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Thank you for your support!

Fifty years ago, Atlanta’s population was just over a million people and the city was at the epicenter of a rising civil rights movement.

Intent on a better future, local leaders began fostering Atlanta’s reputation as a “city too busy to hate,” and turned their aspirations to creating something much bigger than a sleepy Southern town besieged by racial strife. So began their efforts to make Atlanta a true international city, by embracing transatlantic relationships and business long before many other cities had even considered the global arena.

At that same time, a new organization was formed in Atlanta called the Georgia Council for International Visitors (GCIV). Its mission of 50 years ago is the same today — to create valuable international experiences and opportunities for the people of Georgia and emerging leaders around the world.

Simply translated, that means building international connectivity through person-to-person relationships, one handshake at a time. As a nonprofit, GCIV strives to provide meaningful exchanges that open new dialogues, foster unique educational opportunities and create a network of emerging global leaders dedicated to effecting positive change in their home countries.

Through its programs, GCIV welcomes more than 500 emerging leaders from more than 100 countries each year. Over the course of six decades, more than 360 program participants have gone on to become presidents or prime ministers of their countries, including France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, India’s Manmohan Singh and Mexico’s Felipe Calderon.

GCIV plays an instrumental role in supporting U.S. foreign policy goals through its management of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) here in Georgia. The IVLP brings some 5,000 professionals from all over the world to America to meet with professional counterparts across a host of industries and sectors, from government and business, to education and the arts.
As a supporter of GCIV, Invesco has hosted economic experts from four Caribbean nations, as well as financial analysts from Italy. During these visits, we showcased best practices that matched the professional interests of our distinguished guests. We believe that the relationships started on these visits will result in opportunities that keep Atlanta at the forefront of global competition.

The experiences that GCIV offers to foreign visitors are truly unique and powerful, in part because they provide a way to learn firsthand how business and culture really operate in America. Through a network of “citizen diplomats,” GCIV organizes home visits and exchanges that bring visitors into typical American homes and foster lasting connections and friendships.

My own family has hosted visitors at our dinner table from the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Germany, Malaysia and Paraguay. Multiply those visits by the thousands facilitated annually by GCIV and you’ll begin to understand the integral role they play in supporting Atlanta’s international vision and also how much our city has grown in stature and importance on the global stage.

That Atlanta is poised to do well in a world where communications, business and opportunities are global in nature is in no small part due to the relationships started and nurtured by GCIV.

As GCIV celebrates its 50th anniversary, I urge you to learn more about the organization and how you can become a citizen diplomat, helping our city in its strategy and goal to remain a global leader. GCIV will celebrate its 2013 International Consular Ball on April 27 at the World of Coca-Cola. Each year this prestigious event honors our consular corps and the important role they play in our city. I am pleased to report that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has recently been named honorary chair of the event. Please join us! www.gciv.org.

Davidson is chair of the Georgia Council for International Visitors Board of Trustees and managing director, global equity, at Invesco Global Asset Management.

Almost a year ago, on November 5, 2011, our family hosted three Fulbright Scholars for dinner in our home. Why am I writing about this now? Because, remarkably, the evening is still being discussed. I asked our high school senior recently what he remembers about that evening that seems to have made a lasting impression. I am sharing his reflections below:

Our three guests that evening were all PhD’s with a gift for conversation. As dinner progressed, the discussion took its own course. Kent, who teaches in Taiwan, brought a sense of humor that helped break the tension that naturally exists when language is a barrier. He talked about “a smaller world as cultural boundaries are lowered by programs sponsored by organizations such as the GCIV.” Yuchi, from Japan, used two forks as chopsticks! An Economics professor on a one-year research grant in the US, he spoke about the importance of “patience and perseverance” in achieving goals. Labon is from Kenya and was here to study and teach at Texas A&M. His style was unique and captivating. He discussed the importance of a well rounded education, how parenting fits in, and the power of ambition and passion. As an educator, Labon brought perspective to our questions about why math is relevant, about religion, and about racial divides. He told us that “moral and spiritual literacy are very important in life.” He stressed that “one must infuse their own personality by doing it in their own way.” In explaining that sometimes “concepts trump specialization,” he described how Steve Jobs was influenced by the art of calligraphy, which gave him the idea of creating fonts and other features in his software design.

