistakes of the people who were there before us," Merkovic said.

The history of genocide, though, is not the only issue GPE faced in Rwanda, as they were needed as teachers of English at schools and universities. Working alongside Umuryango, a Rwandan non-government volunteer organization, GPE arranged to teach English in the morning to children at the Bukomurl Primary School, and in the afternoons, they participated in a cultural exchange program at the Catholic University of Kabgayi.

In Rwanda, a former Belgian colony, English has only recently been made into the third national language, the other two being French and a local tribal dialect called Kinya Rwanda. While French and Kinya Rwanda are relatively widely spoken and understood, English is still fairly foreign to Rwandans, and many of the people who are supposed to be teaching English, in fact, barely know the language themselves.

"People who were brought up in the Belgian colonial system - which would be most of the English teachers in Rwanda currently ­- their English isn't exactly the best," said Nick Fiore, co-founder and current co-director of GPE. "Especially in rural areas, there's a lack of English teachers, and we tried to fill that void with volunteers."

The volunteers took part in the program in two month-long shifts, one running roughly the length of May and the other of June.

Of the approximately 20 students who traveled, most were from FSU, but also represented were GPE chapters at the University of Central Florida and the University of London. GPE also has chapters in Gainesville at the University of Florida and Santa Fe Community College and a new chapter in Pasadena, California. While Merkovic said that GPE will continue to be based out of FSU, he is excited at the prospect of branching out.

"The Claude Pepper Center (the entity that oversees GPE) really wants FSU to be the flagship of this new international effort to use universities to bridge cultural gaps and for what they call intercultural cooperation," Merkovic said.

In addition to the projects in Africa, GPE continues to work at the local level in Tallahassee. Last year they co-sponsored an AIDS awareness fashion show with the NAACP and a candlelight vigil on Landis Green for the victims of the Rwandan genocide, in addition to banquets and T-shirt sales to raise money for the trip. These activities are the main reason why a group that sends only about 20 people to Africa has a member list of about 150.

"We believe in the power of service in general, not just abroad," said Sarah Ogdie, director of community service at GPE, who traveled to Rwanda during May. "It's a way to bond our members before they actually get into a situation that would be a little bit intense, and it's a way to get everyone involved."

Also, as part of speculative efforts to expand into Central America, several members of the organization this week have paid to fly themselves to Nicaragua, where they will be conducting a "sight visit" looking into setting up an IT center/orphanage after the model in Rwanda. Merkovic, however, stresses that any Nicaraguan project will not be taking place for years, and that now they are focusing mostly on following through with the project in Rwanda.

"We've got a really good relationship with the government," Merkovic said. "They help us out a lot. We've got great partners. We work with other students at other universities. What we have in Rwanda is a really exceptional chance to make a difference."

GPE will be returning to Rwanda in the summer of 2009. Beginning in the fall, they will be holding regular meetings at an as-of-yet unannounced time in the Broad Lecture Auditorium in the Claude Pepper Center.

Activism in Africa

From the FSView and Florida Flambeau
http://media.www.fsunews.com/media/storage/paper920/news/2008/10/09/News/Activism.In.Africa-3477616.shtml

Two FSU students work to mobilize humanitarian activism on campus

Kaitlyn Suveg

Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: News

Two Florida State University seniors are working to find the balance of schoolwork and humanitarianism as they initiate not-for-profit work aiding the continent of Africa.

Last week, at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Awards Symposium, these two students presented topics regarding oppression on a global scale. Rachel Rossin and Alex Merkovic spent their $4,000 in URCAA grant money and summertime energies seeking to amend such injustices in Africa, and more specifically, in the countries of Uganda and Rwanda.

Rossin, a senior at FSU pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in Graphic Design, decided to travel to Mengo, Uganda, to work with the Greenhouse Orphanage, an organization she was originally introduced to through friend and orphanage director, Kevin Kalibbala. After hearing Kalibbala talk about the orphanage's need for food, clothing, school fees and medical treatment, Rossin applied for the Office of National Fellowships' URCAA grant as a means to bring the change she felt necessary.

