The J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust is a charitable fund established in the memory of Kirby Simon, a Foreign Service Officer who died in 1995 while serving in Taiwan. The Trust is committed to expanding the opportunities for professional and community service and personal well-being of active Foreign Service Officers and their families. The Trust has been funded with contributions from Kirby Simon's colleagues, friends and relatives and other persons interested in the purposes of the Trust. The Trustees are present or former members of the Foreign Service - State Department community and Kirby Simon's parents.
In the Fall of 1998, following the pattern established in the two prior years, the Trust invited proposals for the support of projects initiated and carried out by Foreign Service personnel or members of their families, or by other U.S. Government employees employed at American diplomatic posts abroad. In response to this invitation, the Trust received 40 proposals from 35 countries. The very modest size of the Trust permitted funding of only 20 of the proposals -- and, in many cases, at less than the requested levels. One of the applications was withdrawn following approval by the Trustees because the project received funding from another source. The remaining 19 grants range in amount from $300 to $3,070, for a total of $28,040; they support projects conducted in 16 countries plus the five countries to be designated for funding by the Foreign Service Youth Foundation.
There follows a description of the projects receiving grants from the Trust in 1999. (Material in quotation marks comes from the texts of the proposals received by the Trust.)
Cambodia - Phnom Penh: Electrical upgrades, painting and display cases as part of the renovation and renewal of a section of the National Museum in Pnomh Pen, coordinated by Ginny Pearson, Pam Underwood, and Starr Weir, spouses of Foreign Service Officers serving in the Embassy.
As a result of anti-cultural destruction by the Khmer Rouge and the other afflictions suffered by Cambodia, the National Museum, "which contains many of the treasures of Cambodia, is in a dilapidated state and does not have its own resources to make any needed improvements." The three organizers of this project (one of them an accomplished artist with experience in art exhibitions) are recruiting other Embassy personnel, including Foreign Service Nationals, and their family members, to restore the "Museum's capability to display significant cultural artifacts" and to make the "drab" Museum more "vibrant." The Embassy participants will work closely with the Ministry of Culture and Museum staff.
Cape Verde - Praia: Supplies and equipment for handicraft classes offered to homeless children -- as well as shoes and sandwiches and supervisory stipends -- as part of the "Roda Bidom" project organized by Gloria Benedict, wife of the American Ambassador, and taken over, after Ms. Benedict's reassignment, by David McGaffey, husband of the Deputy Chief of Mission (and a retired FSO), with the collaboration of other Embassy personnel.
"Roda Bidom" is an "idiomatic Creole expression...loosely translate[d] as "roll the barrel'" -- describing the way abandoned and "almost always hungry" young boys try to support themselves in the Cocoupira Market area: by rolling steel drums, containing merchandise, to Praia merchants each morning and night. To train these children for "a better future," this project trains them in "arts, handicrafts and tradecrafts" -- instruction offered on a voluntary basis by a French artist, Yves Robles -- and provides the boys with shoes and food, "in exchange for [the children's] regular attendance at afternoon classes held at the local school adjacent to the marketplace, where they can learn to read and write." (Mr. Robles and the American participants are trying to identify a female instructor for a parallel program for girls; making the project coeducational would be "unacceptable for cultural reasons.")
Chile - Santiago: Space heaters and a food-storage freezer for Casa Acogida, a medical care shelter for abused children, which Lisa Dietrich, spouse of the Assistant Naval Attache (and a Ph.D. anthropologist), serves as Assistant Director in a voluntary capacity.
Chile "has the unfortunate distinction of having the third highest rate of child abuse in the world." The problem "continues to overwhelm the government's capacity to care for ever-increasing numbers of children who become wards of the state." Thus, government funds are available for less than half of the operating costs of Casa Acogida, which is the medical care section of a larger shelter project operated by the Family-Home Foundation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Casa Acogida houses the seriously ill children who are sent to Santiago for treatment from outlying provinces; the shelter provides "a home-like environment, complemented by continuing in-house education," during the period of medical care. Ms. Dietrich helps oversee the operations of the shelter, coordinates the education center, and provides instruction to the children.
