Washington Post 12/15/05: Six (including Bob Blumberg) Are Honored for Volunteer Work Overseas

[Guest guest]

> Personal Message:

> I'm sending this not to toot my horn, but I am

>so pleased that they put helping animals in the

>same league as helping people!! Bob

>

> To view the entire article, go to

>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402404\

..html?referrer=emailarticle

 

Six Are Honored for Volunteer Work Overseas

State Dept. Lauds Unofficial Diplomats

 

By Christopher Lee

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, December 15, 2005; A31

 

Some of the United States' best ambassadors

abroad are people you have never heard of, with

no diplomatic portfolio and, in many cases, not

even a regular paycheck from the State Department.

 

They are spouses of Foreign Service officers or

mid-level officials operating deep within the

department's bureaucracy. They take up volunteer

projects in U.S. posts around the world, working

to keep girls from prostitution in Thailand,

vaccinate stray animals against rabies in

post-tsunami Sri Lanka, and provide computers and

Internet access to mental patients in Macedonia.

 

The services they perform help explain the split

view of the United States expressed in many

corners of the world by people who say they

object to U.S. foreign policy but find much to

like and admire in Americans.

 

For the most part, such work is its own reward.

But last week, the State Department threw in a

little something more. The department flew five

overseas volunteers to Washington for a ceremony

recognizing each for their efforts with a pin and

a check for $2,500, all part of the annual

Secretary of State's Award for Voluntary Service

Overseas. A sixth award winner could not make the

trip.

 

W. Robert Pearson, director general of the

Foreign Service, presided and told recipients

that they were fine practitioners of

" transformational diplomacy. " The term refers to

an approach to international relations touted by

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that calls

for understanding a local culture while putting

American ideas and resources to work in making a

positive impact on people's lives, Pearson said

in an interview.

 

The volunteers " represent what we would all say

were wonderful American values, " he added. " To

the extent that they can make these efforts in

their communities and bring concrete results, I

think they do give a softer and more rounded and

more authentic view of what Americans are like as

individuals around the world. I think that is

important for us. "

 

This year's volunteers -- two men and four women

-- say the goal was not diplomacy or recognition,

let alone a cash award, but rather to make a

difference in countries that, for now, are both

their workplace and their home away from home.

 

Robert Blumberg, the spouse of a USAID official

in Colombo, Sri Lanka, began a rabies vaccination

drive for more than 14,000 dogs, cats and other

animals made homeless by last year's tsunami. He

then helped found the Tsunami Memorial Animal

Welfare Trust to help find homes for animals and

initiate a long-term sterilization program.

 

" I'm an animal person, " Blumberg said in a brief

speech. " A number of people came to help people,

but no one came to help the animals. " It wasn't

just a feel-good effort, he said. Rabid animals

would pose health risks to humans when Sri Lanka

had its hands full with rebuilding efforts.

 

Robi Keyes, whose husband, John Keyes, is the

regional medical officer at the U.S. Embassy in

Bangkok, decided that a life of lunching and

shopping as a diplomatic spouse was not for her.

She looked for service opportunities and found

herself working with a Thai beauty shop that

helps local prostitutes, often young girls from

the countryside who came to the big city in

search of jobs to support their poor families.

 

Keyes and several other volunteers created a

nonprofit organization called NightLight that

helps such girls leave the bars and learn English

and jewelry-making, while giving them a chance to

recover physically and emotionally. " The girls go

from looking down at the floor and withdrawn and

hard to being open, " Keyes said.

 

Those with a financial stake in the sex trade

were not happy. After Keyes helped secure a oil

company's donation of office furniture for

NightLight, arsonists burned the warehouse where

it was stored, she said.

 

" It's been the hardest thing I've ever done, "

said Keyes, who will leave Thailand next summer

when her husband moves to a new post. " I was not

a fan of Bangkok when we first got here. It

seemed so different. It's so grungy. I just love

it now, and I would do just about anything to

figure out how to stay longer. "

 

Mark Wilson, an information management officer at

the embassy in Skopje, Macedonia, spent hundreds

of hours on his own time soliciting donations of

computers and refurbishing equipment for

state-run mental health facilities in the Eastern

European country. The state of technology was

" abysmal, " said Wilson, the only career Foreign

Service employee among the honorees. Now, he

said, mentally retarded and mentally ill

residents can enter the digital world.

 

" To see the smile on their faces when they type

on the keyboard for the first time is just an

amazing experience, " Wilson said. " They're not

going to become computer experts, but it builds

confidence. It's a resource that they never had

before. Some of them just play games or move the

mouse around. "

 

Other award winners included Jaimee Neel, who

helped raise money and corral volunteers to

improve a Sao Paulo, Brazil, shelter for street

children; Sandra Patterson, who works with

children and adults with HIV/AIDS in Lusaka,

Zambia; and Eglal Rousseau, who serves as a

patient advocate for sick children and their

parents at a hospital in Rabat, Morocco.

 

The awards, administered by the Associates of the

American Foreign Service Worldwide, a private,

nonprofit organization that represents Foreign

Service spouses, employees and retirees, were

created in 1990 with an endowment by

then-Secretary of State James A. Baker III and

his wife, Susan.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

 

--