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December
13, 2002
Peace Corps Romania recognized for "Stories" and
"Lessons Learned"
Peace
Corps Romania has been recognized by Fast Company magazine's
"The Fast 50," the second annual readers' challenge,
"a worldwide search to find readers with remarkable stories
to tell and powerful lessons to share."
There
are many stories to tell among the 170 volunteers working in Peace
Corps Romania, but the Fast 50 entry focused on the work of Beka
Lutz, a volunteer in Sibiu, who organized a special camp for girls
called "GLOW" - Girls Leading Our World.
Peace
Corps Romania Country Director, Candy Mirrer, submitted the story,
which was written by Lutz and fellow volunteers Charlotte Lee,
Mary Morgan and Andy Trincia. Peace Corps Romania's story was
entered in the "Change Agents" category, which highlights
"activists at every level who are determined to challenge
the status quo and to make a positive difference for the future."
GLOW
is a worldwide Peace Corps activity begun in Romania. In June
2002, Lutz and other Peace Corps Volunteers organized a GLOW camp
for 46 high-school-aged young women from seven Romanian communities
of varying size and economic strata. They gathered in a small
Transylvanian village and attended sessions on self-esteem, body
image, domestic violence, decision-making, arts and crafts and
sex education. Part of the camp's mission was to address the social
and economic problems in Romania that adversely affect those with
the potential to bring change - the "brain-drain" that
lures away thousands of Romania's young people each year.
The
story noted some of the powerful results and images during the
camp, including one girl who overcame fear and lack of confidence
to read poetry in front of the crowd, and the group staying up
all night to make origami cranes, a Japanese sign of peace, to
settle urban-rural tension among the campers.
The
volunteers wrote: "Young women struggle to find their place
in a young capitalist economy and a society that relegates them
to the position of supporter and follower. They are unable to
envision the realization of their dreams and their role as change
agents and innovators; rarely have the opportunity to leave their
own immediate surroundings to exchange experiences with other
young Romanians or youth from abroad …we hoped to make them
stronger by arming them with new information. We expected them
to absorb all of this like sponges and transform themselves overnight.
What we found, however, was that they were individuals who had
to find their own ways to deal with this new knowledge and challenges
therein."
Mirrer
added: "We're very proud of all of the work that our volunteers
are doing across Romania. This is one of many stories with a powerful
ending and visible results. These girls will benefit from this
camp for years to come. It's a great example of 'change agent'
activity underway with the help of Peace Corps Romania."
Fast
Company's editors selected the story for its first round of winners
and the story is posted on the magazine's web site at:
http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_02/profile/index.html?mirrer354.
The
50 overall winners will be announced in the March 2003 issue of
Fast Company. The winners' names will also be posted on the web
site on or about February 15, 2003. Fast Company, a business magazine
that focuses on innovation and new ideas, is owned by Gruner +
Jahr, a unit of Bertelsmann AG. The award-winning magazine has
a circulation of 725,000.
Peace
Corps entered Romania in 1991, two years after the country's revolution
and the fall of communism. Peace Corps Romania currently has 170
volunteers serving in a variety of communities in the areas of
education, business development, health, social services, and
the environment.
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