"The URCAA was a huge help because I was just one person trying to start this organization," said Rossin. "And although the Greenhouse Orphanage in Uganda is an NGO, there was nothing established here (in America). And so that $4,000 grant was a huge help."

The Greenhouse Project, Rossin's not-for-profit organization, is now only one month old.

She said that, originally, her desire had been to do work with orphanages in Africa and use art to profit specific orphanages, never anticipating the responsibility of such an undertaking upon her return. However, as Rossin called it, it was "a natural course of action" for The Greenhouse Project to have been catalyzed by her summer research.

In contrast to Rossin, Merkovic's prize money went into an already existing not-for-profit organization, the Global Peace Exchange. Merkovic, a senior at FSU studying Middle Eastern Studies with a focus in Africa and African history, co-founded GPE in 2006 with fellow FSU student Nick Fiore.

GPE is an organization that seeks to promote global youth participation and show students how to participate in social change. Merkovic, now chairman of the board of directors, said for them, the grant money was a benefit.

"That $4,000 benefited GPE a lot. It was able to make a pretty huge difference on our (Rwandan) construction project," said Merkovic, explaining that a typical Rwandan citizen only makes somewhere around one or two dollars in daily income.

He also said that the URCAA brought the organization good publicity, allowing students around campus to be able to see the type of positive work being done around the world through their organization.

Rossin explained the struggle of wanting to help more.

"I just want them to be okay," she said. "And it's definitely a conflict of interest when, for instance, right now the orphanage is going through a lot of financial problems and the kids, they have to continue eating, and the tuition has (risen), and so now they're not in school because they can't pay tuition. So, hearing something like that, and me being over here, being fine with my tuition, is really difficult."

For Merkovic, his time in Rwanda had a major impact on his perspective.

"I got back from the refugee camp, where I saw human misery on a scale that I can't even begin to explain," Merkovic said. "It was something that was so gripping, it is something you can never, never forget."

Peter Garretson, professor of history and co-director for the Middle East Center at FSU, was Merkovic's supervising professor for the URCAA grant. He said he considers Merkovic a "rare individual" who is both an excellent student and excellent activist.

"He really understands the third world in a way that very few students do," Garretson said. "And he's just a really rare individual."

Garretson said he believes that foreign travel is crucial to having a healthy understanding of global conflict.

"I have found that (…) students really mature when they leave the United States and see the U.S. through the eyes of another culture," said Garretson. "They start to question, they start to see what they themselves think is important versus what they've been told is important. Too many students think that people in Africa are way less developed than we are. When you go there, you see things quite differently. (You find) people your own age, people very similar to yourself."

Merkovic agreed that traveling to other countries changes your perspective and inspires action.

"There's a terrible misconception in this country that (other) countries love being on foreign aid, that's it's comfortable. It's not," said Merkovic. "The fact is, the enemy of poverty is opportunity. The only way that you can break the shackles of poverty is to give people the tools to fix it. People know how to get out of poverty, we don't need to tell them how to do so, they just need the tools. With The Greenhouse Project here, (Rossin's) project is going to be taking these (Ugandan) kids off the streets, keeping them off the streets, giving them a primary education and then giving them the tools to be able to fight poverty. That's what we're trying to do in Rwanda too."

Merkovic and Rossin have many challenges facing them, but they say that the greatest are inspiring action and cutting down apathy seemingly ingrained into students. Rossin finds her motivation to inspire change in her daily life.

"The motivation for social change and social awareness is everywhere," Rossin said. "It's a standard of just being a human and being in humanity. We're of a population that is very wealthy and is very privileged - despite the (current) economic crisis - and it's really about leveling the playing field, if you will, (and) raising the standard of living for countries that have been exploited. Africa has been exploited. It's seeing a problem and changing it, fixing it, actually doing something about it instead of griping."

