Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

In June 1998, the Bureau co-sponsored a conference entitled "Deaf People in Hitler's Europe, 1933-1945," which took place in Washington, D.C. Gallaudet University and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum were the conference's principal sponsors, organizers and hosts. This community and scholarly conference was devoted to examining the experiences of deaf people in Europe under National Socialism from 1933-1945. This included exploring the present state of knowledge regarding the fate of deaf people under Nazi control and highlighting directions for new research.


OFFICE OF ACADEMIC PROGRAM - FULBRIGHT
PROGRAM GRANTEES
During the 1997-98 academic year, Mr. Durand Abraham, from South Africa, pursued a master's degree in music education, with a focus on therapy and music for the deaf, at Andrews University, in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Prior to his tenure as a Fulbright student grantee, Mr. Abraham spent six years teaching deaf children. He plans to return to South Africa and work in the field of deaf education.

Ms. Marisol Acevedo, from Nicaragua, studied for a Fulbright-sponsored master's degree in 1997-98 at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) in the field of counseling for marriage and the family. Her faculty advisors at CCSU have been most pleased with her work, stating that she "has consistently demonstrated mastery over the subject matter." Ms. Acevedo had childhood polio, has scoliosis and uses leg braces to aid in her mobility. Prior to her arrival in the United States, she worked in Managua, counseling abused women and children. She also counseled physically disabled teenagers. Ms. Acevedo augments her studies in Connecticut with work at the Brittany Farm Center, a home for aging persons.

Dr. Noriaki Azuma, from Japan, conducted Fulbright-sponsored research on health education for mentally retarded children, during the fall of 1997, in the Department of Public Education in the College of Health and Human Performance at the University of Maryland-College Park and in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Iowa. Her work enabled her to examine sex- and drug-education efforts for mentally retarded children in the United States. Dr. Azuma is an associate professor in the Department of Health Sciences, Division of Special Education, Faculty of Education, at Iwate University, in Morioka, Iwate, Japan.

Germany's Ms. Silke Banning earned a master's degree in 1997-98 in the field of social work at Western Michigan University. Before undertaking her Fulbright fellowship, Ms. Banning had spent a year as a voluntary social worker at a boarding school for deaf and blind children in Germany and had worked in two experimental education programs for German teenagers with disabilities.

From the Lawrence School in Brookline, Massachusetts, Ms. Michele Barrie exchanged teaching assignments with Ms. Susan Howard, from Blackthorns C. P. School in Linfield, West Sussex, England, as 1997-98 Fulbright exchange teachers. Both teachers teach students with learning disabilities.

Between June 1997 and August 1998, Fulbright fellow Ms. Ariana Berg, a student from Northwestern University, conducted interviews with various government officials, disability organization leaders and individuals with disabilities in Budapest, Hungary. Working with De Jure Foundation-Disabilities Rights Advocates, a non-governmental organization, Ms. Berg examined the social, political and legal integration into society of Hungarians with mobility impairments. In addition to her Fulbright work, Ms. Berg volunteered with a number of Hungary's disability organizations.

Special education teachers Dr. Owen Breningstall, from College "I" Team in Denver, and Mr. Ray Souter-Frost, from Span Educational Unit in Surrey, England, exchanged teaching assignments as Fulbright exchange teachers during the 1997-98 academic year.

From Nicaragua, Fulbright grantee Ms. Ana Briones continued a master's degree program in education during 1997-98, at Central Connecticut State University. Her undergraduate studies were in child psychology, with a particular interest in child development issues. Ms. Briones' master's work focuses on reading, and will add to her expertise in recognizing and evaluating children with learning disabilities. She expects to return home to work in private practice in this field after completing her graduate work in May 1999.

U.S. teacher Ms. Connie Chevalier, a program specialist in teaching disabled students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, spent the 1997-98 school year as a Fulbright exchange teacher, teaching at the Portland School in Plains Farm, Sunderland, England. In turn, Plains Farm teacher Mr. Martin Wright taught students with learning difficulties at Lanterman High School in Los Angeles.

A special education consultant in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Mr. Frank Cirrincione taught children with learning disabilities and autism at Foyle View School in Derry, Northern Ireland, under the 1997-98 Fulbright Teacher Exchange program. Exchange partner Ms. Christine O'Neill, from the Foyle View School, taught special education in Los Angeles at Olive Vista Middle School.

Ms. Sharron Crawley, a history teacher from Rushey Mead Secondary School in Leicester, England, was a Fulbright exchange teacher for the 1997-98 school year, teaching at the Hawthorne Scholastic Academy, in Chicago. Ms. Crawley is visually impaired.

Ms. Laura Davies, a recent graduate of Beloit College, in Wisconsin, double majoring there in Russian language/literature and Slavic studies, was a 1997-98 Fulbright fellow in the Czech Republic. Her grant enabled her to examine the linguistic structures of the two main sign languages in the Czech Republic and compare them with the various sign languages used in the United States and Russia. She also explored the cultural implications of deafness. In addition to research and coursework at Palacky University, in Olomouc, Ms. Davies worked with young children at a Czech institute for the deaf, and taught American Sign Language (ASL) to deaf sixth-graders and to high school students.

