As far as renewal is concerned, join me to seek those persons committed to serve our world through increased participation to Partners. Right now, we have exciting opportunities for such expanded service through these positions now available: Editor of Direcciones, Public Relations Chair, Executive Director, and Regional Vice President for Northwest Arkansas. Do you know the right person? Let me know and I will contact them. Share the
opportunity for service to provide renewal for all.

Susan Heily
Sue_Heily@hotmail.com
 

Sustaining Members

Steven and Jeanine Neuse

Carol Corning
Don Dombek
Stacy Ericson
Bob Frans
Claude and Betty Gillette
Thomas Green
Ed and Andrea Hawkins
Susan Heily
Carolyn and Bill Hester
Hank and Jo Ann Kaminsky
Bettie Lu Lancaster
Bill & Gwen Millager
Louise Montgomery
Peg Nichols
Dan Nolan
Jim & Jane Scroggs
Philip and Mary Alice Serafini
Molly Sizer-Stephenson
Kimberly Smith
Bob and Nadine Spears
Wayne Swegle
Thecia Taylor
Lyell Thompson
Don and Patsy Thurman
George and Sera Vena
Joe Waldrum
Cheryl Wall-Trimarchi
Elizabeth Wheeler

Briefly, registration forms are available at www.partners.net for the dates noted above. Registration is only $195 before September 15. You should make your travel arrangements early - we understand that you fly into Guatemala City and that Partners arranges travel by bus on to Antigua. A very special feature of the program is the already-scheduled cocktail reception hosted by the Arkansas-East Bolivian Partners the last night of the convention and just prior to the closing banquet Saturday night. The purpose of this reception, which also is in
honor of Laurin Wheeler, is to prepare people for the 2005 convention to be held in Little Rock. Come help us call the Hogs!
 

Clark, a retired University of Arkansas professor of foreign languages and education, participates in many organizations and spends much of her time currently volunteering with these organizations. As she says Service is the price you pay for living. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time.” Both women have noted prominently partners of  the Americas as part of the thrust of their volunteering activities.

(From Northwest Arkansas Times, March 30, 2004, by Trish Hollenbeck)

The meeting was again held in Russellville. Unfortunately, a quorum was not present, so all discussions were informal with no official actions being taken. Discussions continued regarding the 501-(c)-3
status of our organization. It was noted that the necessary approval should be ready by the July Board meeting.

Several committee chairs reported on their activities, although due to the shortage of Board members present, the reports were not complete. Two more resignations were noted: Hank Kaminsky as co-chair of Culture, although Jo Ann will continue as Chair with Hank assisting. The other resignation was Kristine Hall as chair of Health. Thecia Taylor agreed to re-assume this chair.

Fran Free reported on her recent trip to Colombia y Hotel as attending a conference on family planning and women’s health. Re-chartering was also discussed. Sue Heily, Steve Neuse, and Bob Frans will constitute the committee responsible for carrying out this function by June 30. It was noted that an “asado” would be held at the Serafini home May 8 to celebrate the graduation of Bolivian students. Steve Neuse reported that he he is working on a travel brochure for our travelers to Bolivia and shared with his efforts thus far.
 

New Officers
President Malcolm Butler has informed us that new officers  of the Partners International Board of Directors had been chosen. The Chair is Baldonedo Napoleao of Brazil, the Vice Chair is John Schorr of Florida, the Treasurer is Patricia Hill Williams of New York, and the Secretary is Gina Pezzano of Colombia. 
Congratulations!

From Partners
In the February newsletter from Washington it was noted that this is our 40th year as Partners of the Americas. 

President Butler challenges us to recruit new (and young!) members to carry on our strengths. This means at the local (Arkansas) level as well. It was noted that the Cuidadanos Trabajando por la Justicia project, of which Arkansas is a part, had achieved finalist status at the World Bank Development Marketplace.

The April newsletter carried a bit of history concerning the establishment of Partners. It’s worth quoting some of it here:

“In the heyday of the Alliance for Progress, world attention was riveted by John F. Kennedy’s call for a bold new alliance of friendship and cooperation among governments in the Americas. Yet in the spring of 1964, few people took notice as the Agency for International Development set up a tiny office to begin forging another kind of alliance. This would be an alliance not of governments but of citizens – not of diplomats but of farmers and teachers, doctors and engineers, students and scientists, homemakers and business people. And in those early days, few would have guessed that this new alliance would take root and grow - long outliving its government counterpart - to become one of the largest private sector networks of volunteers in the Western
Hemisphere.

“What began as disconnected, grassroots initiatives between citizens of Colombia and Florida, Peru and Texas, and Bolivia and Utah, would soon blossom into a volunteer network of 60 partnerships, involving more than 7,000 volunteers each year.” 

Yes, it’s quite a nice story - from March 19, 1964 to today!
 

“As there were 200 applicants, I can’t help but feel a bit honored for making the cut of only 40 that were accepted to participate in the POA Family Planning Workshop in Colombia last month. Family Planning: A personal decision, a global responsibility, impressively put on by Luisa Villegas and Mary Beth Hastings, with the Women and Families division out of the DC office, was quite an event. They put together such a nice mix of intense plenary sessions, networking among the
participants, and relaxation.

