Blog Post

I’ve been fortunate to visit four IREX field offices and one theme loudly surfaces each time- Muskie alumni are everywhere. I hear about their great work from our country directors. I run into them on the streets on my way to meet other alumni.

I recently traveled to Luhansk, Ukraine, to witness alumni of the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program in action. In a region filled with challenges—lagging industry, political division, and unemployment—one alumnus I met with is offering hope and driving positive change. Meet Volodymyr Shcherbachenko , who started a local NGO, the East Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives (EUCCI), which currently works to protect homeowner’s rights and open spaces like parks, forests, and neighborhoods.

One year ago, Tunisian president Zine el Abidine ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia, resigned his position, and Tunisia embarked upon its transition to a new political structure. The “Arab Spring,” as it came to be called, has inspired many academics, development professionals, and others to draw comparisons to the events in Eastern Europe that roughly 20 years ago resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

It was mid-September, 2003, and still stifling hot in Erbil, when I first stepped off the small plane onto the narrow strip of pavement serving as a runway at the time. I had been warned about the flight prior to leaving, but nothing could completely prepare me for the small, crowded plane or the spiral nosedive that was to mark my arrival in Kurdistan. I was met in a gravel area by U.S. military personnel who whisked me into a military vehicle, and off to meet my ride.

This is the moment each year when we celebrate, when we remember all that has been achieved and all the people whose lives we’ve shared over the past year. We look back on what we’ve learned, and we also look forward to the new year and all that it will bring. One year merges seamlessly into the next, and thus we start again. What we’ve accomplished becomes the energy for what we dream still to do. 

Now more than ever we have a global responsibility to advance the understanding of financial rights and responsibilities among our young people. Building on our work in education and youth development, IREX was recently invited to join Child & Youth Finance International   (CYFI), an exciting movement that is working to bring financial access and education to children and youth around the world . Working together we can not only put a spotlight on this issue, we can make real change for our children and youth and their communities.
Here are a few things you can do right now to support the movement:

Although nobody expects to become disabled, it can happen any day, without warning. Disability affects nearly everybody at some point in their lives. The prevalence of disability in the world grew from 10% of the population in the 1970s to 15% in 2011. The current world population of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) is estimated at over one billion people, with higher prevalence rates in less developed countries (World Report on Disability, 2011). However, PWDs have remained invisible in most development programs, even though addressing disability issues from a development perspective can provide many social and economic benefits. Disability is thus a cross-cutting issue in all community development programs and should be given special consideration if we are to succeed in our work.

I recently witnessed/observed first-hand the challenges facing media reform in Serbia, and indeed, in most of the countries where IREX works.

As IREX launches its Promoting New Media and Media Convergence in Russia program, examples of how new media is changing the nature of communications and media continually appear. The new generation of Russians is completely entrenched in new media and is now learning how to influence public opinion (both in good and not so good ways) in the country. A recent scandal surrounding President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to the Moscow University School of Journalism offers proof of this evolving environment.

The Thanksgiving holiday in America gives us all a chance to reflect on gratitude, on generosity, and on reaching out to those in need.  As we Americans from every background recall our blessings, we also remember those less fortunate.