Dear Members of the Press,
Welcome to the Friendship Force International website and Press Center. We hope you find everything you need here to help us tell the FFI story.
We are very proud of our work and are constantly looking for ways to take our message to a larger audience and to connect even more people across the globe, in friendship.
In 2008 we launched a major re-branding effort, changing our look, logo, slogan, mission and vision in order to refresh our appeal to a younger demographic.
We have also created a new approach to travel with FFI, offering opportunities for ‘themed’ travel. Ambassadors can now choose between trips that focus on humanitarian themes; educational, environmental or cultural themes.
In the 1980’s Friendship Force was one of the first NGO’s to cross the Iron Curtain, breaking down barriers that separate people. Today, our FFI Clubs in Russia are among our strongest and most active in the world.
Today, we have similar opportunity with our Pilgrimage Project. Interfaith groups of Christians, Muslims and Jews are traveling together to sites sacred to all three traditions. These pilgrims return to their hometowns to continue the dialogue with on-going efforts in their communities.
We believe passionately that the work of connecting people at the prersona level, across the cultural, social, religious and language barriers that separate us, is more vital than ever. Our survival as a global village depends on it.
Thank you again for your interest in FFI. If we can do anything to assist you further, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
In Friendship,
George Brown
gbrown@thefriendshipforce.org
WHO WE ARE
Friendship Force International (FFI) is a worldwide network of clubs (local chapters) and individuals that advance our mission of promoting global understanding across the barriers that separate people. We do this by connecting people from different countries at the personal level. When local hosts open their homes to visitors from other countries and cultures, true understanding can develop through the sharing of meals, conversation and the routines of daily life. Since its founding in 1977 FFI has brought together millions of people. In 2007 alone, 5767 friendship ambassadors traveled between 58 countries, with thousands more serving as hosts. Our mission, structure and activities are described in our website: www.thefriendshipforce.org
FFI Vocabulary
Exchanges – Travel with Friendship Force is called an “exchange.” Historically this term comes from the earliest FF travel where large, charter groups of between 200 and 300 people, traveled to a destination city to be hosted by local citizens. The, a reciprocal trip, or exchange, occurred where the hosts traveled to the home of their guests.
Today, Exchange has evolved to refer to the psychological transformation that happens when travelers are exposed to a new country, culture and a new way of seeing the world.
FFI exchanges are conducted through a global network of independently chartered clubs. Volunteers within a local community administer clubs, while the worldwide network is supported by a staff at the headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and overseen by an international board of directors
Ambassadors – The word we call travelers on our trips. Friendship Ambassadors are charged with going beyond tourist, with a responsibility for and commitment to the FFI mission of “promoting global understanding across the barriers that separate people.”
Hosts – Also known as “ambassador hosts,” welcome travelers into their home providing an up-close look at life in another place. But Hosts also are charged with the responsibility to share their city, country and culture in a meaningful and thoughtful way.
How Friendship Force is changing the world
We connect people at the personal level, as friends across the barriers that separate people.
Below is a sample of Exchanges that have a humanitarian focus.
Indonesian Teachers get TEFL certificate in U.S.
May 2008 – 20 English teachers from Jakarta, Indonesia, came to the US for three weeks to study in a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) program and to visit American public schools. They were home hosted by the Hartwell, Georgia Club and the Charlotte, N.C. Club
The Pilgrimage Project
A journey into sacred ground for groups of Christians, Muslims & Jews. Click here to learn more about this transforming experience. (jim, embed link to PP website)
Brasov, Romania – School for the Blind
FF members from seven clubs join forces to take Eye glasses and computers to the Raza de Lumina School for the Blind in Brasov, Romania. Participating Clubs were: Sacramento. San Francisco, Napa-Sonoma, Western Michigan, Lansing, Michigan, Richmond, Virginia and Wellington, New Zealand.
Ghana – Books to elementary schools
September 2006 – Los Angeles FF Club presents 8000 pounds of books to an elementary school in Ghana. The books were a gift from the Huntsville, Alabama club.
Backpacks and Bed Covers to children in Africa
An ongoing service project by the FF of Isle of Wight.
Teaching English in Costa Rica
A multi-club exchange comprised of Ambassadors from U.S. and Canada, traveled to Brasilito, Costa Rica to help elementary children improve their English. The ambassadors prepared games, songs and books to entertain the lively children; they also presented a financial gift, collected from the Ambassadors.
Two Oxen and a Plow to Ugandan Farmers
FF of Lincoln club member Kay Rockwell spearheads a project to improve the lives of Kamuli Farmers by helping them obtain oxen to help with plowing
President and CEO: George T. Brown, Jr.