“It was complete with three full days of interesting lectures and small working groups followed each evening by a nice tranquil meal with native folklore dancing, horsedrawn carriage rides through the narrow cobble-stone street, and even a culture night where we shared stories or songs from our local regions. I tried to coerce a Texan into 2-stepping with me, but obviously that was just out of the question.

“Cartagena, Colombia, lent itself that week to progress and encouragement. Thirty-two women and 8 men from diverse backgrounds, i.e medical professionals, social and community organizers, lawyers, educators, and activists brain-stormed for four days straight on how to make our projects thrive; fourteen countries were represented. 

Among the best attributes of the week were sharing success stories and exchanging strategies. Media outreach and working with special populations such as youth, males and minorities were the main topics presented.

“Tp apply the skills we had just learned, we broke into three groups to work on three different family planning projects in neighboring Barranquilla. We conducted interviews, facilitated focus groups, and had the chance to meet and discuss with stakeholders, project leaders, and beneficiaries. Our group followed up on an excellent project implementing condoms and safer use of them by college students. The project began three years ago and is widely known and appreciated among these students. This was just one of the many exercises in which we
participated that week.

“This was an excellent event organized by Partners of the Americas, Women and Families division and funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. We all left historic Cartagena with bright ideas, a sense of satisfaction and pride for our personal successes, and invaluable contacts throughout the Americas.

"You can find out more about it at:
http://www.partners.net/what_we_do/women_and_famil
ies/cartagena_workshop.html "

(Fran is Chair of Women and Families Committee for our partnership.)

There were 22 seniors graduating - a record! By most accounts there were near 100 Bolivian students in attendance at the University this year. Many parents of the graduates were in attendance and freely expressed their appreciation for the tuition program that brought their sons and daughters to the University.

By way of explanation, the tuition program grew out of a discussion Max Frydmann of Santa Cruz and Bob Frans had on one of Bob’s trips to Bolivia, approximately ten years ago. Max raised the question as to whether it might be possible to establish an in-state tuition program for Bolivian students at the University. Max is a graduate of the UofA. Bob brought the question back to then-Chancellor Dan Ferritor who agreed it might be a good idea. Chancellor Ferritor was interested in expanding foreign student participation at the University and this seemed like one potential way to do that. Thus it was done, and the program has flourished ever since.

It was a great evening of fun and fellowship. Chef Phil was in rare form, having just returned from an extended stay in Santa Cruz for the harvest of the soybean crop.

Although he did not have time for his usual task of barbecuing meat, he did manage to turn out his excellent deep-fat fried yucca. Mary Alice, though suffering a cut foot in the flurry of Phil’s home-coming, was a gracious hostess - in addition to her duties as Assistant Vice Chancellor at the University, she pretty much acts as the unofficial house-mother” for the Bolivian students.

Each year Partners gives each senior a small token of remembrance - the bluebird of happiness, locally produced. This part of the celebration was organized this year by Tom Green, Margaret Clark and Thecia Taylor, and presentations were made by President Sue Heily (see below).

The first of these projects is to be an educational campaign on the justice project in the suburbs of Cobija, including Senador, Santa Clara, Pantanal, El Paraiso, Los Tajibos, Mapajo and Villamontes. Leading will be an interdisciplinary group for sustainable development and associated will be the Pando Chapter of the Partners of Americas, Cobija. It is expected that the project will promote knowledge of the Code of Criminal Justice among the population of the suburbs of Cobija. The work will be done through training workshops and the distribution of brochures outlining the goals of the criminal justice work.

The second project will be undertaken in the Trinidad area and is similar to the above, in that The Partners group there (Roxana Rivero, President) will assist the Project Director, Mario R. Guzman P. The aim of this group is also similar, in that they expect to strengthen and increase acceptance of the reform of the criminal justice system of the new Code of Criminal Procedure. The Santa Cruz chapter will also be involved in this project.

This project introduces the concept of the utilization of citizen judges and the role they will play under the new code. The work will be carried out through a series of workshops both in Santa Cruz and Trinidad.

Considerable effort has gone into the development of these work plans as well as funding through USAID.

Obviously our East Bolivia Partners will be heavily involved in future work and they expect to have a rather profound effect on implementation of the new criminal code of justice in Bolivia. Similar work is going on throughout the rest of the country. You can find profiles in English and further links at: 
www.uark.edu/misc/partners/justice-01.html.  

There have not even been any new members to report
here - perhaps that’s a message to all of us. After the
successful asado, it seems we should be able to draw
upon all that young enthusiasm, if not in Arkansas, then in
East Bolivia. It’s more than a bit alarming to note the
obvious aging of members - we need more young folks!
Your suggestions would be welcome.

One more plea for dues - if you haven’t paid and want to
remain on our mailing list to receive these sterling pieces
of information, then there’s only one thing to do - pay up!
After this mailing, those who have not paid in the last three
years (Honorary Members excepted) will disappear from
our list. 

A final word - your Editor, whoever he or she might be,
needs your help in the successful continuation of this
newsletter. Send him/her interesting bits of information
about members, or items of interest to Partners. Every
little bit helps!