At the end of the evening, we exchanged emails with the Scholars, each of whom invited us to visit their native countries so they could “return the hospitality.” Needless to say, it was an experience that made an impact on all of us, and it contained lessons about life from three unique cultural perspectives. The world indeed seemed a bit smaller after opening our doors to these strangers who, by the end of the evening, left as friends.

We thank the Georgia Council for International Visitors for this opportunity.

The Handler Family, Atlanta

Over the summer of 2012, my dream came true. With the help of GCIV, my family, and my teachers I was awarded the NSLI-Y scholarship, granting me the chance to study Arabic in Morocco for six weeks with the U.S government’s Department of State. This opportunity allowed me to experience the Middle Eastern culture and practice the language first handedly along with others my age that shared the same interests and motivations. I met dedicated and resourceful teachers, dedicated and unique students, and a loving extended Moroccan family during my time there.

I strongly recommend the GCIV for anyone seeking connections to other languages and cultures; it provides a unique entrance into a world of programs, mentors, and students. I thank Georgia Council of International Visitors for my experiences abroad and my proficiency in Arabic.

Sincerely,

Cecilia Kuehnel

In 2010 a new program called TODAY I MET… was started which involved taking international visitors to elementary, middle and high schools of the metro Atlanta area. In the two years of existence more than 150 visitors have met with local students. In 2011 GCIV received the Governor’s International Award for this program presented by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and the World Trade Center Atlanta.

In addition to international visitors programs there are several ongoing community programs sponsored by GCIV:

• The Annual International Consular Ball, held in the spring which honors the members of the Consular Corps. Attended by 300 or more, this is a gala affair which raises funds for GCIV and honors the honorary and career consuls and their spouses.
• The Great Decisions Discussion Groups, with more than 20 venues, around the state meet for eight sessions to discuss international topics from a briefing book published by the Foreign Policy Association. In connection with these discussion groups there is a series of 8 lectures at the Dunwoody United Methodist Church using local foreign policy experts which are open to the public.
• Every month members of GCIV meet at local ethnic restaurants for an International Dining Experience. This is an informal way for members to get to know each other, to meet international visitors in town at that time and to explore new ethnic eating venues.
• For years GCIV has had two or three college interns who work throughout the year in the office. Most of them come from Georgia State, Georgia Tech or Oglethorpe and help out with the programming of visitors and special projects.
• Featuring our visitors, the Global Lunch Forums, a brown bag lunch event held about once a month, was started by Shell Stuart. This is a very successful way to welcome our visitors in a casual setting and to help out members get to know the visitors and to learn from them.
• Started in 2005 the ENVOYS, a group for our younger members meets once a month in a social setting, often with the visitors who are in town at that time. They have about 75 members and often provide transportation for visitors to their home hospitality appointments.
• One of the longest running programs of GCIV is the International Women Associates. This group grew out of the International Student Bureau program for teaching English to the wives of international students. Some of the current members date back to that time. Membership is comprised of half international women and half US-born women who have traveled or lived abroad. Wives of Consular Corps members are invited to meetings, which are held in private homes with conversation, a speaker and lunch provided by the members. Membership is kept to about 100.

As GCIV celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding, members can be proud of the accomplishments of the organization and of the thousands of visitors who have been introduced to “Southern Hospitality” by our citizen diplomats.

Please leave comments or email us with your GCIV memories and we’ll feature them in a future blog!

After Carol Emmons retired at the end of 2000, George Brown took over as Executive Director and served in that capacity until April 2004 when he became President of Friendship Force International. Astrid Pregel held the position briefly before Shell Stuart was promoted to Executive Director and serves in that capacity to the present time.

GCIV moved from Tower Place to 34 Peachtree Street in 1999 and to its present location at 100 Edgewood Avenue in 2006. In 1999 for the first time in its history GCIV had to pay rent for its office space, having occupied various donated spaces up until that time.