During the 1997-98 academic year, Italian Fulbrighter Ms. Maria DeGobbi undertook a one-year master's degree program in international relations at Tufts University. She has been blind since age thirteen. Ms. DeGobbi was an outstanding Fulbright fellow. She had traveled widely in Europe, is fluent in five languages and had studied briefly in the United States during high school to improve her computer skills. She also had spent two months in Nicaragua as a volunteer in a work camp, assisting in the construction of a women's center by working with local authorities and providing translation services. Although the one-year master's program at Tufts is normally for mid-career professionals, the university was confident that Ms. DeGobbi could satisfy all requirements. Tufts admitted her with a fifty per cent tuition waiver and covered all additional expenses relating to her disability, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Ms. Giuseppina DiNardo continued her non-degree studies at Gallaudet University in 1998 under an award provided by the Fulbright Commission in Italy to support study by an Italian college student in the deaf education field. Her specific field of study was teaching methodologies for preschool deaf children. Prior to commencing her program in the United States, Ms. DiNardo was employed by the Center for Activities, Studies, and Information for the Deaf and the Bilingual, in Florence. Deaf herself, Ms. DiNardo also is experienced in teaching deaf children in Italy at the kindergarten and elementary school levels. Funding for her program at Gallaudet was provided by a Fulbright/Roberto Wirth grant and a fellowship from the university. The program at Gallaudet is administered in collaboration with the Mason Perkins Deafness Fund in Rome.

Sponsored by a Fulbright student grant, Ms. Laura Fjord researched the social effects of medical diagnosis of deafness on deaf children in Denmark and compared her findings with the same social effects in the United States. Ms. Fjord, from the University of Virginia, conducted her 1997-98 research in coordination with the University of Copenhagen.

A clinical fellow at the University of Oslo, and the National Hospital based there, Fulbrighter Ms. Berit Flato spent the 1997-98 academic year in the School of Medicine at Tufts University. She investigated juvenile chronic arthritis as one of the main causes of childhood disability. Ms. Flato's study was to evaluate internationally accepted methods to assess children's health, to describe outcomes and to determine factors predicting juvenile chronic arthritis.

Ms. Maria Georgakarakou, from Athens, undertook graduate work in music and voice as a Fulbrighter at the Longy School of Music, Cambridge, Massachusetts during the 1997-98 academic year. She was partially blind at birth and became totally blind at age sixteen. An exceptional student, Ms. Georgakarakou graduated first in her class in 1991 from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Athens. She has studied voice and harpsichord and co-directed a music conservatory in Athens before coming to the United States. Having varied interests, Ms. Georgakarakou is a member of the Girl Scouts of Greece, and in her free time, has run her family's camp in the outskirts of Athens. To assist her with her work in Cambridge, she received instruction from an orientation/mobility specialist in order to become familiar with the public transportation system in the Boston area, financed by the Fulbright Foundation in Athens.

Ms. Patty Grady and Mr. Jukka Turrurainen exchanged teaching assignments for the 1997-98 academic year under the Fulbright Teacher Exchange program. Both teachers of students with learning difficulties and behavioral problems, Ms. Grady is from El Camino Junior High School in Santa Monica, California and Mr. Turrurainen is from the School of Naulakalio in Helsinki, Finland.

Traveling to Italy under Fulbright auspices, Ms. Raychelle Harris studied and consulted on acquisition, methods, and teaching of American Sign Language as a second language for four months during 1998. At the DIRE Cooperative in Turin, she gave seminars on various aspects of deafness, including assessment of deaf children's skills, and sign language teaching. Ms. Harris also assisted in developing curricula for the Italian National Association of the Deaf and for the first sign language course given at an Italian university at the School for Interpreters and Translators at the University of Trieste. Finally, she conducted an intensive workshop for intermediate-level sign language teachers, coordinated by the Fulbright Commission in Italy, the Mason Perkins Deafness Fund in Rome and the National Association of the Deaf. Ms. Harris, a deaf graduate student at Gallaudet University, has experience in teaching sign language in preschool programs in the United States. The Mason Perkins Deafness Fund greatly assisted her with personal accommodations, with program placement in Italy and with increasing interaction with people in Italy's deaf community.

At Humboldt University in Berlin, U.S. student Ms. Miriam Hobart conducted a comparative study of deaf culture in Germany and the United States as a Fulbright fellow for the 1997-98 academic year. Ms. Hobart, who is from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, is a professional sign language interpreter.

At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Mr. Young-il Kim, from Korea, continued his Ph.D. program in special education under Fulbright sponsorship in 1997-98. Mr. Kim is blind and utilizes readers for assistance with class assignments and research. To assist him with the costs of reader services, he received supplemental funds from the Fulbright Commission in Seoul and from the Blind Mission Association.

U.S. Fulbright grantee Ms. Susan King, a doctoral student from Gallaudet University and director of technical and information services at the Graduate School there, spent four months in Italy assisting the Italian National Association of the Deaf in creating a much needed database to help determine the educational needs of deaf children in Italy. Ms. King also set up various databases to contribute to a more efficient organization of the National Association of the Deaf. She also lent her time and computer prowess to the Fulbright Program, assisting in publicizing Fulbright grant opportunities for students from Gallaudet through the Internet. The Mason Perkins Deafness Fund in Rome arranged her program placement and facilitated interaction with different leaders in the deaf community in Italy.

