Project Updates

Professional development opportunities during the academic year give Muskie fellows an opportunity to gain new skills and broaden their networks of professional contacts.  2009 fellow Maksym Klyuchar of Ukraine has taken advantage of these opportunities as a student and graduate research assistant in the Master of Public Administration program at the University of Texas in Brownsville.

Muskie fellows bring more to their host communities than just strong academic skills and diverse international backgrounds.  Whether they assist low income individuals to file their tax returns, teach financial literacy, or volunteer at a local food bank, Muskies are making a crucial impact on their American hosts at a time when there is an urgent need for this aid.  When selecting community service projects, many fellows chose to focus on helping those Americans who are hardest hit by the current economic downturn.

For many, the happy sounds of children playing on an early spring morning in Issik, a village nestled in the northern slope of the spectacular Tien Shan Mountains, would be an uplifting reminder of their own youth.  For the mothers gathered here today, however, these sounds represent an achievement of unimaginable significance.  “Before attending programs at Kamkor,” one mother explains, “my son would not speak at all.  After three weeks here, he is able to talk with others.”  For the mother of a special needs child, this is

On May 20, representatives of more than 60 NGOs from around Kazakhstan converged to discuss, develop, and accelerate solutions to improve the effectiveness of organizations providing social services to impoverished youth and children.   The conference entitled “Improving the Delivery of Social Services for Children and Youth from Vulnerable Groups” was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.  The morning session provided like-minded profes

Several dozen mothers gather at the office of the mayor of Krasny Yar on a chilly May morning in northern Kazakhstan. Besides a school, the mayor’s office is the only public building in this village of 200 families, so the mothers of various ages and ethnicities who have gathered here, had no trouble finding the location.  Each is struggling to raise children from below the poverty line.

Young radio journalists in Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland recently used their newfound skills to shed light on the challenges facing internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in refugee camps in Galkayo.

In the tumultuous run-up to national parliamentary elections, Bangladeshi journalists in rural districts around the southeastern city of Chittagong are receiving training in covering the political process. Many of the journalists have never before had any support in building the skills needed to report on campaigns and voting, according the Bright Bangladesh Forum, the Chittagong-based nongovernmental organization conducting the training in partnership with IREX.  

Overview

IREX announces a new, bimonthly speaker series that will bring a unique, locally-focused perspective to international development policy dialogue in Washington, DC. The “Technology Serving Civil Society” series will host practitioners with grassroots experience using technology in innovative ways to increase the effectiveness of community and civil society initiatives throughout the developing world.

Agenda: Utilizing Access to Information

The growing community radio movement seeks innovative ways to give people voice, using the potential of broadcasting to bridge distances and democratize media. Community radio emphasizes access, participation, volunteerism and simplicity in overcoming the technical and financial hurdles that keep people from avenues of information and communication.

Arab media managers and supervisors will have a unique opportunity this fall to enhance their leadership skills and find innovative solutions to the challenges they face in media management through a comprehensive six-week fellowship that will include intense training at the prestigious Northwestern University Media Management Center in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois and on-site placements at US media outlets across the country.