Who are Americans? » Europe

American nonprofit supporting the children of Chechnya

David — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:17:44 +0000

The International Committee for the Children of Chechnya (ICCC, based in Cambridge, MA) is a nonprofit that was founded by three American women in 1996 to work on behalf of child victims of the war in Chechnya. The ICCC idea was inspired by the Mother’s March for Life and Compassion in 1995, in which Russian soldier’s mothers, Buddhist monks and Quakers marched through the war zone in Chechnya imploring soldiers to put down their arms and calling the rest of the world to take action to end the violence.

The ICCC supports the parents, teachers, relief workers, doctors and others who support the children of Chechnya in areas such as food, shelter, medical care and education.

Some 40,000 children were killed during the war, and many more were injured or have been born with birth defects, which are often the result of high levels of environmental contamination.

Some of the specific projects of ICCC include:

Operation Smile - The ICCC is identifying children in need to be treated for surgery by the American surgeons of Operation Smile.

Medical instruments - The ICCC is seeking medical supplies and instruments, including operation tables, electro-surgical generators, anesthesia machines, and cranio-maxillofacial instruments.

Digital Divide - The ICCC is working to provide computers, computer training, and internet access to health workers, doctors and other professionals in Chechnya.

Alkhan Khalka School - Musical instruments were donated to this school where Dr. Khassan Baiev, Chairman of ICCC, attended as a child.

Musical, dancing and martial arts classes help keep the children off the streets and teach them valuable life lessons.

Grozny School for the Blind - The 100 blind children in the home have no water or electricity, and requested help from ICCC in supplying sports equipment, such as climbing ropes, hula-hoops, basketballs and other items for exercise and fun.

Opportunities for donations are available on their website.

Glimmer of Hope Foundation aids Ethiopia, London & Austin

David — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:59:11 +0000

Austin, Texas-based A Glimmer of Hope Foundation (AGHF) was founded in 2000 when Donna and Philip Berber funded AGHF with a $100-million endowment from their personal funds to provide aid to Ethiopia, and is now providing programs for London and Austin at-risk youth. Business Week magazine has listed the Berbers on their “50 Most Generous Philanthropists” list.

From the year 2000 to June 2006, the foundation had funded 2,007 projects impacting more than 1.9 million Ethiopians living in poverty. In 2006, A Glimmer of Hope will work on over 500 projects striving to make a sustainable difference for Ethiopians.

The first major project in Ethiopia was an elementary and middle school for 500 children in the remote village of Dembi Dollo. Aid is given to support clean water, schools, health care, agricultural support and crisis emergency relief, and microcredit funding to local entrepreneurs in Ethiopia.

The overall model is to help social investors work with social entrepreneurs to create social profit.

While Ethiopia remains the focus of work, local projects for the disadvantaged and socially excluded youth in Austin, Texas and London, U.K. are also a focus of AGHF. Over 52 projects have been funded in south and east Austin. London projects support sports activities for kids, education programs, aid to the homeless, and helping Albanian immigrants build new lives.

The Berber’s initial funding of the Foundation makes it possible for 100% of donations to be spent directly on the projects.

Famous European sports stars in America

David — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:05:42 +0000

European athletes are becoming more popular in the USA. David Beckham, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer and Annika Sorenstam are some of the more famous and well known Europeans in American.

The American professional basketball league (NBA) and hockey league (NHL) have a large number of Europeans playing on their professional teams. Dirk Nowitzki of Germany was named the Most Valuable Player in the NBA last season.

There are too many European athletes to mention all of them, but some of the more famous and popular European athletes in America’s major sports are:

Basketball:
Zydrunas Ilgauskas - Lithuania
Pao Gasol - Spain
Andrei Kirilenko - Russia
Dirk Nowitzki - Gernmany
Tony Parker - France
Peja Stojakovic - Greece
Andris Biedrins - Latvia
Vladimir Radmanovic, Darko Milicic - Serbia
Tony Kukoc - Croatia
Luol Deng - Great Britain

Tennis:
Roger Federer - Switzerland
Maria Sharapova - Russia
Mary Pierce - France
Bjorn Borg - Sweden
Martina Hingis - Slovakia - Czechoslovakia
Rafael Nadal - Spain
Justine Henin-Hardenne- Belgium

Soccer:
David Beckham - British
Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane - France

Golf:
Colin Montgomerie - Great Britain
Sergio Garcia - Spain
Bernhard Langer - Germany
Jesper Parnevik - Sweden
Annika Sorenstam - Sweden
Suzann Pettersen - Norway

Figure Skating:
Katarina Witt - Germany
Oksana Baiul - Ukraine
Alexei Yagudin - Russia

Hockey:
Thomas Vanek - Austria
Peter Forsberg, Nicklas Lidstrom - Sweden
Sergei Zubov, Ilya Kovalchuk - Russia
Alexei Zhitnik - Ukraine
Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr - Czechoslovakia

Famous European actors and entertainers in America

David — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:05:38 +0000

Hundreds of European entertainers (singers and actors) are very popular in the USA. From English speaking countries in Europe (United Kingdom, Ireland), there are just too many famous singers and actors to mention on the list below. But other European entertainers are also very well known by American people.

