March 17, 2005: Headlines: COS - Indonesia: COS - Kazakhstan: Religion: The Athens News: Kazakhstan RPCV Troy Johnson is part of a delegation of American civic and religious activists visiting Indonesia for two weeks as part of an Ohio University project focusing on promoting and facilitating inter-religious dialogue in Indonesia
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Indonesia:
Peace Corps Indonesia:
The Peace Corps in Indonesia:
March 17, 2005: Headlines: COS - Indonesia: COS - Kazakhstan: Religion: The Athens News: Kazakhstan RPCV Troy Johnson is part of a delegation of American civic and religious activists visiting Indonesia for two weeks as part of an Ohio University project focusing on promoting and facilitating inter-religious dialogue in Indonesia
Kazakhstan RPCV Troy Johnson is part of a delegation of American civic and religious activists visiting Indonesia for two weeks as part of an Ohio University project focusing on promoting and facilitating inter-religious dialogue in Indonesia
Kazakhstan RPCV Troy Johnson is part of a delegation of American civic and religious activists visiting Indonesia for two weeks as part of an Ohio University project focusing on promoting and facilitating inter-religious dialogue in Indonesia
Two local people to help promote religious dialogue in Indonesia as part of OU project
2005-03-17
Two Athens residents are part of a delegation of American civic and religious activists visiting Indonesia for two weeks as part of an Ohio University project focusing on promoting and facilitating inter-religious dialogue in Indonesia. The delegation left on the trip yesterday.
According to a news release, the delegation's visit is intended to demonstrate solidarity with the Indonesian people in the wake of the recent disaster and promote better relations between the people of Indonesia and the United States. The project is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of State.
Mara Giglio, training and program coordinator for the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network, will provide training to Indonesian educators on peer mediation. Giglio is a conflict-management trainer for the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management and has trained more than 300 teachers and administrators in peer mediation and other conflict-management techniques. She also teaches a course on school-conflict management at OU.
Troy Johnson, a graduate student in International Development Studies at OU, also will travel with the delegation. Johnson became interested in Islamic education while working with Muslim youth as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan.
The delegation is being led by project director Richard Kraince with assistance from OU doctoral student Ann Shoemake. Both have extensive experience working in Indonesia.
The 10 Americans selected for the delegation include university professors, graduate students, and representatives of non-profit organizations working on issues of conflict resolution, mediation, and peace and justice. A series of public forums will be implemented as well as visits to various non-government agencies, government agencies and religious institutions.
In Jakarta, members of the delegation will attend a conference on higher education partnerships at the University of Indonesia. They also will implement peer mediation trainings for the Indonesians who have participated in the Inter-religious Dialogue Project and for faculty and students from two local universities.
The group will visit a traditional Islamic boarding school in West Java, where they will participate in discussions on minority rights with local religious leaders. In Cirebon, the group will visit a non-governmental organization working to foster inter-religious tolerance, and meet with local religious and civic leaders to discuss the role of inter-religious dialogue in conflict management and tolerance promotion efforts. Delegates will conclude their visit with a trip to Aceh Province.
In 2004, Ohio University's Center for International Studies launched a series of exchanges between religious and civic leaders in Indonesia and the United States, and three Indonesian groups visited the United States as part of this project focusing on inter-religious dialogue.
These exchanges are intended to promote greater understanding and mutual respect among people of different faiths by expanding dialogue on critical issues, including religious freedom, individual rights and relations between faith communities.
The project provides opportunities for participants from both countries to share strategies for responding to religious extremism and intolerance in various contexts.
Organizers hope the initiative will motivate serious efforts to strengthen inter-religious harmony by promoting conflict-management efforts in areas affected by sectarian strife as well as building support for civic education and tolerance promotion activities more generally. A key goal is to facilitate long-term relationships so that dialogue on how to manage differences among religious groups in a pluralistic civil society can be broadened and sustained.
In the news release, Kraince said that Indonesian delegates who participated in the U.S. study tours hope to replicate peer-mediation programs observed in schools in Ohio and New York. Several of the delegates who will travel to Indonesia from the United States in March have been selected for their backgrounds in peer-mediation training.
"One tangible outcome I see for this project are the long-term friendships between our Indonesian colleagues and the Americans participants," Kraince said in the release. These connections are inspiring the Americans who have been involved in the project to learn about and talk about Indonesia here in the United States. According to Kraince, the American delegation's visit provides an opportunity to further those friendships and introduce the group of American civic and religious activist to Indonesia and its culture.
"I hope this will foster more international understanding and goodwill," Kraince said in the release.
When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state. |
| RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter. |
| Add your info now to the RPCV Directory Call Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now. |
| March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went. |
| Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week. |
| Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments. |
| WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service. |
| Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: The Athens News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Indonesia; COS - Kazakhstan; Religion
PCOL17770
91
.