 Sister
Cities International
Representing more than 2,400 communities in 123
countries, Sister Cities International (www.sister-cities.org)
is a citizen diplomacy network creating and strengthening
partnerships between the U.S. and communities abroad.
Begun in 1956 after a White House summit where U.S.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower called for people-to-people
exchanges, sister city partnerships are tailored
to local interests and increase global cooperation
at the grassroots level. Sister Cities International promotes peace through mutual respect, understanding
and cooperation by focusing on sustainable development,
youth and education, arts and culture, humanitarian
assistance and economic growth programs.
Web site: www.sister-cities.org
Click
here to go directly to the Youth Programs
Program
Update
Sister Cities International received a grant
from iEARN to accomplish two goals:
- To provide small grants to five local sister
city organizations with partners in predominantly
Islamic countries to bring at least two students
and one
teacher to the U.S. for the purpose of establishing
and enhancing connections between schools and
communities.
- To create sister school partnerships
between U.S. and Afghan schools and to make a
documentary film
of the teachers involved in sister school
exchanges.
The five sister city organizations that participated
in this program were: Burlington, Vermont
(Bethlehem, Palestine); Chicago, Illinois
(Casablanca, Morocco);
Pleasant Hill, California (Merzifon,Turkey);
St. Louis, Missouri (St. Louis, Senegal);
and Prince
George's County, Maryland (Ziguinchor,
Senegal).
To read more this program, please visit
www.sister-cities.org/sci/sciprograms/other/FriendshipThruEducation
Activities
Find
a Sister City
When a community of any size decides to join with
a community in another nation to learn more about
the other and to develop friendly and meaningful
exchanges,
the two propose a formal affiliation leading to official
designation as "sister cities." Ask your
teacher, family, neighbors and city leaders to work
with you to find a sister city/school for your community!
Young
Artists Competition
This program invites youth, ages 13-18, to take part
in a worldwide art competition. Young Artists is open
to young people in all sister city partnerships.
Sister
Cities International/AYUSA Partnership for Youth
Exchange
Sister Cities International and AYUSA International
have formed a strategic partnership to offer exciting,
new youth exchange opportunities to our members.
Sister Cities International/AYUSA Partnership
for Youth Exchange facilitates exchange programs for
youth to promote long-term, substantive partnerships
between U.S. and international communities, to build
bridges of cultural understanding and to ensure a
more peaceful, just world.
Islamic Youth Initiative: Youth Exchange and
Study (YES) Program
The Sister Cities International Board of Directors
decided to respond to the events of September
11, 2001, by establishing the Sister Cities United
for
International Peace and Friendship Initiative
in October 2001. This project mandated that Sister
Cities
International should reach out to under-served
regions, including countries in the Islamic world.
As part of this initiative, Sister Cities
International applied to be involved in a program sponsored
by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs (ECA)
of the U.S. Department of State. We are pleased
to announce that Sister Cities International
was selected
to be one of the sub-grantees in the Youth
Exchange and Study (YES) Program. This program
awards
scholarships for secondary school students
from countries with
significant Muslim populations to spend up
to one academic year in the U.S. The program
is
vital to
expanding communication between the people
of the U.S. and the partner countries in
the interest
of
promoting mutual understanding and respect.
To read more about these and other Sister
Cities International youth programs, please
visit
www.sister-cities.org/sci/sciprograms/other/youth#2
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