Below is a list of some of the people that are well known by Americans. Listed with their names are the names of some of their more popular movies or songs.

Austria:
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Terminator, Predator (now serves as the Governor of the state of California)

Belgium:
Jean Claude Van Damme - Bloodsport, Universal Soldier

Denmark:
Brigitte Nielsen - Red Sonja, Rocky IV, Cobra

England & Ireland
Victoria Beckham - Posh Spice - Spice Girls
Orlando Bloom - Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings
Catherine Zeta Jones - Zorro, Entrapment
Anthony Hopkins - Zorro, Silence of the Lambs
Simon Cowell - American Idol
Sean Connery - James Bond, A Bridge Too Far, Medicine Man
Keira Knightley - Pirates of the Caribbean, Bend it Like Beckham
Pierce Brosnan - James Bond, Remington Steele
Bono / U2 - Vertigo

France:
Gerard Depardieu - Green Card, Cyrano de Bergerac
Sophie Marceau - Braveheart, The World is Not Enough

Germany:
Wolfgang Petersen - Film Director - Das Boot, Outbreak, Air Force One
Heidi Klum - supermodel, actress
Nastassja Kinski - Tess, Paris, Texas

Italy:
Luciano Pavarotti - opera singer
Sophia Loren - Houseboat, The Pride and the Passion

Netherlands:
Rutger Hauer - Nighthawks, LadyHawke

Spain:
Antonio Banderas - Zorro, Spy Kids, Evita
Penelope Cruz - Vanilla Sky, Sahara

Sweden:
Maud Adams - James Bond filsm - Octopussy, Man with the Golden Gun
Abba - one of first mainland Europe singing groups to become popular in America

Help for communities destroyed by wildfires in Greece

David — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:42:54 +0000

Greek wildfires this week have killed over 63 people, destroyed many homes. left many homeless, and destroyed forests throughout Greece. Among the many ways to contribute is directly thru a Greek Foreign Ministry office in Chicago.

The World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE) (U.S.A. Regional Office in Chicago), a Greek government sponsored organization providing services for Greek immigrants worldwide, issued this statement for potential donors:

“SAE / USA is appealing to all Hellenes to contribute whatever you can to the bank account listed below to provide relief, through the (Greek) Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to families victimized by the fires and to fund reforestation of devastated areas through the SAE / USA project “Plant Your Roots in Greece.””

“IT is now a catastrophe of Biblical proportions. Fires in almost all regions in Greece have decimated forests, torched hundreds of homes and wiped out the entire livelihood of hundreds of families.

It is an unprecedented tragedy. We are already lamenting 51 dead in Eleia and Laconia. The estimate of people trapped by fires or suffering severe burns is much greater and we fear that the number of victims will increase dramatically. At least three prefectures, Messenia, Laconia and Eleia, have been declared disaster areas.

Greek media are talking about “a national tragedy” and portray a nightmarish picture of the fires that have reached 170 in number in the past two days. “

Ted G. Spyropoulos, Coordinator

Full article from Greek office in Chicago regarding wildfires, including info on Chicago Bank info for donations:

Women helping women survivors of war & conflicts

David — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:48:12 +0000

Women for Women International, headquartered in Washington DC, has an interesting mission to provide “women survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts with the tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, thereby promoting viable civil societies”.

Operating in such countries as Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwandan and Sudan, Women for Women Int’l has:

• Linked more than 120,000 women survivors of war with sponsors worldwide.

• Facilitated the translation and exchange of thousands of letters of support between sponsors and sponsored women.
• Enrolled and graduated more than 93,000 women in the organization’s Renewing Life Skills for Women (ReneWLS) leadership and rights awareness education training program.
• Helped thousands of women secure employment and establish their own income-
generating businesses.
• Distributed more than $33 million in direct aid and microcredit loans, maintaining a 99% repayment rate on all loans.
• Facilitated hundreds of group therapy sessions for war survivors by providing a venue for women to share their experiences and feelings and build bridges between women survivors of different ethnic backgrounds.

The group offers financial and emotional support, job skills training in traditional and non-traditional fields, leadership education, microcredit loans, business services and contacts with suppliers/retailers, product design and production assistance, and an online virtual bazaar to market their goods.

Women for Women Internationals “Core Values and Beliefs” are wonderfully stated:

Equality: All people are free and equal in dignity and rights: civil, political, social, economic and cultural.

Empowerment: The women who we assist are the leaders in their own lives. Tools are provided for each woman to rebuild her life.

Respect: The women we support choose their own value system. Options are presented to each woman but she is responsible for her own choice.

Diversity: Women are not simply refugees or victims of war but are survivors and individuals. No two women require the same support to heal, and no two societies can be rebuilt in the same way. Communication among women of varied backgrounds, national origins, race, and religion – both those who need assistance and those who offer it – must honor each other’s differences.

Investment: The one-on-one approach deals with macro issues through micro solutions. By strengthening local chapters we attempt to build or strengthen civil society in the countries where we work.