Conducting a study of the care of persons with dementia, Dr. Theodore Koff spent three months during 1998 on a Fulbright grant at the Japan Well-Aging Association in Tokyo. He is director and professor of the Arizona Center on Aging at the University of Arizona-Tucson.

Ms. Eleni Koutsomitopoulou, from Athens, used her 1997-98 Fulbright grant to pursue Ph.D. work in Georgetown University's Department of Cognitive Linguistics. Ms. Koutsomitopoulou is hearing-impaired and uses hearing aids. In her academic work, she is exploring the special conceptual properties related to, and derived from, sign language, the universals of semantic structure in sign language and the status of sign language in relation to "hearing-peoples" languages.

Doctoral student Mr. Randall Kuhn, from the University of Pennsylvania, spent the 1997-98 academic year doing Fulbright-sponsored research on the social process of rural-urban migration in Bangladesh and the ties that link migrants to their origin communities. Mr. Kuhn, who has Tourette's Syndrome, conducted his research in cooperation with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, in Dhaka.

U.S. Fulbright student Ms. Dainora Kupcinskas worked with the Vilnius School for the Deaf for the 1997-98 academic year, helping deaf experts in Lithuania establish a standardized Lithuanian sign language. Ms. Kupcinskas is from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Associate Professor A. Patricia Lee, from the Division of Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado, lectured as a Fulbrighter for three months during the 1997-98 academic year at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. Her subject was "Meeting the Needs of Students with Learning Disabilities: A Learner-Centered Approach."

Ms. Maria Concepcion Martinez Sanchez, from Mexico, completed the second year of a doctoral program in the University of Louisville's School of Education in 1997-98 on a Fulbright grant. She has completed her coursework and will be studying for comprehensive exams. The proposed subject of her dissertation research is the effect of parenting on the development of social skills in children with disabilities. After earning her degree, Ms. Martinez will return home to resume her position as a professor at the University of Guadalajara.

From South Africa, Mr. Obert Maguvhe earned a master's degree in the field of education of the visually impaired at Boston College as a Fulbright fellow during the 1997-98 academic year. Blind himself, Mr. Maguvhe finished the two-year program in twelve months and was an exceptional student. The USIA office in Pretoria anticipates that Mr. Maguvhe will become a central figure in the recognition of the rights of the blind in South Africa, in addition to continuing his career as an academician.

Fulbright grantee Ms. Luz Alison Molina Giron, from Honduras, completed the first year of a master's degree program in special education at the University of Kansas during the 1997-98 academic year. Ms. Molina is specializing in severe and multiple disabilities. The program prepares students to provide educational and other related services to children and youth with a range of cognitive disabilities. Ms. Molina will complete her program in June of 1999 and will return to Honduras to resume her teaching responsibilities at the Universidad Pedagogica National Francisco Morazan, in Tegucigalpa.

Mr. Elias Mpofu, from Zimbabwe, continued his Fulbright-sponsored Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin (U.W.) during the 1997-98 academic year, in the field of rehabilitation and special education. Referred to as "a truly exceptional scholar" by his faculty at the U.W., Mr. Mpofu has written extensively about aspects of special education and has served as a rehabilitation counselor in the provinces of Zimbabwe.

From the Milwaukee, Wisconsin public school system, Mr. Dennis Oulahan exchanged teaching assignments during 1997-98 with Ms. Maria Gutierrez of the Escuela Normal de Especialization, in Polanco, Mexico. These Fulbright exchange teachers are both specialists in the special education field, with Ms. Gutierrez also being a teacher trainer.

A teacher of students with learning difficulties, Ms. Edith Paterson, from Mount Markham High School in West Winfield, New York, taught English as a Fulbright exchange teacher during 1997-98 at Platen Gymnasium in Ansbach, Germany. Mr. Arnold Haemmerle, from the Platen Gymnasium, taught science as a Fulbright teacher at Mount Markham during the same time period.

Dr. Irena Pervova, from St. Petersburg, Russia, spent twelve months during 1997-98 as a Fulbright scholar at Florida International University, researching the similarities and differences between special education in Russia and in the United States. Her particular focus was on efforts for inclusion and integration of students with special needs. Dr. Pervova is an associate professor of psychology at St. Petersburg State University.

Fulbright lecturer Dr. D. Kim Reid, from the Division of Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado, taught for five months during 1998 at the Vilnius Pedagogical University in Vilnius, Lithuania, focusing on methods and philosophy in special education, including academic problems and instructional methods for students with learning disabilities. Dr. Reid is former president of the International Council for Learning Disabilities.

Dr. Richard Culp Robinson, director of the Rehabilitation Administration Program at the McLaren School of Business of the University of San Francisco, served as a Fulbright lecturer and researcher for the 1997-98 academic year at the Fort Hare Institute of Government in South Africa's East Cape Province. His Fulbright work addressed economic development and diversity matters in South Africa, including economic and social issues concerning people with disabilities.