Through these years there have been several new programs and events. One of the most interesting was the Community Connections Program which began in 1999 and was overseen by Igor Malanchuk. Lasting several years the program brought groups of 10 or 12 young Russian entrepreneurs to Georgia for a three-week stay with host families, business internships and weekly business seminars. GCIV hosted about three of these groups a year. Discontinued for several years this program was reinstated in 2010, run by USAID. Another Russian program, sponsored by the US Library of Congress, called Open World, brought 2 or 3 groups a year for a one-week homestay and contacts with local counterparts. As a result of the US State Department’s interest in the area six women from the Middle East and North Africa came to Atlanta in 2007 and again in 2009 for four months to participate in business and legal fellowships.

The National Council for International Visitors of which GCIV is a member has always maintained a list of former International Visitors who go on to become the highest leaders in their countries. In researching past visitors GCIV found that it had hosted Margaret Thatcher in 1967, later to become the Prime Minister of Great Britain. In addition Mr. Borut Pahor, Prime Minister of Slovenia from 2008 to the present, Mr Bello Bouba Maigari, Prime Minister of Cameroon 1982-83, Mr. Howard Cooke, Governor General of Jamaica, 1979-1990, Mr. L. Erskine Sandiford, Prime Minister of Barbados, 1987-1994 and Mr. Alain Juppe, Prime Minister of France, 1995-1997 all came to Atlanta earlier in their careers. These are just the politicians who went on to become heads of state, but there were also visitors in the fields of journalism, health, education and the arts who became top leaders in their fields later in their careers as well.

In 2006 and again in 2007 GCIV sponsored the Atlanta Summit on Citizen Diplomacy first in collaboration with the Atlanta International School and then with Georgia State University. The idea for such a forum originated with NCIV and involved about 300 members of the community and members of the Atlanta Consular Corps. A modified Summit was held in 2010 and 2011 with a different format of 3 sessions drawing about 75 participants at each.

Not long after September 11 GCIV received a grant to hold several meetings between Muslim and other groups to promote better understanding. Three programs were held involving students from the Mohammed Schools, the Jewish School and Westminster. There was also an event at Agnes Scott College including Jewish, Muslim and Christian students.

In Aug. 2008 GCIV was the host for the NCIV Southern Regional Meeting at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel which brought several hundred participants from the State Department, national program agencies, and southeastern CIVs to Atlanta for a three-day conference.

There have been several GCIV trips abroad: one to the Ukraine in 2003, a group of 12 led by Shell Stuart to Cuba in 2005, and 14 Fulton County Youth Commissioners to South Africa in 2008 and to Germany in 2009. This was the start of the Fulton County Global Youth Leadership Program initiated by Fulton County Commission Chair John Eaves.

The rest of Part II’s history will be featured in next month’s blog entry.

Please leave comments or email us with your GCIV memories and we’ll feature them in a future blog!

After a short ground hold in Washington, D.C. and a pleasant ninety-minute flight, Atlanta welcomed the Nigerians with balmy weather.  The useful Atlanta program began with 4th of July home hospitality and included a host lunch and five meetings with eight experts engaged in historical preservation.

The group enjoyed 4th of July home hospitality with Nigerian-born Dr. Alphonso Ogbuchi and his family and friends.  Recent transplants from Kansas City, the Ogbuchis had hosted IVLP participants in Kansas and decided to continue their participation in Atlanta.

The first meeting at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historical Site was a fine follow-up to the National Park Service meeting in D.C.  Lead Park Ranger Marty Smith and Superintendent Judy Forte warmly welcomed the Nigerians and gave briefings and tours of the Visitors Center, which was built for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.  Included were the MLK birth home and a chat with Retired Firefighter and volunteer Mr. Bill Callier at the Fire Station.  At the group’s request “to meet a member of the King family and request a bust of Dr. King for the Nigerian archive”, Ms Forte arranged a last-minute meeting with Mr. Eric Tidwell, Managing Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change.

The program momentum continued with an informative talk with Mr. Doug Shipman, Executive Director of the soon-to-be built $70 million National Center for Civil and Human Rights.  Mr. Shipman had studied thirty-five other museums and shared useful, practical advice about varied sustainable museum models.  He asked about museums, “How much is it viewed as entertainment or education?”  He said that most U.S. museums raise 50% of their funds by yearly fund raising, but felt that 25% was a better model.  He cited as the biggest expense – maintaining artifacts.  He recommended bringing archives alive using a hybrid model of digitization.

