[Internships] America's Unofficial Ambassadors Initiative - One Laptop Per Child

[Christopher Van Hoose]

OLPC Foundation
Suite 0234
222 Third Street
Cambridge, MA 02142-1158

18 October 2011

Dear Sir or Madam:

I hope this message finds you and your organization well.  As leaders of
organizations dedicated to promoting peace and understanding, I would like
to further our common goals in a part of the world that is critical to our
national interest.

In March 2011, Creative Learning launched the America’s Unofficial
Ambassadors (AUA) initiative, a program dedicated to expanding and
supporting private American citizens’ service in the Muslim World. To
encourage Americans to volunteer in the Muslim World, and to enable access
to credible service opportunities, Creative Learning published the AUA
Directory of Recommended Organizations: a free, online, searchable database
of organizations for potential volunteers interested in engaging in
high-impact service in a Muslim-majority country.

The AUA Directory is the premier resource for researching volunteer
opportunities in the Muslim World. In creating this resource, Creative
Learning researched more than 1000 organizations and conducted extensive
interviews with program staff and volunteer alumni. Currently, the AUA
Directory features descriptive and analytical profiles of 59 leading
organizations that send or host American volunteers for short-term service
in a Muslim-majority country. Over the past seven months, nearly 800
potential volunteers have registered to view the profiles of organizations
listed on the AUA Directory. By increasing access to safe and credible
volunteer-sending organizations, Creative Learning aims to encourage over
1000 Americans to commit to short term service in the Muslim World by the
end of 2012.

As we continue to update the AUA Directory with new opportunities, we are
eager to form additional partnerships with organizations capable of
accepting and sending a greater number of volunteers into Muslim-majority
countries in order to build positive people-to-people connections between
the Muslim World and America.  We believe that due to its amazing work
across the world, and specifically it's recent inclusion of Mali in its
internship program, One Laptop Per Child may be eligible for inclusion on
AUA’s Directory of Recommended Organizations.  I want to let you know that
one of our Program Officers will be contacting your office in the following
weeks in hopes of arranging an updated informational interview about your
foundation.

As a partner with Creative Learning’s America’s Unofficial Ambassadors
Initiative, we believe that your organization will be able to attract
additional high-quality volunteers to your programs. Please be assured that
Creative Learning is not charging any fees for this service. Feel free to
learn more about our organization at www.creativelearning.org and
www.unofficialambassadors.org.  Of course, if you have any questions, please
call me directly at (540) 295-0003 <%28540%29%20295-0003>.

As we witness the aftershocks of the Arab Spring and a wave of change
sweeping across the Muslim World, it is important that we strive to build
stronger personal relationships and with members of those countries to help
them meet their pressing human development challenges. In doing so,
volunteers serve as unofficial American ambassadors and build positive
perceptions of America with members of those countries where we are so often
negatively perceived. It is our sincere hope that with every volunteer our
organizations send overseas, we are working to strengthen the capacities of
Muslim World citizens, as well as the positive ties that link them to
America.

Peace,

Bill Kruvant
President, Creative Learning
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/internships/attachments/20111018/b4ba2eb6/attachment.html>