From Crete and a graduate of the University of Athens, Mr. George Schoinarakis, who is prelingually deaf, spent the 1997-98 academic year at Gallaudet University studying special education as a non-degree graduate student, focusing on education and teaching methodologies for deaf children. Before coming to the United States, he taught Greek Sign Language to deaf children. To aid him during his interview for the Fulbright award, a translator was used, translating from Greek Sign Language into English. Mr. Schoinarakis said his first semester was most challenging, without yet knowing American Sign Language, and without having someone with whom to communicate in Greek. After learning ASL, he progressed in excellent fashion and earned a teaching assistantship from Gallaudet for this upcoming term, to teach American Sign Language to people from other countries.

Professor James Scorzelli, from the Department of Counseling Psychology, Rehabilitation and Special Education at Northeastern University in Boston, served as a Fulbright-sponsored lecturer and consultant at Ratchasuda College of Mahidol University-Salaya Campus in Salaya, Nakornpathom, Thailand. His three-month assignment during the summer of 1998 included strengthening a newly developed graduate program in rehabilitation counseling. During his stay, Dr. Scorzelli also gave seminars on various topics in rehabilitation counseling; conducted a pilot study of a job task analysis questionnaire on the perceptions of rehabilitation professionals about the roles and functions of the rehabilitation counselor; provided in-service training for faculty on group counseling; and conducted a two-day workshop for eighty NGO and government employees.

Spending four months in India during 1998 as a Fulbright lecturer, Dr. Stuart Schwartz taught about mental health care issues at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bangalore. He also planned and conducted a seminar at the Institute addressing schizophrenia. Professor Schwartz is director of postgraduate education at the Robert Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Ms. Virginia Thompson, a doctoral student in rehabilitation psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spent twelve months during 1997-98 doing research in Guatemala under the Fulbright student program, working in cooperation with the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. Her research involved measuring cultural values and attitudes affecting how people with disabilities respond to vocational rehabilitation services. Her primary goal was to recognize and better understand cultural differences and their implications for vocational rehabilitation in order to develop an acculturation scale that can be easily administered orally through rehabilitation programs. The scale will facilitate the participation and the success rate of Hispanic persons with disabilities who participate in vocational rehabilitation in the United States and in other countries.

U.S. Fulbright student Ms. Sasha Yampolsky, who is affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, examined alternative communication technologies to expand opportunities for people with multiple disabilities (those who cannot speak, hear or use their hands) at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, during the 1997-98 academic year. Ms. Yampolsky has a background in engineering and speech pathology.


OFFICE OF ACADEMIC PROGRAMS - OTHER PROGRAMS
AND SERVICES
The Office's Advising and Student Services Branch provides a wide range of educational resource materials and information to the network of more than 400 overseas advising centers that advise foreign students considering studying in the United States. Among the materials provided in 1998 were the Directory of College Facilities and Services for People with Disabilities, Barron's Profile of American Colleges, and Peterson's Four-Year College Guide. The latter two publications are major reference works that include information about different college and university degree programs in special education, including specific learning disabilities.

1997-98 Freedom Support Act graduate fellow Ms. Sitora Badriddinova studied business administration at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Badriddinova, from Uzbekistan, took notes for four disabled students during her program year, an assignment arranged by Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Advising and Testing Center.

From Ukraine, Mr. Sergiy Bartoshchuk spent the 1997-98 academic year studying business administration at the University of California at Los Angeles as a Freedom Support Act graduate fellow. In January 1998, Mr. Bartoshchuk volunteered for the Challenge for Charity program, doing a number of assignments for this organization, which benefits the Special Olympics.

A professor of English language and American literature at Birzeit University in the West Bank, Ms. Wafa Darwish participated in a 1998 Agency-sponsored, six-week Winter Institute for the Study of American Literature, hosted by the University of Delaware. Ms. Darwish, who is blind, has developed and maintains strong professional and cultural ties in both Israel and the West Bank. She is completing her Ph.D. at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. USIA provided special funds to cover the costs of an escort officer to serve as a reader and to provide facilitative assistance for Ms. Darwish during the U.S. program. The Agency also purchased a speech synthesizer and related computer software to enable her to access e-mail and the Internet. At the conclusion of the program, Ms. Darwish was permitted to keep the equipment, helping her to continue her studies and her curriculum development activities at home.

Ms. Johanna Kowitz, USIA's English language teaching officer in Cairo, secured funds to purchase braille materials to assist blind students in schools in both Egypt and Gaza who are studying English as a Second Language but lack materials aside from a basic text. Ms. Kowitz also surveyed schools serving the blind in both Upper Egypt and in the Egyptian Delta to determine the status of English as a Foreign Language instruction for the blind in government-supported institutions.

The University of Iowa's School of Education hosted Ms. Zoya Mineeva during 1998 as a Curriculum Development Exchange Program fellow. Ms. Mineeva, from Petrozavodsk, Russia, conducted research in special education and developed a course entitled "Special Education in the United States." She will implement the course upon returning home to her position as dean of primary education at Karelian State University.

Under the Freedom Support Act-funded Junior Faculty Development Program, Ms. Elena Morgatcheva spent the 1997-98 academic year at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, where she studied special education and mainstreaming and researched the psychology of students with special needs. Ms. Morgatcheva is an assistant professor in the Department of Defectology at Moscow State Pedagogical University.