Dr. Jay Hakes, Director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, and Deputy Director Mr. Dave Stanhope welcomed the visiting Nigerians.  Mr. Stanhope guided the visitors through the museum and archive while highlighting documentation of President and Mrs. Carter’s March 1978 visit to Lagos, the first such visit of a sitting president.  The pre-Internet Carter Administration had 27 million papers and contrasts with the 85 million emails of the George W. Bush Administration.  The $500,000 Interactive Table, which chronicled presidential travels, fascinated the group.  Mr. Uthman was given sample archival Hollinger boxes.  Mr. Stanhope cited technological obsolescence as a problem.

Georgia Council for International Visitors hosted a Swan Coach House lunch at the Atlanta History Center that included Ms Irene Bailey of GCIV; Nigerian Consul General Ambassador Geoffrey Teneilabe; Ms Emelia Orubele, Director of the Nigerian American International Chamber of Commerce; and Mr. Donald Rooney, Director of Exhibitions of the Atlanta History Center.  Ms Joanna Arrieta, Director of Interpretation, gave an informative tour of the Atlanta History Center.

The superb program ended with a visit to the African American Panoramic Experience Museum (APEX).  Director Mr. Dan Moore, Jr. and his father Mr. Dan Moore, APEX founder, and Ms Michele Mitchell, Exhibit Designer, warmly welcomed the visiting Nigerians.  The museum’s theme was “Africa the Untold Story” and a quote from historian Dr. Asa Hillard III, “Whatever you do, never let them begin our history with slavery.”

What a grand time we had with the very dedicated and lively Roma women when they visited Atlanta for a few days at the beginning of June! It was my great pleasure, and a fine learning experience, to participate with them in a roundtable discussion at the World Trade Center Atlanta on Tuesday the 5th. I was particularly interested, for I had taken a course in Roma Rights at Central European University in Budapest in 2006, but we had not met Roma.

Our GCIV member John Parkerson, the esteemed Honorary Consul of Hungary in Atlanta, arranged the roundtable at the WTCA, of which he is President. Said Parkerson, “The Roma are Hungary’s largest minority, making up anywhere from two to eight percent of the total population of 10 million. This visit was our opportunity to learn more about them and for us to share our own US perspectives about minority rights.” We were fortunate to have two very able and engaged interpreters to assist us with communicating clearly and successfully, Katalin Petroczy and Emese Purger-Kedman. The subject of the roundtable was “The Roma in Hungary: Evolving Roles of Minorities and Meeting the Needs of Diverse Groups in a Pluralistic Society.” The Roma throughout Europe have been discriminated against in many ways for centuries, and these brave visitors are engaged in helping especially Roma women and children rise above that, particularly in education and health care. They also explained the ombudsman role in Hungary. Among the discussants were several Hungarians from Atlanta who spoke in Hungarian, so we learned anew how important it is to have another language.



Afterwards, the four guests and their interpreters, as well as Consul John and one of the discussants,adjourned to my house for supper. John was co-host as well as escort and provided some fine bottles of wine for those who did not choose iced tea (“sweet or unsweet”) or Coke or Chattahoochee water. Our lively guests were Ildiko Farkasne, who works with the disadvantaged and poor in 23 villages in her home area at the Association for the Romani Women in Szikszo; Mariana Jonas, who assists people at the Center of Family and Children’s Care to solve their debt problems and speaks at high schools about tolerance and preventing discrimination; Ilona Notar, who teaches hospital staff how to communicate and deal with Roma patients at Semmelweis Medical University; and Ildiko Papinot, President of the New World Foundation, who works with disadvantaged children and families to help them catch up with the mainstream, primarily through cultural programs for children. We learned that this as the only home visit the women experienced in their three weeks in the U.S., so we were proud that the place of hospitality was Atlanta!

GCIV’s latest Atlanta Summit on Citizen Diplomacy event honored its volunteer home hospitality hosts at Restaurant Double Zero on May 23, 2012. Over 50 volunteer hosts were on hand to celebrate the recognition of long-time hosts Ron and Bethany Lane as they were awarded the Citizen Diplomat Award for Outstanding Home Hospitality Host. The Lanes have been hosting international visitors for over seven years.