Dominican Republic - Santo Domingo: Medical equipment for a clinic located in Hogar Mari Loly, a home for poor HIV-positive children, which receives volunteer assistance from many members of the Embassy community, organized by Brian Rudert, a USAID Officer, and his family.
Started by a Dominican social worker concerned about the lack of public attention to an epidemic of HIV-positive children, Hogar Mari Loly has "proved that, if given lots of love and caring, an adequate diet, and medical attention for opportunistic infections, the babies survive and thrive without treatment for the HIV virus." The Rudert family's "inspiration for getting involved with Hogar Mari Loly was the U.S. Ambassador to the D.R., Donna Hrinak," who visited the home and expressed her support for the children living there. Subsequently, other Embassy personnel, including visiting Coast Guard cutter crews, volunteered their painting and mentoring help, provided toys and engaged in fund-raising activities. These activities are now sponsored by a voluntary organization called PACME, which Mr. Rudert, who has recently been reassigned, continues to serve as an advisor.
India - New Delhi: Furniture and other supplies to equip a Women and Children's Home for persons who are HIV-positive -- a facility that receives volunteer assistance from four spouses of Embassy personnel, Janet Marcus, Marilyn Edwards, Eleanor Purnell and Marsela Duenas, together with a former Foreign Service Officer, Charlotte Singh.
The Women and Children's Home is an addition to two existing residential facilities -- Sahara House and Michaels's Home -- for chemically dependent and HIV/AIDS patients; the new home deals with the special problems faced by HIV-positive mothers and their children. The Embassy community volunteers, part of an Outreach Committee sponsored by the American Women's Association, discharges many functions: working with the Embassy Medical Unit to acquire medication, creating a roof garden for vegetables and spices, collecting clothing to donate and helping to provide needed supplies and equipment. The Trust has supported this effort by providing funds for bunk beds, mattresses, pillows, blankets, hot water heaters and fans.
Indonesia - Jakarta: A lease of space that will accomodate Rumah Hidup Baru (New Life House), a shelter for homeless women and their children, which receives volunteer assistance from Karen Smith, spouse of a USAID Foreign Service Officer.
Most of the homeless, lower income women who inhabit this West Jakarta shelter "are victims of rape or are unwed monthers who have been turned out of their homes by their families." The shelter "provides a place for unwed mothers to live before the birth of their babies and a supportive environment in which they can raise them for the first year." In order to encourage the women toward financial independence during their residency at the shelter, to increase their self-esteem and confidence, and to provide some income for the persistently underfunded shelter, a quilting program has been organized; Ms. Smith is the teacher and designer, and she has helped the women start a quilt enterprise specializing in small quilts appropriate for babies and doll beds. The program has run out of space needed to expand its operations to meet demand and also to house a peer training program to supplement Ms. Smith's instruction. For these purposes the Rumah Hidup Baru has leased a larger facility; the Trust is funding the first two years of the lease.
Israel - Jerusalem: An occupational therapy and play room for disabled children at the Four Homes of Mercy in the West Bank, a project organized and adminstered by Nadya Herbst, spouse of the Consul General in Jerusalem.
The Four Homes of Mercy, located in Eizarieh (a few kilomeers from Jerusalem), is a residential facility that cares for "the elderly and physically and mentally disabled handicapped children and adults. The institution is unique in the Palestinian territories in that it welcomes people from very poor families with no place else to go." The institution does not have resources to meet many of its needs, including the the provision of "greater physical, motor and mental stimulation" for the children. The one existing room "for children to move about during the day...has no equipment [wheel chairs or walkers] or simple toys for the children to use." Ms. Herbst, in cooperation with Four Homes staff and with the help of other international volunteers, is taking responsibility for the initial implementation and administration of this project, including the recruitment of an occupational therapist to train staff and volunteers. The Trust is providing support for equipment, toys and a stipend for the therapist.