Mr. Dmitry Savchenko, from Ukraine, studied public policy as a Freedom Support Act graduate fellow at the Monterey Institute for International Studies during 1997-98. As an intern for the city of Seaside, California during the summer of 1998, he worked with a group of Monterey High School District disabled teenagers, helping them design web pages and develop databases for the city's Information Department.

From Kiev, Ukraine, Mr. Olexander Savchenko, participated in the Freedom Support Act-funded 1997-98 Partners in Education (PIE) Program. Mr. Savchenko is deputy director of School #18, a secondary school for the deaf in Kiev, and the only school for the deaf in Ukraine offering a college preparatory curriculum. During his six-week program, Mr. Savchenko visited the California State University-Northridge's School for the Deaf, where he met with the director and several specialists in the field of education of the hearing-impaired. His program also enabled him to interact with U.S. secondary school educators in other locales within California.

Mr. Marc Terence Thorne, assistant solicitor general in Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Legal Affairs, was a Hubert H. Humphrey fellow at the University of Minnesota during the 1997-98 academic year where he studied disability policy, law and rights. During the year, he had professional affiliations with the Minnesota Disability Law Center and with the law firm of Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler, and Krupman. Mr. Thorne, who is blind, received assistance with translating materials into Braille, in securing Braille supplies and with shopping, transportation and other support services. USIA provided him with supplemental funds to meet these needs. Program coordinators in Minnesota commented on the ease and enjoyment of working with him and his determination to make the most of his fellowship year. After returning home, Mr. Thorne aims to help his country establish its own legal framework ensuring rights and accessibility for people with disabilities.

During the 1997-98 academic year, Mr. Victor Timotin participated in a class project at the University of Minnesota (U.M.) which involved conducting a feasibility study for opening a local child care facility for persons with cognitive disabilities. The project was administered by the Carlson School of Management's Volunteer Consultants Club. Mr. Timotin, from Moldova, was an Edmund Muskie fellow in business administration at the U.M.-Twin Cities.

The Office's Branch for the Study of the United States provides books focusing on U.S. society, culture and institutions to educational institutions around the world. In 1998, the branch received a donation of books from the American Studies Association following the association's annual conference in Washington, D.C. Included in this donation and distributed to the branch's exchange program grantees were two titles related to disability issues that were written/edited by Professor Kenny Fries: Body, Remember: a Memoir, and Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out, an anthology of writings by thirty-eight people with disabilities.

In 1998, under the Internet Access and Training Program, numerous Russian NGOs, including several serving people with disabilities, received access to and training in the use of the Internet to facilitate their ongoing communication with similar NGOs in the United States.


OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL VISITORS
For two weeks during July 1998, thirteen women in a range of professional fields from the Middle East and North Africa participated in a USIA International Visitor program entitled "The Role of Women in Business and the Professions." The group looked at issues affecting women in the United States and compared and contrasted such issues with those in their home societies. One of the participants was Ms. Siham Ahmed Al-Harthy, an agricultural engineer in Oman's Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Environment. Ms. Al-Harthy is also head of the Women's Association in Al-Qabil in the eastern region of Oman, which works to meet the needs of the physically and mentally disabled.

Ms. Svetlana Bartova, director of the Central Library in Novouralsk, Russia, participated in a USIA International Visitor group program addressing "Library Administration in the United States" for three weeks during the summer of 1998. The group was comprised of eleven directors of libraries and library associations within Russia. Among her responsibilities in Novouralsk, Ms. Bartova runs a special outreach program for people with disabilities, including discussion groups and meetings with authors.

From Usti Nad Labem in the Czech Republic, Ms. Margita Cicha participated in a six-person International Visitor group project during the summer of 1998, looking at NGO cooperation with the public sector in promoting ethnic tolerance. The group, all from the Czech Republic, represented non-governmental organizations, local governments or the National Council on Minorities. Ms. Cicha teaches in a school for children with retardation in her home city.

International Visitor grantee Ms. Angela Carrancho da Silva, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, participated in a two-week International Visitor program during the summer of 1998, addressing the theme "U.S. Society and Values." Ms. Carrancho DA Silva is employed in the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretariat of Education's Media and Education Division. Her program took her to Washington, D.C., Iowa City, Iowa, Los Angeles, Houston, Boston and New York City. In addition to focusing on distance learning initiatives and techniques, she was also able to learn about efforts and activities in the United States for children with disabilities and special needs. A visit to Gallaudet University was one of the highlights of her program. Ms. Carrancho DA Silva plans to develop software for the hearing-impaired and to study the Brazilian equivalent of the Americans with Disabilities Act and its impact on government funding for disabled children.

Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights and Ombudsman in Budapest, Hungary,
Dr. Katalin Gonczol spent ten days in the United States as an International Visitor during the fall of 1997, gaining knowledge in human rights solutions and conflict resolution methods. Her itinerary took her to Washington, D.C., Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Program highlights included visiting the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Women's Advocacy Center serving abused women in Minneapolis, and conflict resolution projects growing out of the riots in Los Angeles in the early nineties, including community mediation centers. Dr. Gonczol commented in her post program interview about the various excellent efforts undertaken in America to help people with disabilities lead independent lives, and plans to share this information with the Hungarian Parliament.