After opening remarks by Deputy Director Irene Bailey, the Lanes were presented the award on behalf of GCIV by Executive Director Shell Stuart. Following the award presentation, local writer, cooking instructor, and founder of Go Eat Give, Ms. Sucheta Rawal spoke on ‘The Importance of Cultural Diplomacy.’

This Atlanta Summit on Citizen Diplomacy event was initiated through a seed grant from the National Council for International Visitors (NCIV). The annual event series features speakers on a variety of topics, as well as Georgia’s congressional representatives as our honored guests. The events aim to inspire participants to continue building rich and rewarding intercultural relationships and to enhance skills for personal and cultural diplomacy while networking with the internationally-minded community. Each Citizen Diplomacy event promotes an appreciation of diverse values and cultures, educates about global perspectives and furthers mutual understanding. GCIV aims to raise awareness about the responsibilities of citizen diplomats through these interactive events.

For more information on how you can become a volunteer home host for our international visitors, please contact Emily O’Harris at emily@gciv.org or 404-832-5560 x15.

Below is Sadiq’s full essay on his experiences as a foreign exchange student from Pakistan.

On the morning of August 10th 2011, I boarded my flight to the United States as an exchange student of the Kennedy-Lugar YES Program. Several apprehensions about Americans occupied my heart and brain as I embarked upon this epic journey. It wasn’t just my heart that was anxious about what it would be like to live with an American host family and attend an American high school; the 60 other Pakistani exchange students on the flight  experienced similar feelings.
 
Our distress was understandable: most of us only “knew” a few things about the United States and its people – that Americans love war, and that they hate us because they assume that we’re terrorists. Every time I thought about getting bullied by a gang of students at school because of my religious background or nationality, my stomach knotted with terror. However, all my assumptions were proved wrong the moment my lovely host family, the Chapmans, warmly opened the doors of not just their house but also their hearts.
 
During the five months I have spent here, I realized the extent to which we all unintentionally buy into stereotypes. After listening to anti-American rhetoric by right wing leaders in Pakistan and being under the influence of irresponsible media all my life, I had to some extent been programmed to believe that Americans are arrogant and power-hungry and seek to dominate Muslim countries. I I think that’s how most Pakistani teenagers think, because of the distorted information given by the media about the life of average Americans. Most of what we see on our news channels are American senators or congress members talking about drones and wars.
 
But I think the same holds true from the other side around as well. Average Americans have mostly been shown only the negative aspect of Pakistan by their media. Most Americans probably think of Pakistan as the land of Osama bin Ladin, the Taliban, crazed suicide bombers etc. So it’s not too much of a shock anymore when someone asks whether I live in a cave and ride a camel back home. (I don’t).
 
But during my time here, I have learned that Americans are wonderful, warm, fun-loving, creative people. It is true, as religious conservatives in Pakistan like to emphasize, that America has a high divorce rate and a popular culture focused on sex and violence. But this is hardly a fair or complete picture. Americans value family and culture and religion just as Pakistanis do, and I have really enjoyed celebrating the great festivals of Thanksgiving and Christmas, visiting churches and synagogues, and experiencing different flavors of American culture. I have also  tried to convey the positive sides of my culture, country and religion to family and friends here. Pakistan is a very new country, barely 65 years old, with a rough history: its chaotic formative years, a civil war that resulted in the profound loss of resource-rich Bangladesh, several bloody border wars with much more powerful India, the violent failed state of Afghanistan bordering on the other side. Despite this, Pakistan has always striven to be an enlightened, modern state, a liberal democracy friendly to but independent of the West. Pakistan has universities such as the Lahore University of Management Sciences and the National University of Science and Technology that are on a par with the better universities in the U.S. Pakistan has produced Nobel Prize-winning scientists and the fourth-highest number of foreign-born physicians practicing in the U.S. And our religion, Islam, is devoted to building and maintaining a peaceful and just society, despite what you might hear from “haters” in the  media.

To learn more about AFS hosting opportunities, please visit http://www.afsusa.org/host-family/.