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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks of Ambassador Harriet Babbitt, USAID Deputy Administrator
to Close-Up Foundation Teachers
April 19, 1999
Thank you.
There's a lot I want to talk to you about -- including what our agency is doing in Kosovo and an exciting new program we are helping high school and middle school students run that teaches them about the developing world and gives them a chance to make a difference there themselves.
But, first, I want to congratulate you. As teachers, you are doing some of the most important work in the world.
I feel about high school and middle school teachers much as I do about AID workers in the field -- I am impressed by your patience, ingenuity and dedication -- and I am awed by your courage and stamina.
So, I before I tell you about OUR work, I wanted to thank you for YOUR work.
Like yours, a lot of our work at USAID does not get much attention most of the time.
Right now, our work in Kosovo is receiving a lot of attention.
How fast we and other international agencies are able to get food, shelter, water, sanitation, field kitchens and medical care to the refugees can be a matter of life and death -- especially under the prevailing cold, wet conditions.
This decade that began with such great hope --with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the long Cold War -- is now often characterized as the "decade of disasters" and "the decade of the displaced."
The number of major natural and man-made disasters has been unprecedented -- as has the numbers of people affected by them.
In every region of the world there have been droughts, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and famines -- most recently the devastating hurricanes in Central America and the Caribbean last fall. Internal conflicts have produced terrible human tragedies and caused vast numbers of people to flee for their lives. Somalia, Bosnia, the Sudan, Sri Lanka, Rwanda -- and now Kosovo has been added to the list.
Our administrator, Brian Atwood, is in charge of coordinating the U.S. effort to relieve the suffering as hundreds of thousands of Kosovars have been forced to from their homes, most with little more than the clothes on their backs. Some of our most experienced disaster experts report that they have never seen people so traumatized.
This human tragedy and logistical nightmare is playing out even as the President's request for emergency supplemental appropriations to provide assistance to Central America is stalled in Congress.
The bill was delayed until after the Easter recess because of disagreements about cutting funds from domestic programs to offset the cost of this vitally needed aid.
Earlier, we had been told that such offsets would not be required to pay for the assistance needed to help our neighbor's to the south get roads, schools and agriculture functioning again. We had expected the bill to pass quickly so farmers could get their crops planted this spring and the hardest-hit countries could begin the long-term process of rebuilding.
Even apart from the disasters and the wars, we live in a world filled with on-going need and suffering. That, too, is USAID's work.
Year in and year out, we help developing countries do on a sustainable basis what we are doing on an emergency basis in Kosovo --supply nutrition, clean water and sanitation, basic health care like safe childbirth, oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea, and preventive programs like immunizations. We help them to provide safer housing, education and economic development that provides jobs and opportunity.
We are working to complete the eradication of the last remaining pockets of polio, and on HIV/AIDS prevention. USAID supports agricultural research to develop higher yield crops that are more resistant to drought, disease and pests and to improve transportation, marketing and distribution systems.
Disasters like the hurricanes in Central America and the horrors of Kosovo are especially cruel to children. Yet, most of the 12 million children who die each year worldwide do not die in disasters or wars.
Most die quietly at home or on the way to clinics -- of malnutrition or diseases that we have the knowledge and technology to prevent.
Lack of a single micronutrient --Vitamin A -- contributes to the deaths of two million children each year and is the major cause of child blindness.
Even as USAID goes into high gear to respond to disasters or refugees, we continue to address these pressing needs.
We also continue to work to help establish justice and democracy so that the tragedy of Kosovo will not be repeated.
Despite the set-backs caused by the financial crisis in East Asia and the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans, this past decade has brought great strides toward freedom and self-goverance and improved health and education. USAID is proud of the part we have played over the past 30 years, both in alleviating humanitarian emergencies and in sustainable long-term development.
We are also pleased that we have been joined in these efforts by dozens of countries that once received U.S. aid, including most of our strongest allies and trading partners.
Their success, and our own prosperity, are strong evidence that we all benefit from helping poorer countries help themselves.
We work closely with international aid organizations and with these donor partners, and we learn from each other.
One valuable lesson came from our donor-partners in the Scandinavian countries -- which, incidentally, contribute the highest levels of non-military foreign aid per capita in the world.