During the Summer of 1998, five NGO directors from India spent two weeks in the United States as International Visitor grantees, exploring non-governmental organization/private voluntary organization development, networking and service delivery. The group included Ms. Vandana Gopikumar, founder trustee of the Banyan, a home in Chennai for mentally disabled and destitute women, and Mr. Taposh Roy, senior program officer at the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), one of India's leading organizations advocating for the rights of people with disabilities.

From Poland, Mr. Andrzej Goszczynski spent two weeks in the United States during the Spring of 1998 as an International Visitor program grantee. Contracting polio as a young adult, he walks with the aid of crutches. Mr. Goszczynski is the founder and director of the Center for Monitoring Press Freedom, a private non-governmental organization in Warsaw. His program, which took place in Washington, D.C., Oklahoma City, Seattle and New York City, enabled him to meet with representatives from the media, from local government and from a host of NGOs concerned with First Amendment rights, monitoring, and relationships between the press and the government and the press and the public.

During May 1998, Mr. M. K. Victor Ivan, editor of Ravaya, a Sinhala language weekly newspaper in Sri Lanka, participated in a three-week USIA-sponsored multi-regional International Visitor group project on the role of the media in civil society. Mr. Ivan, from Piliyandala, Sri Lanka, is an amputee.

Under USIA's International Visitor Program, a group of Ukrainian NGO representatives traveled in the United States for two weeks in February 1998, participating in a program entitled "Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Ukraine." The participants included Mr. Oleg Polozyuk, a lawyer, who directs the Center for Independent Living, which advocates for people with disabilities in Ukraine. Mr. Polozyuk is a wheelchair-user. Looking at the activities and efforts of NGOs serving people with disabilities was one element of the program. The group saw how the needs of disabled people are being addressed in the United States and how people with disabilities take an active role in society. Participants were particularly edified to see the provisions which exist for people in wheelchairs. On a personal level, after interacting with Mr. Polozyuk during the program, and discussing disability issues in the United States, his fellow travelers said they felt empowered to advocate for disability access in Ukraine like what they witnessed in America. USIA's Kiev office said this "was an exceptional and a wonderful program on which to have worked."

In Spring 1998, twelve Russian local and regional government leaders and social service agency directors participated in a two-week International Visitor group project entitled "Providing Social Services in a Market Economy." Participants included Mr. Sergey Mikhaylovich Sharkov, director of Hotel Vera, a municipal children's shelter in St. Petersburg and executive director of the St. Petersburg Shelters Association. Mr. Sharkov, who is visually impaired, was most pleased with the program.

Chelm (Poland) City Council member Mr. Marek Sikora spent three weeks in the United States in March 1998, as an International Visitor grantee, exploring local government operations, civic community centers, youth outreach programs and high school administration. Director of the Chelm City High School and a former physical education teacher, Mr. Sikora is also interested in the rights of people with disabilities in the United States. Highlights of his program included seeing examples of volunteerism, studying local government operations and school programs for the disabled in Sherman, Texas, and seeing the work of Mobility International USA, a disability-managed exchange and development organization in Eugene, Oregon.

Dr. Rosalia Storck, human rights attorney from Aucayacu, Peru, participated in an eighteen-day International Visitor group program in the fall of 1997 entitled "Human Rights in a Democracy." Dr. Storck works for a non-governmental organization (Asociation Juridica Pro-Derechos Humanos [Association in Favor of Human Rights]), and also is a City Council member. She has a physical disability and walks with the aid of a metal brace and a cane. Dr. Storck and ten other Latin American journalists, governmental and non-governmental organization representatives and human rights activists visited five cities across the United States. The group met with government departments monitoring human rights issues and legislation to share information and compare strategies. They networked with groups advocating for human rights from ethnic, gender and religious perspectives, and gained an appreciation of the role an independent judiciary plays in fostering human rights.

An ophthalmologist and professor in Turkey, and official advisor to the Turkish national government regarding schools for the blind, International Visitor program grantee Dr. Ayse Turan spent six days in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and New York City during 1998, meeting with specialists in government programs, medical research centers and NGOs providing rehabilitation programs and services for people with visual impairments. Dr. Turan reported that she was most impressed with the efforts undertaken in America to integrate people who are blind or visually impaired into society. She was very pleased with the contacts she made and said that results from her program will be most useful as she continues to work with Turkey's ten state-run schools for blind children.

From Argentina, Ms. Edith Graciela Zucco and Mr. Daniel Ignacio Tabena participated in a twenty-day International Visitor Program on disability advocacy in September 1998. Ms. Zucco, principal of an elementary school in the province of Entre Rios and president of "A Dar Dicha" (Association of Organizations for the Disabled in Rural Areas), is a professional in the special education field with considerable experience in advocating for the rights of and services for people with disabilities. Mr. Tabena, Mrs. Zucco's husband, is a proprietor of an automobile repair concession. While the two often work together, Mr. Tabena also works to promote chapters of A Dar Dicha as well as vocational training projects. Their program took them to Washington, D.C., Columbia, S.C., San Francisco, Indianapolis, Indiana and Orlando, Florida, where they learned about a variety of programs and services for people with disabilities. Ms. Zucco reported that she was exposed to a range of services and programs practically beyond her imagination and that many of the ideas and programs she encountered are applicable in Argentina.