Liberia - Monrovia: A library room and toilet facilities for the Seymour Grann School in Paynesville, a project administered by Seymour Grann, a Justice Department consultant at the American Embassy (and founder of the school), and Deborah Hart, a Foreign Service Officer.
In 1980, Mr. Grann, then in private life, founded a school to offer education at a much lower fee (less than $1 per semester) than state school fees, which were unaffordable for many families. Mr. Grann largely financed the school himself, including its rebuilding three times after destruction caused by "looting and civil unrest." (The parents, students and faculty voted to name the school after him in 1992.) The school's resources, however, are not sufficient to complete the construction of a library room, to be "used by children to read books outside the prescribed Liberian curriculum," or to provide toilet facilities. ("Presently,...the children use an adjacent open field.") Trust funding is supporting these projects, administered by Mr. Grann. Ms. Hart is organizing voluntary assistance from Embassy personnel: health professionals, who will instruct the children "in proper hygiene and use of the toilet facilities," and other Embassy staff "who wish to donate books or teach reading to the students."
Morocco - Rabat: A clearinghouse connecting Moroccan community groups with Americans and Moroccans wishing to volunteer their services to these organizations -- a center organized and administered on a voluntary basis by Susan Summers, a Nurse Practitioner at the Embassy, and Debra Benavidez, wife of a Foreign Service Officer, together with a Moroccan colleague.
"Community service is a relatively new concept in Morocco. Budding charity organizations typically do not have the capacity to share information or motivate others to provide assistance." This project seeks to address this problem by locating charitable organizations in need of assistance (more than 30 have been found to date), identifying "finite projects" that need volunteer assistance, and then informing and soliciting potential volunteers from the Embassy and several other American associations and Moroccan sources. The clearinghouse connects the charitable organizations not only to volunteers but to other charities, "to enable [them] to network with each other." The Trust is providing funds for telephone and fax facilities and office supplies.
[Early in 2000 the Trust was informed that, because of recent and pending reassignments, this project cannot be carried out at this time; it is hoped that it will be implemented at a later date.]
Nepal - Kathmandu: A School Adoption Program to provide schools in remote Nepali villages with books and other teaching materials -- a project sponsored by the American Women of Nepal with leadership from Gillian Mueller, Community Liaison Officer at the Embassy, together with other American and Nepali colleagues.
"In many of the public school houses in remote Nepali villages, there is a critical shortage of textbooks, writing materials and teaching aids. While in theory these schools are funded by the Government of Nepal, for reasons that run the gamut from corruption to lack of accessibility, many of the schools are without the most basic resources with which to teach their students." This project invites Nepali schools to provide a "wish list" of needed supplies; "adopts" several of the schools for assistance; procures supplies in Kathmandu and sends them to the schools; and, through a network of American Women of Nepal volunteers, helps to ensure that the materials "are being used and used properly." The Trust is providing startup support for the program.
Peru - Lima: Recording equipment for a program to produce audio cassette recording of new textbooks for blind children in the Lima and Callao public schools -- a project for which Avraham Rabby, Embassy Political Officer, serves as the volunteer Advisor/Consultant.
"[M]any of the blind children and adolescents integrated into the Lima and Callao public school systems are seriously behind in their educational development." Several factors are responsible: insufficient resources to pay for audiotapes, large class sizes and inadequate teacher training, and the absence of blind teachers from whom to learn special coping skills and who can serve as "role models." The Peruvian National Organization for the Blind, advised by Mr. Rabby (the first blind Foreign Service Officer), seeks to address these problems, particularly including the need for audio cassettes. The organization will select and revise the texts to be audio-recorded and then make the recorded texts and distribute them, free of charge, to the blind students.
