Project Updates

In light of the overwhelmingly positive feedback received from students and educators, IREX is now making available its Cultural Passport to America to schools, colleges, and universities. The Cultural Passport to America offers educators the ability to facilitate and track American cultural experiences along with their visiting  international students.

The enthusiasm was palpable during a recent opening ceremony in Porumbeni, where citizens had united to overcome a series of complex logistical and bureaucratic hurdles to improve their water system. The community accomplished a major renovation project to provide safe drinking water for 75 households, a kindergarten, and the local health center.

Remarks by Senator Richard G. Lugar Address to the 40th Anniversary Dinner of the International Research and Exchanges Board November 20, 2008

As in many countries, Ukrainian children with physical disabilities find themselves left out of important parts of their local communities and struggle to integrate themselves into society at large. Motivated by the year she spent studying in the United States and her experiences working at summer camps for disabled children, Olga Mangusheva decided to confront this issue.

According to the Government of Jordan, “rapidly expanding population, industrial pollution, wildlife hunting and habitat loss due to development” pose a serious threat to water quality, wildlife, and its land.  As the government states, “A true foundation of environmental protection requires awareness upon the part of the population…”

IREX’s film “Forty Years of Building Relationships and Sharing Expertise” provides a glimpse of our diverse work around the world. With footage and interviews from Bangladesh, Egypt, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Serbia, and elsewhere, participants and partners tell their stories of how IREX projects have affected them, their work, and their countries. From our founding in the middle of the Cold War to today, the 10-minute film provides both a historical look and highlights of a few of our activities in over 100 countries.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was devastated by poverty and social instability, resulting in a sharp increase in child abandonment. Rising alcohol and drug addiction rates also placed many children at risk of abuse and neglect. In response, Russian social workers founded the National Foundation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NFPCC), which has advocated for innovative child welfare models and policy change since 1994.

In November, the Girls World Communication Center (GWCC), IREX and IREX Europe’s local partner for its Young Women’s Leadership Program (YWLP), was the single recipient of Glamour’s  2008 Women of the Year Fund. GWCC was selected for this prestigious award after Nujood Ali and Shada Nasser of Yemen were recognized as Glamour’s 2008 Women of the Year. Last spring, 10-year-old Nujood Ali sought the guidance of lawyer Shada Nasser to divorce an abusive husband 20 years her senior. Nujood has since returned to her home with dreams of becoming a lawyer and helping others in her country. 

From an undergraduate student who had never left Moldova, to First Secretary at his country’s Washington, DC Embassy, it’s been quite a journey for Tudor Ulianovschi. A participant in the Freedom Support Act Undergraduate exchange program (FSAU), now the Global Undergraduate Exchange program (UGRAD), Ulianovschi spent the 2002-2003 academic year studying sociology and law at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. His experience in the United States, and his subsequent work as a program alumni coordinator, helped lay the groundwork for a future career in law and diplomacy.

The Jordanian Education System has reached a “turning point,” according to English teacher and International Leadership in Education Program alumnus Mamoun Al-Zoubi. As a teacher who was recently selected for the National Team for Designing Curricula by the Jordanian Ministry of Education for the recently founded National Institute of Education, Al-Zoubi could not be more optimistic about the progress of his country’s education system.