Dear Friends,
I have just returned from India, where the feelings are reminiscent of post 9/11 America, and where I listened to people try to put aside their anger and desire for revenge in order to find successful ways to get along with their neighbor, Pakistan. It has been hopeful to see how openly the limits of the military solution are being discussed. They are realizing that the “war on terror” has to rely on more effective diplomacy, dialogue and understanding—“weapons” that take much more time to develop and implement. I believe that with the work of Bridges we are contributing to the development and deployment of those much-needed new technologies.
Bridges in the classroom
This fall Bridges connected a classroom at Lakeside School in Seattle to their peers at Pukllasunchis, our partner school in Cusco, Peru. A classroom at Aki Kurose Middle School in Seattle connected to a classroom at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India. In the Bridges website forums, all of these students discussed what they care about, their cultural celebrations, the foods they enjoy eating, the clothes they wear, the religions they practice, and much more. As part of these projects, students made digital stories about important issues and cultural aspects of their lives. The classes celebrated and shared their work with their fellow classmates in film festivals at their schools. You can see digital stories made by the students in our online gallery.
More classroom partnerships will begin in spring – please stay tuned!
Recent Workshops
Bridges students in India and Guatemala participated in digital storytelling workshops this fall. Guatemalan students documented the challenges faced by midwives in their community. The Tibetan students at TCV discussed how you can put compassion into action, and some of the ways living in exile impacts their lives. Check out their stories in our online gallery.
Changes at Bridges
Joyce McClure has been appointed to the position of Interim Executive Director and Tania Westby as Program Director. This follows the resignation of Greg Tuke, who after three years as Bridges Executive Director, is joining Mercy Corps as Expansion Manager for their Youth Internet Exchange Program. Greg has been an enormous asset to Bridges. Through Greg’s passion and commitment to our mission, he has literally taken Bridges from my dining room table to our offices at Getty Images. Despite his departure, I am looking forward to maintaining our ties with Greg through potential collaborative projects with Mercy Corps, an organization that I greatly admire. At the same time, we are fortunate that Joyce is available to take over as Interim Executive Director. She brings more than 30 years of experience in management and marketing and has contributed a great deal to the Bridges over the last year as a key member of our Board of Advisors. Joyce has been leading Bridges in a strategic planning process and provided marketing and public relations support during our partnership with Seeds of Compassion.
In her new role as Program Director, Tania Westby will be leading Bridges’ efforts to refine and enhance the organization’s programs as well as sustain a highly qualified support staff to meet the needs of Bridges’ partner schools. Since joining Bridges Tania has led numerous workshops in Seattle as well as at our international sites in Guatemala, Peru and India; managed the Bridges web site, and co-developed the Bridges classroom curriculum. She brings tremendous continuity and depth to our leadership team going forward.
Lori Markowitz has left Bridges and is focusing her efforts on furthering the work of Youth Ambassadors, work she started during the Seeds of Compassion conference earlier this year. We wish her the best in this ongoing endeavor! We are really going to miss Lori’s energy and ideas, and we’re hoping to find some exciting ways to collaborate with her in the coming year.
Marta Nimlos, School Programs Manager, and Annie Von Essen, External Marketing and Communications Manager, both joined Bridges during 2008. They are both MPA candidates at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs, and together are leading our first program evaluation at Bridges, beginning with a classroom project assessment completed this fall. Please stay tuned for news about what we are learning from this incredibly valuable process.
Jennifer Geist continues her work with Bridges in curriculum development, workshop training and classroom project support, as well as providing a strong guiding voice and teacher’s viewpoint as we continue our strategic planning process and plan for future programs.
Our work would not be possible without the dedication not only of our staff, but of our all volunteers: to those of you who joined us on workshops to mentor international students, our mentors in local Seattle classrooms, the volunteers who’ve helped out with numerous media management and office tasks over the year, and our board of directors, I extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you for continuing to make this work happen!
In closing, there are a couple more things I’d like to mention: Many of you know Tenzin Gakyi, a student from the Tibetan Children’s Village who has participated in our program there. Well, Gakyi is in Seattle! She is currently attending the Northwest School, and had a chance to visit the students at Aki Kurose this fall to chat with them and give them more insight into their partner class at TCV.
Also, “Ubomi Bam, Impilo Yam” or “My Life, My Health” is now available in book format thanks to the efforts of Matt Ragen, a volunteer who joined Bridges in South Africa this year. We would like to warmly thank Matt for helping our students’ work gain more exposure and for putting in the time to make such a wonderful book!
Finally, if you are able to support our work financially, please make a year-end tax deductible donation to Bridges: click here to donate to Bridges
With my sincere thanks for your continued support,
Phil Borges
Founder
Visit us at: www.bridgesweb.org
(206) 925-5300
Getty Images Building, 601 N. 34th St.
Seattle, WA. 98103 USA
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