Romania - Bucharest: Computer, printer and software for educational activities at the Good Shepherd Foundation, a home for street children, which Loren Hostetter, husband of an Embassy employee, serves as board member and volunteer researcher, management consultant and program developer.
The Good Shepherd Foundation, "a collaborative effort of Romanian and expatriate volunteers" (including Mr. Hostetter in a leadership role), seeks to develop "a positive approach to disciplining, nurturing and education" -- an approach that "is very new to institutions in Romania, which have a history of beating, intimidating, scolding and embarrassing children to control behavior...." The Foundation's program (which it hopes will influence the approach of other Romanian institutions) also "responds to the...individual's skills and gifts rather than a regimented group model which is typical of Romanian institutions." In order to "provide opportunities for interactive learning as an incentive for the kids," the Foundation is acquiring a computer and printer and educational software that will "stimulate imagination, creativity and problem solving" without requiring English speaking or reading ability.
Romania - Bucharest: Outdoor play equipment for an orphanage in the village of Odabesti -- a project organized by Glenda Siegrist, Foreign Service Nurse Practitioner, and Jennifer Underwood, Embassy Economic Officer.
In Romania, "a vast number of orphaned and abandoned children [live] in institutions which are bleak, lack positive stimulaton and recreation. Children are usually confined to a bed for the majority of their waking hours and receive minimal tactile stimulation or any environmental stimulation through toys, activities or close contact with other children." An orphanage, started by an American couple, seeks to offer a much higher level of nurture and education, with the help of many volunteers. Ms. Siegrist and Ms. Underwood are among these volunteers. They are acquiring outdoor play equipment for the orphanage, they view this equipment as crucial in order "[t]o improve health, creativity, social skills and environmental stimulation...."
Russia - Moscow: Initiating a program to to wire several orphanages to the Internet for educational purposes -- a project organized by Fritz W. Musser, an Embassy security guard.
"The full-time orphan population in Russian state institutions is some 200,000 children. From the moment Russian children enter state institutions, they become victims of long-held prejudices that all abandoned children are in some way `defective'." For the most part, they receive an "inferior education" in these institutions, which is "one of the greatest hindrances preventing...[them] from fully integrating into society after they have left the care of the state." In the belief that access to the Internet will provide Russian orphans with "an inexhaustible amount of information" not available in their orphanages, put them in touch for the first time with "the world outside their orphanages," and give them employable skills, Mr. Musser is wiring several orphanages to the Internet and stands ready to "teach the orphans to use the Internet...." The Trust is defraying the phone line and Internet access expenses.
Swaziland - Mbabane: A library for the only women's correctional institution in Swaziland -- a project organized on a voluntary basis by Robin Smith, Public Affairs Officer at the Embassy, along with the chief librarian at the United States Informaton Service in Mbabane.
"Swaziland has an expanding population of women in prison, mainly because of unequal access to wealth-generating activities....The types of crimes for which women are imprisoned include drugs, prostitution and petty theft....[T]he penal system lacks a rehabilitation program for women. Many are incarcerated for years without acquiring any vocational skills...." A parastatal organization, Sebenta National Institute, has initiated an English Literacy Project intended to serve incarcerated women. Sebenta has asked Ms. Smith and her colleagues to assist its work by establishing "a small library with books, magazines, charts and teaching materials." These volunteers are selecting and ordering books, conducting readings lessons (both for the women and for the children resident with their incarcerated mothers) and recruiting other Embassy personnel to become volunteer readers. Sebenta has no funds for the library, and "[t]he Swazi government has a no-growth budget policy and will not fund this project." The Trust's grant will pay for books and other materials and for library shelves.
Turkey - Ankara: Support of earthquake relief activities by Embassy and Consulate volunteers -- tents and supplies for a daycare center and aid to Foreign Service Nationals harmed by the quake -- a project coordinated by Capie Polk, a USIA Foreign Service Officer.
The catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey in August 1999 resulted in a major relief effort on the part of Foreign Service personnel. Under the sponsorship of the American Embassy National Employees Association, a group of Embassy employees travel from Ankara to the affected areas each weekend to deliver a wide variety of supplies to the victims. With winter approaching, these volunteers have informed Ms. Polk that among their greatest needs are large tents for daycare centers. The Trust is providing funds for that purpose. In addition, consular personnel in Istanbul have established a relief fund to assist Foreign Service Nationals who suffered great property damage (and in some cases personal injury) from the earthquake. The Trust is contributing to this relief fund.
Turkey - Ankara: Playground equipment for the Embassy compound -- a project coordinated by Capie Polk, a USIA Foreign Service Officer, in cooperation with the Embassy's Employee Recreation Association.
For Embassy families (both Americans and Foreign Service Natonals), the small playground in the back of the Embassy grounds in Ankara has been the preferred play area for little children; in the city parks "what little play equipment exists is dangerous and broken." But the Embassy playground equipment has been deteriorating as well (for example, the slide is sagging), and there are no secure swing seats for infants. Embassy funding is not available for the playground, and the Employee Recreation Association, which owns the equipment, does not have funds for repair and replacement. The Trust is making a grant for this purpose.
Uganda - Kampala: Music scores, costumes and accompanist fees for a program of community choral singing and training offered on a voluntary basis by Dianne Bodeen, wife of a USIA Foreign Service Officer.
Ms. Bodeen, herself a former Foreign Service Officer and holder of a graduate degree in choral conducting, has created or directed community choruses at eight posts at which she and her husband have resided, almost exclusively without compensation and often at Ms. Bodeen's own expense. In Uganda she has taken over the direction -- and taken steps to improve the health -- of the Kampala Singers, "who have at least a 40-year history here -- in good times and very bad times," performing "a major service to the larger musical community...." She is also creating "a new body, a community-based Children's Choir, the members of which should acquire the skills eventually to become members of the adult group, thus perpetuating the performance of good music in the community." In addition, Ms. Bodeen is initiating a series of workshops on choral conducting for local conductors. Funds are needed to purchase music scores (for chorus members who cannot afford them); to employ a tailor to make simple tabbards as costumes for the girls in the Children's Choir (so far, Ms. Bodeen has had to make them herself); to offer modest fees to accompanists; and to purchase scores and other teaching materials for the conducting workshops. The only source of revenue is the occasional receipt of offerings at Christmas concerts, but these funds are typically designated for charitable activities, such as assistance to street children, children's orthopedic surgery or "rehabilitation [of] returned kidnapped children involved in rebel activity...." Accordingly, the Trust is defraying a substantial part of the costs of Ms. Bodeen's project.
Washington, D.C.: A pilot program established by the Foreign Service Youth Foundation (FSYF) to establish five overseas clubs to assist Foreign Service-family teenagers with the transition to new posts and back to the U.S. -- a program to be administered by the President of the FSYF, Kay Branaman Eakin.
"Growing up in the Foreign Service is something only those who have done it can really understand; children and teens often are not given the choice of living in or leaving an overseas lifestyle. It is imperative to provide teenagers overseas the opportunity to find a successful experience there coupled with a success integration into their return home" -- "often the most difficult adjustment...because they may be returning to a place [where] they have never lived or [of which they] have little recollection...." FSYF administers an "Around the World in a Lifetime" (AWAL) program to help teenagers who have returned to the Washington area; the creation of overseas clubs (each to be administered by a Foreign Service volunteer) represents an expansion of the AWAL program to reach teenagers at their overseas locations. The Trust's grant will enable FSYF (which has a very small budget) to provide startup funding for the five-post pilot program.
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TRUSTEES OF THE J. KIRBY SIMON FOREIGN SERVICE TRUST
Liisa Ecola
Cynthia Ely
Herbert J. Hansell
George P. Kent
John Daniel Morris
Courtney R. Nemroff
Kathleen S. Sheehan
Claire B. Simon
John G. Simon