SISTER CITY – ELDORET KENYA

In 2000, the International Leadership Institute in collaboration with members of the local Minnesota Kenyan community and Peter Ole-sabai presented a proposal to the City of Minneapolis that the city become a Sister City member with Eldoret Kenya. The proposal was accepted by the Mayor and City Council and the relationship began with a visit to Minneapolis by the then Eldoret mayor. The relationship further developed with a visit to Kenya lead by Judge LaJune Lange and several interested Minnesotans including the ILI Youth Council. This visit to Eldoret laid the foundation for future sustainable projects and the group began building the Little Angel schools and medical center in the Rift Valley of Kenya.  This beginning started with a great ceremonial event attended by the Eldoret mayor and U.S. Embassy representatives. The ILI has continued to be supportive of projects that provide resources for the continued education and skills building of local Kenyans in the Eldoret region. Contact Coventry Cowens about our Sister City Eldoret City and projects.

Photographs: Minnesota medical volunteers at outreach stop in Jus Kali; and a local doctor at Kapsaret reviewing patient’s record. Volunteers supported clinic at this location during their visits.

REPORT of Achievements

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/government/international.asp - for more Sister City information.

Your Support Will Send Children to School and Feed Them

Your Support Will Train Women for a Better Future

We are asking for your help with the following programs supported by the International Leadership Institute.

KIGALI, RWANDA

More than 12 years since the genocide, Rwanda has started to repair the damage to its soul and the nation. They are starting to reconcile, to rebuild and to strive toward a future that is based upon forgiveness, respect and transparency. Behind the doors of swept dirt streets lies poverty. Young women who may not be homeless, have no money and nor jobs to support themselves. These young women often face options that women all over the world face when war and conflict severs the familial structures that provide a safety net.  The commercial sex business and prostitution become the only choice for cash poor women.

Pastor Paul Ndahigwa at the Eglise Vivante de Jesus Christ au Rwanda (The Living Church of Jesus Christ in Rwanda) is providing counseling, job training and food for young women and street children. Help Pastor Ndahigwa make a difference in Kigali.

Make an impact with your donation (US dollars) of:
$10.00 buys new books and shipping fees
$25.00 buys cups and spoons for 10 students
$25.00 buys bowls for 10 students
$100.00 Feed 30 Rwanda students for 1 month
$250.00 Supports a certified Rwanda teacher for 1 month
Mail check to: ILI, 5021 Vernon Ave So, PMB 136, Minneapolis, MN 55436

(Rwanda Photograph by ILI member, Paul Corbit Brown, www.paulcorbitbrown.com - all rights reserved)

NORTHEASTERN KENYA/Womankind Kenya

(http://www.womankindkenya.blogspot.com)

Until the year 2000, Northeastern Kenya was locked out of the economic opportunities that allowed the rest of Kenya to enjoy modern communications, sanitation systems, indoor plumbing, colleges and access to health care. Most families live in traditional homes made of tightly woven twigs. These historic structures failed to provide protection from the extremes of floods and droughts, which have plagued the area for the last 6 years. Our partners reported that mothers have committed suicide rather than watch their children die of dehydration. Children have been attacked in the Tana River while competing with crocodiles for scarce water.

Now in 2006, global warming has brought torrential rainfall and flooding which resulted in the death of many people. Agriculture and cattle herding are no longer viable options for the local population. Education provides a way forward. The Institute plans to introduce a computer technology-training center at Womankind’s school. Womankind Kenya supports the community and gives supplies directly to the people in need. The ILI has found a corporate partner to provide computers and software for a technology center in the region. Help us make this program happen.

Make an impact with your donation (US dollars) of:
$10.00 for new books and shipment fees
$25.00 towards the purchase of a generator
$100.00 purchases food for the students at the school for 1 month
$25.00 supports a teacher in the region for 1 month
Mail check to: ILI, 5021 Vernon Ave So, PMB 136, Minneapolis, MN 55436

The Somali Documentary Project
The mission of the Somali Documentary Project is to use photography to produce an archival record of the members of the Somali Diaspora while they are still engaging in the cultural practices of their homeland. Photographer Abdi Roble hopes to draw international attention to the plight of Somalia, educate Americans about these new immigrants, and provide Somalis with a photographic record of their early experience in this country.

http://www.somaliproject.org/

SOUTH AFRICA/(Port Elizabeth)
Nelson Mandela Municipality

The ILI joined local consortiums’ efforts to provide a computer-training center for Port Elizabeth, that’s now renamed Nelson Mandela Municipality an Eastern Cape city. This city has black townships that are often overlooked by foreign non-profit efforts. In 2006 the computer center was delivered and installed in a location accessible to the women from the townships. Health care has been made a critical component of this program for all trainees. In just 4 months, 80 students are going from despair to dignity with a job and better future. Help us make this program and others like it sustainable and productive for the communities in need of your support. Be the light that shines on the path and join this journey to make a difference.
Mail check to: ILI, 5021 Vernon Ave So, PMB 136, Minneapolis, MN 55436

Update: More trainees ready for gainful employment from the EASTCAPE Technical Lab!