The Office of International Visitors sponsored a three-week program in August 1998, entitled "Volunteerism in the United States" for five Syrian women who direct philanthropic organizations relying heavily on volunteers. The participants included
Ms. Tamam Nassar, director of the Beit Al-Salam, an organization providing training and job placement for mentally disabled youth, and Ms. Leila Shoura, a civil engineer, architect and volunteer at the Dar Al Karamah, a day and residential center serving people with mental disabilities. The program, which took place in Washington, D.C., Bozeman, Montana, Iowa City, Iowa and Cleveland, Ohio, permitted the participants to learn about the substance and spirit of volunteerism in America at different levels, to see how philanthropic organizations work with public and private organizations to draw funding and mobilize support in order to promote the community's welfare, and how voluntary organizations effectively serve the needs of women, youth and people with physical and mental disabilities.

For four weeks during Spring 1998, the Office of International Visitors sponsored a group project entitled "The Role of Women and Minorities in U.S. Politics." Government officials, non-governmental organization representatives and journalists from nine countries spent time in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Philadelphia, Missoula, Montana and Los Angeles, meeting with a range of organizations and institutions addressing leadership, civic activism and services for women, including women with disabilities.


OFFICE OF CITIZEN EXCHANGES
A two-month program for Mr. Fanie Gouws enabled him to travel to the United States during Spring 1998 and particiate in the USIA-funded Southern African Internship Program, administered by Indiana University. He is chairman of the Subcommittee on Transport for Persons with Disabilities within South Africa's National Department of Transportation. Mr. Gouws, who is paralyzed, is responsible for drafting his country's policy guidelines for providing transportation for people with disabilities. During his program, he traveled to Cincinnati, New York City and San Francisco to learn how these cities addressed this issue. He saw different approaches to the topic, learning the pros and cons of each, and now feels confident that he can design a system that should work in South Africa.

Mrs. Lainah Magama, coordinator of disabled student services at the University of Zimbabwe, in Harare, participated in a Citizen Exchange program organized by the League of Women Voters Education Fund entitled "Women Power in Politics: Building Grassroots Democracy in Africa." The program, which took place during 1998, brought women from Africa active in civic education, citizen participation and political issues to the United States for internships with local chapters of the league. Mrs. Magama is a paraplegic and a wheelchair-user.

Under a NIS Secondary School Initiative grant, CEC: International Partners' ECO-Bridge Program linked eight American schools with eight Russian schools for short-term exchanges. One of the linkages was between the Kentucky School for the Deaf, in Danville and the Kamensk School for the Deaf. In November 1997, eight students and two educators from Kentucky visited the Kamensk school for three weeks. In April 1998, a group of Kamensk students and teachers traveled to Danville for a reciprocal program. All the CEC linkages focused on study of the environment and included local family home stays for the visiting students. Students and teachers from both schools also discussed the contemporary situation for deaf people in each of the two communities. They found that they often had an easier time communicating with each other than did the American and Russian students from other schools in the exchange who are not hearing-impaired -- they found many signs in common in American Sign Language and Russian Sign Language and were able to learn signs easily.

The Citizen Exchanges Office supported a three-phase exchange program in FY 1998 entitled "Strengthening Social Services: A United States - Middle East Exchange Program." The program was administered by the Education Development Center (EDC), based in Newton, Massachusetts, in collaboration with United Cerebral Palsy (UCP). It was designed to improve the professional and management skills of Middle East providers of services for people with disabilities and to promote links between these disabilities specialists and their NGOs and counterparts in the United States. The program began with EDC and UCP representatives traveling to the Middle East in early 1998 to do program planning and needs assessments. In phase two of the program, ten specialists from the Middle East (two each from the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Israel, Oman and Bahrain) came to the United States during the Spring of 1998 for a one-month study tour to observe U.S. approaches and exchange perspectives on disability issues with American counterparts in communities of varying size across the country. They learned how American organizations help children, teenagers and adults with disabilities in improving access and quality of education, health care and employment. This was followed by attendance at the Society for Disabilities Studies annual conference in Oakland, California, and week-long internships with local UCP chapters.

Program participants included: Dr. Ahmed Al-Ansari, vice-president of the Bahrain Association of Mental Retardation and head of the administrative committee of the Al-Wafa Center for Learning Disabilities and Autism; Ms. Sabah Al Bahlani, director of health education and information in Oman's Ministry of Health; Mr. Mukhtar Al-Rawahi, a paraplegic, who is head of editing with Oman Television in the Ministry of Information and founder of the Omani Association for the Disabled; Mr. Ibrahim Awwad, from Jordan and head of the Physical and Rehabilitation Department, Al-Hussein Society for the Rehabilitation of the Physically Handicapped; Mr. Saeed Fadel, employment specialist for the disabled in Bahrain's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs; Mr. Hasan Husein, disability program officer at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Gaza; Dr. Jumana Odeh, founder and director of the Palestine Happy Child Center in Jerusalem; Ms. Amira Schnitzer, deputy manager of Israel's "Nitzan Onim" Adult Residential Rehabilitation Center; Mr. Sabi Shanteir, outreach coordinator and teacher trainer at Jordan's Holy Land Institute for the Deaf; and Ms. Lea Yassur, director of "Akim" Youth Hostel, in Sharon, Israel. The third program component, sending five American specialists to the targeted Middle East countries to conduct workshops in conjunction with the participants who had come to the United States, will take place in FY 1999.

