Joanne Clark’s Story
I have worked with the International Visitor Leadership Program since 1986. At that time and for some years after, it was almost impossible to stay in touch with visitors. In 1988, I took my first international trip where I visited, stayed with and/or dined with some of my former visitors, having written to them months in advance. The countries I visited on this first trip were Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. I took a second such trip in 1990 and was able to visit an alumnus from East Berlin, a very, very moving experience, since his apartment backed immediately up the Wall. He gave me his East German flag as a memento of my visit.
Since that time I have made similar trips and had similar experiences - in Turkey, Jordan, the West Bank, the Negev Desert and in Jerusalem. Next April I will visit alumni in Vietnam and India.
With the advent of the internet and e-mail, staying in touch became so much easier! Since 1998, I have accumulated an email list of about 500 former visitors with whom I communicate on a weekly basis. I never know from whom I will hear and periodically I will hear from someone long forgotten who thanks me for staying in touch and for the articles and information I send out.
Last year at Meridian, we were tasked with finding visitors who were here prior to the internet. I was able to find approximately 100 visitors from this earlier era and communicate with about 30 of them. This past March, I traveled to Portugal to visit a woman who was an IV in 1991. It was a wonderful reunion and I am now helping to make contacts here in the U.S. for her international protocol consulting business.
I have facilitated, or tried to facilitate, similar connections. A visitor from Nepal was seeking a partner in a solar cooker venture. I emailed my 500 visitors and a visitor from Mozambique responded with eagerness to this opportunity. Unfortunately, the internet, which connected them initially, failed them ultimately with lost emails and missed deadlines.
Through a former visitor in South Africa my local branch of the American Association of University Women is adopting a school in a disadvantaged village. The school is specifically seeking help with a vegetable garden that the children have started, but they need money and supplies to keep it going. We are working with the local Rotary to establish appropriate channels for funds and materials. Needing help with what kind of water pump to buy, I put Mabongi, my school contact, in touch with four members of my alumni network, who responded to my request to try to assist her.
A former program assistant here at Meridian needed to find a three month internship in another country as part of her Masters program in International Development. I contacted a Nepalese alumnus with whom we both had worked and, indeed, he welcomed her with open arms and a very fulfilling three month experience. In the other direction, I was able to provide a two month internship here at Meridian for the son of a former IV from Luxembourg. A similar initiative was planned for this summer for the son a human rights activist from Colombia, here last Fall, but unfortunately the son was unable to obtain a visa.
I have housed friends and relatives of former visitors, sometimes for months at a time. It is something I love to do, even though my home is tiny, and I know that my visitors would do the same for me. Perhaps most memorable for me was on Sunday, June 6, 2004. I was hosting a European environmental group in my home when I received word that my mother had died. Knowing there was nothing I could do that night, and knowing that my mother would want the party to go on, I asked the group to stay. We toasted my mother, tears flowed, and we bowed our heads in a moment of silence. Needless to say, we bonded that night.
Through my alumni network of 500, I continually seek opportunities to put the visitors together through information sharing, on-line introductions and shared working opportunities. It is not easy, but one success story makes it all worthwhile. I have written recommendations for Fulbright applicants, provided contacts for scholarships and grant opportunities, and I have helped former visitors reconnect with hosts and CIV contacts with whom they had lost contact.
While I cannot say that I have had a direct impact on U.S. foreign policy, I do believe that my commitment to the goals of the International Visitor Leadership Program and my respect and affection for so many of my visitors has contributed to visitors' perceptions of the United States.
I have seen the impact of our work, here in Washington, around the country, and across the globe. The smallest gesture can make the greatest most significant impact. We change the lives of individuals - including our own - one handshake at a time.