Merkovic understands the struggle with apathy because it was once his own.

"For me, a big thing was having to overcome that apathy also," Merkovic said. "I think the biggest challenge in our generation isn't fighting terrorism, and it certainly isn't anything domestic. I think it's poverty. We live in an age of global inequality, but we also live in an era now of globalization. We have to understand that what happens in the Niger Delta, or, for instance, in a rice paddy in Vietnam, will have an adverse effect on us. We're slowly coming to the realization that we're all in this boat together. I feel that poverty is a more insidious enemy than anything we have ever seen before. It's a creeping, silent killer. It controls its victims not by the barrel of a gun, but through their bellies."

Merkovic also related global crisis to issues American students can relate with more personally.

"On Sept. 11, you had 2,500 people who lost their lives needlessly and tragically," Merkovic said. "Every day in sub-Saharan Africa there are 30,000 people that die needlessly and tragically because their only crime was being born into the bottom billion. It's not even just a question about injustice; it's the fact that we live in a day and age where everything is interconnected. One day the world is going to wake up and realize that this can't continue. It won't even be a question of altruism; it's going to be a question of self-interest."

For more information on The Greenhouse Project, contact Rachel Rossin at director@theghp.org, or check their Web site, www.theghp.org, which is expected to be completed soon.

Local art projects will be held throughout Tallahassee this year to raise funds and involvement is welcomed.

For more information on the GPE, contact Alex Merkovic at alex@globalpeaceexchange.org. Their Web site is www.globalpeaceexchange.org. On the site, students can check for dates and times the organization meets on campus, or students can join the organization's Facebook group.

"Meredith Clark: Partnerships will bond today's Africa, America"

hat comes to mind when you think of Africa?



Do you think of a place where, in the 21st century, dark-skinned natives still "run around with no clothes on," as one would-be Teen Democrat contributor wrote. Or maybe a monolith that would "be industrialized by now if they would just stop having civil wars," as another teen with a voice for talk radio boomed in Target on Saturday.

These comments suggest that some young Americans struggle to view Africa without pity or contempt. Admittedly, my own foggy concept of Africa is of a patchwork of nations evolving past handicaps of war, famine, environmental hardship, colonization, exploitation, tribalism and apartheid.

But Africa offers new opportunities for international partnerships. And not by multinational corporations or nongovernmental organizations alone. These opportunities will be filled by the grassroots workers of today.

According to the Population Reference Bureau, in 2006, 44 percent of sub-Saharan Africa inhabitants were under age 15. They are living potential for the continent to experience a boom in growth — if health, education and development initiatives are deemed investments, and only if they are successful.

The future of our relationship with African nations is in the hands of everyday citizens — Tallahasseeans, even — elected leaders, students, clergy, kids; check-writers and physical volunteers alike. So I'm thankful for those who are working to show us that Africa is not one-dimensional; they reach from abroad to forge new economic, diplomatic and cultural ties.

Last week, Tallahassee Mayor John Marks signed a sister-city agreement with Asante Akim, a municipality in Ghana, during the seventh annual Africa Awareness Conference International conference at FAMU. At Florida State, a group of students is gearing up to for a special endeavor in Rwanda this summer. All are newsworthy events, but more importantly, they are steps toward "bridging civilizations."

One step will see 17 FSU students travel to Africa in May and June to build an $80,000 technological training center just outside Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, which is quickly becoming the most "wired" nation on the African continent.

Global Peace Exchange, an international service volunteer organization, was originally co-founded as Global Humanitarian Volunteers in 2006 by FSU students Alex Merkovic, Nick Fiore and Rhodes Scholar Joe O'Shea. Today it is an international organization with several chapters on college campuses in the United States and Europe.

Fiore, a native of Tallahassee, calls GPE's missions "ethical tourism."