MAUA-SAN PAULO, BRAZIL

ROSA NEGRA is a nonprofit community organization based in a favela in Maua, Sao Paulo. In partnership with the International Leadership Institute (ILI), Rosas Negra has created a community center that is aimed at taking in children of the favelas and helping them grow in the right direction.  Rosas Negra provides a community center that teaches amongst other things, English, Spanish, Arts, Theatre, and human rights advocacy, grassroots organizing to the youth. The Center also teaches the children culture and history from a perspective that is representative of their tradition, ethnic background and community.
 
Within the Center is also a Technology Resource Center (TRC) where children and adults of the community can learn important computer and technology skills and how to use technology to advance human rights in the favelas.  The TRC is an ILI initiative directed by Obi Chukwu.  The TRC is the first of its kind in the Maua favela community and is an initiative ILI hopes to expand to other regions in Brazil.

▪Obi Chukwu, technical coordinator and legal analyst for the ILI, undertook this project to establish a public technological resource center to educate children living in the desolate slum  of Maua Brazil after traveling to Morocco with Judge Lange on a comparative legal systems conference  and ILI technical mission to Brazil. His travel was partly supported by a Midwest Human Rights Fellowship. 

The Institute has received computers for the technology center. Can you help get them there? Your support will be appreciated by the children and International Leadership Institute.

Information on the ILI/IME Institute on Race, Ethnicity, Development and Media Justice

The ILI Resource Center, located in Minneapolis, was established to help community advocates and professionals develop international experience, leadership skills and knowledge about complex global cultures. The Institute's primary focus is in the countries of Africa, Asia and India. The Center provides a place for student interns to do research development, for computer literacy, and hosts many of the Civic Education Program's Ralph Bunche Lectures Series and Caribbean Basin Interest Section meetings. Go to CONTACT to get on the Institute's email list for events and programs.

The ILI Foreign Policy Round Table is a network of advocates providing analysis and leadership foreign policy matter and programs of the United Nations. The ILI Foreign Policy Round Table also hosts international dignitaries and leaders at local community town hall meetings and selected in country executive presentations.

The ILI Civic Education Programs includes development of Community Expungement Workshops with several partner organizations in the Twin Cities area, reaching more than 1300 people since 2002. The ILI, with sponsor organizations, produced a Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Festival at Sabathani Community Center in February 2002, which attracted over 800 citizens and volunteers from around the metropolitan area. Since the fall of 2003 the Institute has hosted the Ralph Bunche Lecture Series which presented in country mission research papers entitled Children in the Kenyan Legal System, the Gullah Islands, and Africa and Oil-The Niger Delta. On-going programs and events include the Children of Uganda Troupe, Brown vs. the Board of Education tpt television presentation and community commemoration, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights education and the Rule of Law training.

The ILI Global Business Round Table initiatives include the South Africa - Minnesota Trade & Business Council. The Roundtable has worked with the Southern Development Community (SADC) to bring trade conferences to Minnesota in 1998 and 2000. The committee has participated in non-governmental advisory activities for the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Other ILI programs include international visitors exchange programs, international nurses training program, and a historical Sister City Program partnership between Minneapolis and Eldoret Kenya. Monthly meetings with business leaders provide a unique opportunity to obtain strategic business information. (Membership Form).

Caribbean Interest Section - this group serves all nations of the Caribbean Basin and will provide an opportunity for a careful examination of the economic, political and cultural history of each country, as well as a determination of current needs in the region. Go to the CONTACT page to get on our email list for events and programs.

Greater Horn of Africa Interest Section Group - will cover an area that includes Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. The focus will be education, economic development, ethnic and religious conflict resolution, improvement of governance through training, rule of law programs, anti-corruption initiatives and transparency. Human rights education and infrastructure development in the health care sector will be very important to this region.

Somalia – Global Program Development
For more than ten years the ILI has been involved with Somali people and several community and international organizations. Through our travels to Africa and local communities we have developed long term relationships that have become rich friendships and resources. ILI president Judge LaJune Lange's introduction fully into the Somali community was an invitation to the Northeast Province of Kenya a historical former region of Somalia. Invited by Womankind Kenya, an ILI Partner, she traveled there and has returned several times to work with marginalized Somali women, children and men in the area and in surrounding Garissa, Wajir and Ijara. The region is experiencing transitions impacted by Kenya’s neglect and several famines. Through exchange programs the indigenous women leaders of Womankind Kenya, Sophia Noor and Hubbie Hussein, have provided great resources to Somali women and others in the Twin Cities metro area and other indigenous Somali communities around the world for almost 20 years. This established ILI partnership along with other impressive groups has lead to the development of Civic Education Programs, Tsunami Relief and support in the Northern Province region. Coventry Cowens, Program Director, has also traveled to Garissa to visit and talk with key persons in the Region including Dr. Khadija Abdalla, Medical Superintendent/Pediatrician of the Garissa Regional Hospital. The hospital is a growing major medical center in the region and is a ILI partner.

