The students of the Global Peace Exchange, who will go to Rwanda in April are the forbearers of a relationship between Rwanda and Florida State University.
-H.E. President Paul Kagame on a visit to Florida State University to promote intercultural dialogue and student exchange

Global Peace Exchange:

The Global Peace Exchange (GPE) was founded in 2006 as a student organization at Florida State University to promote sustainable development through the exchange of students from the United States and Europe to Africa. Since then, it has grown into an organization that operates in 5 countries, numbers over 500 members, benefits thousands, and acts as an official partner of the United Nations, numerous international governments, and many international colleges and universities. GPE currently operates out of the Claude Pepper Center for Intercultural Dialogue.

In April of 2008, Global Peace Exchange began its Rwanda project by sending 20 students to Gitarama where they began the construction of a home for orphans that also provides the first internet connection to the rural Byimana sector. Their other projects include capacity-building for students and teachers at the Catholic University of Kabgayi, a public health initiative with the Medical Students Association of Rwanda at the National University of Rwanda, and the facilitation of student exchange between Rwandans and Americans.

The group currently works in Byimana and operates a few minutes away in the larger town of Gitarama. GPE has been working with Umuryango, a non-governmental organization that gives refuge to street children, many of whom became orphans as a result of the 1994 genocide. GPE gives donated clothes and goods brought from the United States as well. There will be construction completed within a few months for an expansion to the Umuryango complex that will bring housing to over 20 more street children and give room for the technical/computer training center. The goal is that the construction will be completed by this September and be available for the next semester of school for the children. Additionally, the volunteer group has started a small scale English language training program at the local schools, teaching basic English language skills to local university students for a few hours each day. Alongside the construction sites in Byimana, GPE has built and established Florida State University’s first international service-learning center.

At the Building Bridges conference in February of 2008, President Paul KAGAME came to Florida State University to endorse the work of Global Peace Exchange and inaugurate a relationship between Florida State University and the Republic of Rwanda. Global Peace Exchange plans to increase the amount of students it sends to Rwanda by adding more project sites around the country. Moreover, as a student organization, it focuses on providing youths the opportunity to advance the development of their country.

Global Peace Exchange also operates in Ghana with students and volunteers working mainly with ex-child soldiers and refugees from Liberia’s civil conflicts. In May of 2007, Global Peace Exchange began work in Ghana. While the first week of the project was spent in an orphanage north of Accra, GPE spent the majority of our trip at the Buduburam Refugee Settlement, a UNHCR camp 47km outside of Accra. While there, Global Peace Exchange was able to provide some 2000 treatments against intestinal worms, support scholarships for ex-child soldiers as well as create and support initiatives for vocational training and education of many of the camp’s less fortunate. Global Peace Exchange currently maintains a volunteer program in Ghana. Volunteers work with our partners in the Buduburam Refugee Camp during the summer. Volunteer projects include capacity-building and grass-roots development work among many of the camp's less fortunate.

All of Global Peace Exchange’s partners are organizations composed primarily of youths and students, all working tirelessly to advance the causes of reconstruction, reconciliation, and development while incorporating service-learning into a comprehensive program.

Additional Information:

Some of GPE’s Partners:

• Umuryango Children’s Network: Founded in 2003 by Rwandan youths, Umuryango provides housing and education to street children in Gitarama. However, their partnership with GPE has allowed them to expand their mission to include vocational training and sustainable development. GPE has helped Umuryango by building the first ICT center (and internet connection) in Byimana sector.  The center offers low cost internet services (50% the cost of the nearest Internet Café) and free IT classes to the surrounding community. Yet it is the opportunities afforded to the youth of Umuryango through this ICT center that are of the greatest importance. By giving them access to ICT training, we can ensure their place in advancing Rwanda’s role in the age of Information Technology. The center is currently under construction and will be fully operational by October 2008. The center will also house 54 children.
• Université Catholique de Kabgayi (UCK): GPE works with UCK to provide services to its students and faculty that would normally be unavailable to them. GPE volunteers currently provide professional English training to students and teachers. However, both organizations plan to expand the program by 2009. The new program will include student exchanges in which students at UCK will be able to study under a planned scholarship program. Moreover, GPE volunteers will offer workshops to UCK students in fields such as grass-roots economic development, human rights, international co-operation (including attracting international investors to their future businesses) and gender equality.
• Medical Students Association of Rwanda (MEDSAR): GPE and MEDSAR have created a student-exchange initiative to bring medical students from the United States to Butare to work with Rwandan students in providing public health services, health education, counseling and sanitation expertise to the area.
• Government of the Republic of Rwanda: GPE works with the office of the President and especially the Office of Information and Technology to develop realistic development programs and opportunities for citizens to benefit from the volunteer work and projects that GPE oversees.
• African Development Bank: A new GPE program will be offering internship opportunities in 2009 for undergraduate/graduate students studying Urban and Regional Planning, Economics, Political Science or International Affairs at Florida State University.

GPE and the United Nations

GPE started working with the United Nations Development Programme in 2007 while GPE volunteers were at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. GPE and UNDP have since been able to provide repatriation packages and vocational training initiatives to Liberian refugees.

Additionally, upon their return from Ghana, GPE began a relationship with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, an agency devoted to cultural exchange. The UNAOC has endorsed GPE and continues to work with it to provide exchange opportunities to students in Africa and the United States.

Youth as a catalyst for development

GPE works with youth organizations primarily because it believes that youth, as the future of a country, have a stake in development that no other age group has. Moreover, by using university’s as a base for many of our projects, GPE is able to create a partnership of learning between institution of higher education in both developing nations and the United States.

Contact Information:

GPE is ready and waiting for the opportunity to work with you. If you have an interest, we advise you to visit the GPE website at www.globalpeaceexchange.org. You can reach Co-Director Nick Fiore at nfiore@fsu.edu or 850-264-7297 (office 277 Pepper Center) or Co-Director, Alex Merkovic at alex.merkovic@gmail.com (office 252 Pepper Center). GPE returned its volunteers to the United States on the 29th of June, but will continue the projects from abroad, expanding the scope of developments, and will be sending additional volunteers and students during the Summer of 2009.

To find out more about Global Peace Exchange, please visit their website.

Global Peace Exchange projects are partially funded by the TRUE Seminole Campaign T-Shirt program. A portion of the proceeds from shirt sales support construction and operational costs for development projects. For more information on the TRUE Seminole Campaign, visit the TRUE Seminole Website

Alternative Break Corps (ABC)

Alternative Break Corps (ABC), a student organization at Florida State University, gives its members the opportunity to participate in a variety of service projects during their spring break. By volunteering with non-profit organizations nationwide, ABC members gain insight on various issues, such as HIV/AIDS awareness, healthcare for terminally-ill children, hunger, low-income housing, homelessness, and more. Throughout the semester, ABC members also participate in weekend service trips, days of service, and a week-long international trip during the summer break. ABC is a local chapter of the nationally recognized Break Away program. Break Away has 95 chapter schools in the United States and links members to more than 250 nonprofit organizations. Future ABC projects include hurricane restoration in New Orleans (February) and beach clean-ups in the Florida Panhandle (March). Also, the ABC members are preparing for their first international trip to the Dominican Republic (March), where the members will volunteer in an orphanage. For more information on ABC, visit http://www.fsu.edu/~activity/abc/index.html. To help fund future projects, the ABC is organizing the First Annual Golf Tournament on Monday, February 18, 2008 at Golden Eagle Country Club in Tallahassee, FL. For more information on this event, contact Brian Gordon at bjg05@fsu.edu.