Back in 1964, aware that 1.3 billion people lived in poverty, a group of Norwegian students decided they wanted to help young people in developing countries. They asked their government to let them take one day off a year from school to work and earn money to support education projects in developing countries.
That first year, 35,000 students participated, working in factories and offices, washing cars and holding bake sales. They raised $15,000 for education programs in Algiers.
Over the years, the program -- which translates "Operation Day's Work" in English -- has grown dramatically, supporting educational projects in 35 different countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 1996, more than 250,000 Norwegian students participated and raised $3 million. The idea spread to Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
The annual workday is now preceded by an International Week during which students immerse themselves in the culture of the project country. Students choose the country they will study and plan the week's education program. They run the workdays and select the specific project that will benefit from their earnings.
The program focuses less on charity than on respect and commonality between young individuals who grow up into very different situations and economic conditions.
When USAID's Chief of Public Liaison, Karen Anderson, told Administrator Brian Atwood about the program, he shared her enthusiasm. He saw that a similar program could provide a wonderful opportunity for American students to learn about developing countries -- and learn to make a difference.
USAID brought together individuals from business, the International Youth Foundation, America's Promise, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Scholastic Inc., the Embassy of Norway and Norwegian students to support a pilot Operation Day's Work in the United States.
Students from eight pilot schools in six states organized and funded a trip to Norway where student representatives learned first hand how Norwegian students run their program.
The American students then built grassroots support in their own communities, working with local businesses, newspapers, school administrations and community leaders. Some have formed clubs to lead activities, while others have decided to work together as an entire class. One group of students persuaded their school to offer Operation Day's Work as a full-year elective course for credit.
The pilot schools have also worked together. They picked Haiti as their focus country for the first year and reviewed many project proposals.
They chose to fund a project called, "Livestock training for young people of Haiti," which teaches animal husbandry and supplies a female goat for milk to families. The project will teach young people how to care for the goat, and when she is bred, at least one of her offspring will be given to another family.
The American students were attracted to the project because it helps poor Haitian families directly, trains young people to improve their situation, and by passing on young goats to other families, is a project with potential for growth and sustainability.
Advocates of the livestock project coined the slogan, "Vote the goat." The goat won decisively.
The first work day was held this past Saturday by Broad Meadows School in Quincy, Massachusetts. They repainted a ship for a Naval Museum. Other pilot schools will hold their workdays within the next two months.
Some of you may have heard President Clinton talk about Operation Day's Work in his Saturday radio address.
The students not only make their own decisions, they decide how to go about making those decisions.
This summer, 150 students and teachers from the pilot schools and some representatives of schools that would like to join the program will meet in Philadelphia to hold a Constitutional Convention for Operation Day's Work. There they will create a structure to ensure that the program is student run, prepare guidelines and materials for new schools that want to join, and create a structure with communications and decision-making processes that can be scaled up as the program spreads.
The students will develop a plan to provide staffing in the early years and make the transition over time to staffing by "alumni" who have participated in the program. Students and teachers will also meet with potential funders and interested organizations, review lessons learned in the pilot year and choose the most effective materials.
Most of the work the students do on their work days will be physical labor or dull, routine, often repetitive tasks.
But as Dr. Martin Luther King told garbage workers in Memphis shortly before he died:
"Whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity, it has worth."
However dull or repetitive the tasks, the work that Operation Day's Work students do will have dignity and worth.
Operation Day's Work appeals to students' idealism and desire to actively do something about problems in our world.
It will give them an opportunity to learn and practice leadership skills, as well as learn about other countries and cultures. They will learn about the leadership structures of their schools and communities, civic organizations and the local business community. They will learn about the importance of preventing conflict and to recognize conditions that lead to it. They will also learn about the importance of health and education to societal development and the need for sustainability.
They will be practicing democratic processes and analytical thinking, teamwork and delegation of tasks, advocacy and constituency building.
They will learn to take responsibility for their decisions -- and for their world. Most important of all, they will learn that they can make a difference.
Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
You can see why I am excited about Operation Day's Work -- almost as excited as the students. I hope you will help bring Operation Day's Work to your schools.
Thank you.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 12, 2001 |