The ILI has worked with Somali organizations in the Twin Cities at various capacities over the past 10 years. This has included technical missions to women's prisons and settlements in Kenya with local Somali women, program development in Minneapolis, St. Cloud and St. Paul Minnesota. Nadifa Osman, a long time member of the ILI and community liaison, traveled, with the support of the Human Rights Center, to Kenya to examine the conditions of Mandera in the North Eastern Province of Kenya. To see Nadifa Osman's report about the Mandera Region click on the link below. Mrs. Osman's report is one of many ILI records that document conditions in the Northern region of Kenya. Also available for review is Womankind Kenya’s Water and Cultural diversity: Mediating for Sustainable Development report presented to the ILI and at the United Nations.

Nadifa Osman's report

Water Report – Womankind Kenya

Womankind Kenya (http://www.womankindkenya.blogspot.com/)
Womankind Kenya is an indigenous local non-governmental organization based in the Northeastern province of Kenya with its headquarters in the Garissa Municipality. Founded in 1989 by local Somali pastoral women who were committed to improving the living standards and level of decision making of their fellow pastoral women and the girl child in the province. Womankind Kenya exists to support the most vulnerable members of the community, specifically women, destitute children and poor households of the Northeastern province and to build their capacity, knowledge and ability to take control of their lives. The International Leadership Institute has developed more than ten years of partnership with Womankind Kenya. Members of the ILI have traveled to Garissa to support continuing community programs in the Northeastern province and directed resources to connecting organization in the region including the Garissa Hospital.

The ILI Youth Leadership Council and program provides opportunities for young people to travel to Africa for cultural immersion programs and community projects. In the summers of 2000 and 2001, the ILI youth helped complete a four-room school building in Eldoret, Kenya. The Little Angels Academy provides an opportunity for children from impoverished families and orphans to obtain an education. Special emphasis has been placed on the education for girls and health services. More than one hundred children are enrolled at Little Angels Academy. The ILI has provided a school administrator, teachers, social workers and health care volunteers to feed and educate the children. Other opportunities for ILI youth have included traveling to Seattle, Washington to meet with computer technology experts and participating at the Nobel Peace Prize Conference in Decorah, Iowa. A visit with Mrs. Kofi Annan and Mrs. Steven Biko has provided additional perspectives for the youth. Since the fall of 2002, the ILI Youth Leadership Council has organized a Youth Conference at the University of Minnesota Law School Human Rights Center, attracting educators and international experts. Over 150 community youth from culturally diverse backgrounds attended the conference. Go to CONTACT to request additional information about the youth leadership program.

The ILI Global Health Committee is comprised of physicians, researchers, policy analysts, health care advocates and certified HIV/AIDS educators who are committed to education, prevention and treatment of communities and nations in the ILI global mission service areas. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and STD's disproportionally affected areas that lack resources for treatment and prevention. The committee works with governmental and non-governmental partners to provide education training and prevention materials appropriate to the cultural context. Minneapolis students and Nkosinathi Biko Zimbabwe Widows and Orphans Trust   The Institute has been involved in the economic development and right's of the Zimbabwe Widows and Orphans Trust. This group of over 2,500 women and children is working with the Institutes' support to provide shelter and income for the members. The Institute, along with Minnesotan and Zimbabweans, is working to provide education funds so the children can attend school and the women can start their own businesses. Sharon Garth, of St. Paul, has developed local support and raised funds through church presentations and grant proposals with major foundations. The Institute had a Rhodes scholar, Gretchen Rohr, working in Harare with the women (1999). This is an on going program in the country of Zimbabwe Africa.

African to Africa
South Africa Mission - Grey Hospital, King Williams Town

At the Grey Hospital visit, the Institute's team, including a medical doctor and business professional, met with staff and toured the facilities. The 85 bed structure once served only about 20% of the population and now provides medical services to 100% of the people without addition funding from the government. Medical priorities (assessed by Dr. Ardena Flippen of Chicago) are: dealing with HIV positive patients (lack of medication), a lack of emergency vehicles and trained personnel/driver, limited staff, underutilized space, and no computer system for maintaining patient records (all records maintained by hand). 31 clinics in the region send patients to Grey Hospital. The Institute is looking for resources and funds to help provide supplies needed at this hospital where Mrs. Stephen Biko is a nurse. Judge Lange has been in conversations with local business, church and medical professionals to develop opportunities for the hospital. The Institute continues to maintain programs in the areas of health and leadership in the development of rule of law.