"It's a chance for students to get their hands dirty with volunteerism before they enter the real world," he said.

Yohani Kayinamura, a native of Rwanda and a survivor of its 1994 genocide, is a Ph.D. student at Georgetown University who is helping to coordinate the students' visit. Kayinamura said the work has two purposes — the first to aid a nation in its quest to redeem the children of the genocide, which left nearly 1 million dead; the second is to promote intercultural exchange.

"We don't want to make it a thing where they go and come back," Kayinamura said. "We want to expose them to different views, to give them real interaction between students and members of the community."

As a member of the Rwandan diaspora, Kayinamura says he works to educate the curious about his homeland, whether they can travel there or not. He said he believes the exposure helps outsiders understand the obstacles Rwanda, and African nations like it, are up against in their work to heal, educate and modernize.

Kayinamura said he hopes that efforts like the training-school project will encourage Rwandans to become self-confident and self-reliant.

"The people there are able to achieve so much," he said, "but some feel as if someone is coming to help us." He said survivors of the genocide are still marked by the dependency that colonization created.

Such dependency, he said, has been "destructive to our society."

Fortunately, there are plenty of visionaries who see Africa as more than a swath of conflict zones. And so, with vision that replaces dependency with cooperation, they work. Student volunteers with initiative enough to finance their trip with sales from $5 T-shirts who work to help secure the future of a nation with government-surplus computers are to be commended as bridge builders. As are professors who work for years to build diplomatic ties between our city and cities in Africa. They are the visionaries who will help turn around 21st-century Africa, and perhaps our perception of it.

Contact Associate Editor Meredith Clark at (850) 599-2258 or mclark@tallahassee.com

GPE Peace Week promotes Unity

Peace Week promotes unity - News

Tallahassee gets new sister-city in Ghana- GPE adds new project location

- From Tallahassee Democrat

After a seven-year wait, the city of Tallahassee has formalized its sister-city relationship with a district in Ghana, West Africa.



Now the partners can forge ahead with the development of cultural, education and economic exchanges.

“America in itself is looking for opportunities for globalization,” said Arthur Lugisse, the deputy CEO of the Tallahassee African Sister Cities Coalition, which is the local group behind the partnership. “If you get the private and public sectors to work together, things happen.”

Already, at least 25 people, including college students and faculty, are set to visit the district this summer, Lugisse said.

And another seven Florida State university students, interested in African culture, are going to Ghana from April to June.

Mayor John Marks signed a formal agreement with George Kyei Baffour, an assembly member from the Asante Akim North Municipal District, during a ceremony at City Hall last week.

Dinah Hart, senior aide to mayor John Marks, said the partnership was approved in 2001 and was finally formalized last week because Kyei Baffour was in town for the Tallahassee African Sister Cities Coalition Conference at Florida A&M University. It was spearheaded by Willie Butler, the CEO and founder of the coalition and a professor of history at FAMU, who was a student in Ghana for two years.


“There was just never an opportunity to get the leaders of the two (governments) together,” Hart said.

Ghana, which borders the Gulf Of Guinea, gained its independence from Great Britain in 1957, the first sub-Saharan country to do so. English is its official language.

Asante Akim is one of 21 districts in the south-central region of Ashante. The district capital is Konongo-Odumase.

Asante Akim joins Ramat-Hasharon, Israel; Sligo, Ireland; Krasnodar, Russia; and
the Caribbean island of St. Maarten in having a sister-city relationship with Tallahassee.

Workshop at Northwestern University

The Global Peace Exchange will be teaching a workshop at the Global Engagement Summit about "Utilizing
University Resources" on April 17th at Nortwestern University in Evanston/Chicago, IL.

Since 2007, GPE and Northwestern's Center for Global Engagement have maintained a close relationship. This will be the second year that GPE attends the annual Global Engagement Conference, in which dozens of non-profit leaders from around the world gather to share solutions and resources to help solve some of the planets most pressing issues.