Dr. George T. Brown, Jr., returns to Friendship Force International, after serving as Executive Director of the Georgia Council for International Visitors (GCIV). George Brown has 25 years experience working with international programs in Atlanta. Prior to GCIV he was Executive Director of The Friendship Force. He was instrumental in establishing the Atlanta-Tbilisi Sister City connection and led the Georgia-to-Georgia citizen exchange to Tbilisi in April 1990.
George Brown also served as Director of the Global Awareness Program for Agnes Scott College and as Executive Director of Villa International Atlanta. In 1996 he was project manager for the AT&T Family-to-Family program that provided home-stay programs for 2,500 family members of the Olympic athletes.
In addition to working with international visitors to the United States, Brown has traveled extensively to West and East Europe, Russia, the Middle East, East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He has organized and led student and adult delegations to various international destinations.
Before moving to Atlanta in 1978, George Brown was a professor of international relations at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio and before that he served as a foreign liaison officer in the U.S. Army. He received his Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Virginia. George was raised in Korea as the son of Presbyterian missionaries. He is married and has four children and three grand-children. He is active in community affairs and currently serves as an elder at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
FFI Staff Biographies
FFI Board of Directors Biographies
… by the numbers
- • 272 exchanges were conducted in 2007 with 5,767 ambassadors hosted by over 8,000 hosts.
- • 374 chartered clubs & programs in 58 countries on 6 continents with over 20,000 members.
- • Friendship Force is a volunteer-driven organization. Over 1,500 volunteer leaders work more than 30,000 hours each month to promote the Friendship Force mission.
- • 166 Russian leaders were hosted in 10 Friendship Force clubs in 2005 through the U.S. Library of Congress Open World Program.
- • 200,000 ambassadors and over 500,000 hosts have participated in Friendship Force programs since 1977
Mission
To promote global understanding across the barriers that separate people
Values
Mutual Respect • Cultural Diversity • Cultural Exploration • Service
Vision
• Each individual will make a contribution to global goodwill.
• The Friendship Force worldwide network of clubs and individuals will overcome differences among people and nations.
• By connecting the world, one friend at a time, we will create a world of friends that becomes a world of peace.
Slogan
Changing the Way You See the World
Tagline
Explore - Understand - Serve
Explore
We explore new countries and regions. We explore new cultures and new ways to connect across the barriers that separate us.
Understand
By sharing a home, meals, conversation and everyday experiences, people become friends, seeing beyond governments and borders into the heart of a country and its people. By combining home hospitality with cultural exploration, we reach a new level of understanding.
Serve
Exploration leads to understanding. Understanding leads to an acceptance of our common humanity and the desire to serve our global village—with words and actions.
Our Friendship Magazine is our quarterly publication
 Click here to view our latest issue.
August 2008 – For Immediate Release
Pilgrims Seek Common Ground
This fall, Friendship Force International will launch the first exchange of our new “Pilgrimage Project” initiative. This groundbreaking enterprise unites Christians, Muslims and Jews in unforgettable journeys of the body and spirit to places in the world sacred to all three Abrahamic faiths.
In November a group of interfaith leaders from Western North Carolina will embark on a ten-day pilgrimage to Turkey. An example of the itinerary is the schedule in Izmir, Turkey. On Friday, pilgrims will visit a local mosque for Friday prayers, called Jumu'ah; on Saturday the group will observe the Jewish Sabbath (the Jewish community in Izmir dates back more than 2000 years) and then on Sunday worshippers will attend services in an historic Christian church.
Also on the itinerary is the ancient city of Ephesus, the site of one of the earliest Christian communities, and a Jewish community that has existed since 300 BC. It is also the location of the Temple of Artemis (Diana) and the best-preserved city of Asia Minor. The pilgrimage concludes in the ancient crossroads city of Istanbul with visits to the Hagia Sophia museum and other historic and sacred sites.
“Our goal for the project is for pilgrims to return home with a new understanding of their own faith as well as a deeper knowledge of the common roots of their sister faiths,” says Leslie Withers, Director of the National Pilgrimage Project for FFI, “and also feel equipped and motivated to continue interfaith dialogue and action in their communities in western North Carolina.”
Over the next two years the Pilgrimage Project will involve a dozen communities across the country, beginning with the Western North Carolina pilgrimage. Other communities planning future pilgrimages include Chicago, Milwaukee, Dayton, Hartford Connecticut and Charlottesville Virginia.
If you would like to know more about Friendship Force International’s ‘Pilgrimage Project,’ please see our website at:
http://www.thefriendshipforce.org/PilgrimageWeb/index.html
If your community would like to know more about creating an interfaith pilgrimage, please contact Leslie Withers at: pilgrimage@thefriendshipforce.org
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Herald – Tribune (www.heraldtribune.com)
BURUNDI VISIT IS LESSON TO PEOPLE
By Abby Weingarten
Correspondent
Click here to read the article
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