Blog Post

I am pleased to share with you an excerpt from the written testimony I recently submitted to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs in support of the Department of State exchanges budget. Even in this current budget environment, it is critical to continue to invest in these programs which bring manifold benefits to US taxpayers. I strongly encourage you to find out more and contact your representatives in Congress to voice your support as well.

I was recently given the honor of being named Romania’s Digital Champion by Ms. Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda. The nomination is a direct reflection of the professionalism, selfless contribution, determination and heartfelt devotion of the entire staff at IREX’s Biblionet Romania program, and to all of the public librarians who work with us on a daily basis to empower Romanians by providing free access to information at the nation’s public libraries. This accomplishment is not about one person, but rather the collective efforts we have brought about to improve the lives of Romanians through access to the internet and improved library services that reflect community needs.

On a recent visit to a village 120 kilometers east of Almaty, I witnessed first-hand how the BOTA Foundation is helping under-resourced children and youth of Kazakhstan.

Last year, Karen Bovard, a teacher from Connecticut, traveled to Indonesia as a fellow of the TEA-ILEP U.S. Teacher Exchange Program. Upon returning, she created an advanced high school course called “Women in a Global Context” to cultivate an understanding of worldwide gender issues in her students. In this blog, Karen discusses the evolution of the course and what she learned from preparing and delivering it.

Last month we discovered that our enthusiasm about exchange 2.0 was exceeded only by that of our international exchange students in Pakistan. A select group of forty students, all alumni of the Global UGRAD-Pakistan program, shattered every quantifiable participation record at TechChange for online learning. Read more from guest bloggers Gerard McCarthy and Christopher Neu.

Ricky Anywar, a former child soldier and a Community Solutions Program leader responds to the Kony 2012 video now circulating the web. He and his brother were just 2 of 25,000 Ugandan children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army and forced into slavery. Few managed to escape with their lives, but Ricky did, and he turned his freedom into a lifeline for other child slaves. Read his response here.

As today is International Corporate Philanthropy Day, we salute private-sector partnerships that seek to make a better world. IREX's work is supported by a mix of funding from government agencies, private foundations, and individual donors. Corporate philanthropy also plays an important role in IREX's programming, especially in such areas as education, technology and media development.

Liberia has witnessed robust growth in the media sector in recent years, but without a background in business, media managers are struggling to keep their enterprises in operation.

Attending the annual Arab Press Freedom Forum held last month in Tunis provided me with the opportunity to discuss the progress made and challenges ahead in media reform with colleagues from the region and from the international media development community The debates were vigorous and the opinions diverse, but I came away with a few key points:
 

The timber industry, and especially its trade with China, is a significant contributor to Russia’s economy. The wildfires that spread through Russian forests in the summer of 2010 brought concerns about Russian forest management to the forefront for businesspeople and policymakers. Here, U.S. Embassy Policy Specialist program fellow Stephanie Hitztaler describes her field research examining the impact of Russia’s forest code on the timber industry, the environment, and small businesses.