The Secondary School/NIS Initiative's Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program continued to successfully include students with disabilities among its participants. For the 1997-98 academic year, there were seventeen FLEX participants with disabilities -- nine from Russia, five from Ukraine, two from Georgia, and one from Azerbaijan. Seven of the students were visually impaired, five had mobility impairments, three had cerebral palsy, one was an amputee and one was a person of short stature. Although three of the blind students attended schools for the blind, the majority of the group were mainstreamed in American public schools. It was a totally new experience for most of them to attend classes with non-disabled students. The schools and communities were extremely supportive, with many providing pro bono equipment and assistance. One of the visually-impaired students had pro bono surgery that dramatically improved his eyesight, while a mobility-impaired student was provided with a set of new leg braces by the local Kiwanis organization. FLEX Program Officer Ms. Dee Aronson traveled to the Eugene, Oregon office of Mobility International USA (MIUSA) in July 1998 to plan a workshop to evaluate the FLEX program's disability component.

Ms. Kathy Lotspeich, program officer from USIA's Secondary School/NIS Initiative Division, traveled to the Mississippi School for the Blind (MSB) in 1998 to participate in a conference celebrating the school's 150th anniversary, making a presentation on USIA's Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program and on USIA and its youth exchange efforts in general. Two blind FLEX students, Mr. Alexander Barkar, from Ukraine and Ms. Theona Becauri, from Georgia, attended MSB for the 1997-98 academic year, and were the first exchange students ever at the school. Both students had tremendous experiences and made valuable contributions to the school and to the larger host community.

Under USIA's Community Connections Program, a grant was awarded to the Foundation for International Arts and Education (FIAE), in Bethesda, Maryland, to conduct a program for ten participants from Georgia concerned with disability education. For three weeks in May of 1998, the Georgian educators, administrators and NGO leaders were in Washington, D.C. and in Maryland, examining public and private programs and educational initiatives undertaken in the United States on behalf of individuals with special needs, with an emphasis on working with children with disabilities. Meetings and site visits included the Special Olympics, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Association for School Psychologists, the American Association for Mental Retardation, Gallaudet University, Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools, the National Parent Network for Disabilities, Very Special Arts and Goodwill Industries.

In FY 1998, with continued funding from the Office of Citizen Exchanges, Sister Cities International managed an umbrella grant supporting linkages entitled "The Municipal and Community Problem-Solving Program." This program, supporting city pairings between the United States and the New Independent States, includes two linkages which specifically address disability issues:

One program, involving the Uzhgorod, Ukraine and Corvallis, Oregon Sister Cities organizations, was entitled "Physically Disabled Children in Uzhgorod, Ukraine: Meeting Challenges, Creating Opportunities." The program served children and young adults with physical disabilities and was jointly administered by the Corvallis and Uzhgorod Sister Cities Associations, in cooperation with the Optimists (formerly the Society of Invalids of Labor and Children), Uzhgorod Children's Hospital and Corvallis physical therapists and physicians. During 1998 the Corvallis team trained two Ukrainian therapists in the use of therapy balls and splint fabrication, and provided them with the necessary materials and supplies. Additional training in early intervention for children with disabilities was also provided, with such training now in use at Uzhgorod hospitals. The team also produced an instructional video in Russian on early intervention and rehabilitation of children with physical disabilities, with an accompanying handbook. To increase mobility of home-bound children in Uzhgorod, Corvallis sent a shipment of wheelchairs. The group also raised money to buy a van to transport children to wheelchair sports and other events. Additionally, the van was used to help with flood relief when Uzhgorod was flooded in late 1998. The program promoted community awareness of disability issues by allowing the Uzhgorod public to see people with disabilities not only in public view, but also at events such as "volunteer day," which highlighted community service efforts.

The second program, organized by the Voronezh, Russia - Charlotte, North Carolina Sister Cities Committee, was entitled "Problem-Solving Program for People with Disabilities in Voronezh, Russia." The program enabled Charlotte and Voronezh to initiate a project which would provide training for people with disabilities and professionals who work with people with disabilities through a two-way exchange program. FY 1998 outcomes included the establishment of a binational committee of disability advocates and specialists who set goals for the new partnership, donations of equipment for the Voronezh Rehabilitation Center and assistance to its employment training program for people with disabilities. The U.S. component of the exchange gave the Voronezh team the opportunity to witness and be trained in vocational testing and training at Goodwill Industries plus psychological training in relation to work-related injury, trauma and physical disabilities. The visitors also made site visits to physical rehabilitation centers providing in- and out-patient services, had internships in surgical units, and saw firsthand Charlotte's citywide implementation of adaptive curbs, lifts, ramps and special transportation for people with disabilities. Finally, the Voronezh Rehabilitation Center received help in developing and distributing public relations materials and was provided with audio, video and computer equipment, including access to Internet and e-mail.

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